QUESTION: What is your poltical affiliation?

[Jenne]

Pretty moderate--and my views change almost daily with everything I learn.  I started out College Republitard and now am somewhere between RWHN, Slanket and Kai.

I'm becoming more and more socialist, though, as time wears on.

[Iason Ouabache]

I'm becoming more and more socialist, though, as time wears on.

You're doing it wrong, Jenne! You are supposed to become a cold, heartless conservative as you get older.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

I'm becoming more and more socialist, though, as time wears on.

You're doing it wrong, Jenne! You are supposed to become a cold, heartless conservative as you get older.

I'm becoming a cold, heartless liberal as I get older.

[LMNO]

Local politics are pretty shit.  The legislature is majority democratic, but they are essentially Republican-lite, being moderately more progressive in health care / education than the Republicans.  By a very slim margin.  There are a few "out there" non-centrist Dems, but all of them are from N'awlins and all they give a shit about is N'awlins.  And most of the dems are banker scum.

Otherwise, no tangible difference.  They are banker scum.  They will do almost nothing that could scare away the religious freaks who could potentially support them:  gay rights movement has slowed to a crawl here.  When Blanco was in office, a bill was passed which added sexual orientation to the state's anti-discrimination in employment statute, but she was swiftly booted out and Jindal tore the shit out of it with no noteworthy opposition from the Dems.

Oh, and all of the Dems are banker scum.  Did I mention that?  And the Republicans are complete bastards (moderately better than most Southeast USA republicans though).

Also, the primates here have yet to fully enact English Common Law, still loving the Roman system to death

How did I miss the fact that you're from Louisiana?

[Cramulus]

Personally, I consider myself a mix between what republicans claim to stand for but often don't in practice (individual rights, minimal interference with citizen's daily life, and small government) and what democrats claim to stand for (and sort of sometimes stand for when they grow a spine, which seems to be a rare occurrence).

On one hand I think the 2nd amendment should be fiercely defended, on the other hand I think gays should have all the rights everyone else has and they ought to be able to marry.

On one hand I believe that people should pull themselves up by their bootstraps, on the other hand I believe people should be provided with bootstraps.

All-in-all, I'd say my country seems to have a lot of lipservice to ideals that don't see a lot of practice and it's YOUR FAULT!*

I guess you could call me a moderate?



*provided you're an American citizen eligible to vote and take political actions such as writing letters to your representatives and sponsoring candidates you support either with time or money

^
\
  me too.

I'm a registered republican, mostly to waste their postage. Guilty of voting for McCain in the primaries last year, but I was secretly in the "Anybody but Mitt Romney" party.

But usually, I vote Dem.


if there was a version of libertarianism that didn't venerate the free market as the one true expression of the human soul, I might be able to get behind that.

[Captain Utopia]

I think the entire concept of political parties and institutionalised loyalties is the biggest chunk of the problem. Make everyone independent and invent a bad name for politicians who use anything other than relevant logic/reason to influence other politicians on particular issues.

[AFK]

You are asking humans to go against their hard-wired need to categorize and compartmentalize.  Good luck with that fight. 

[Precious Moments Zalgo]

Guilty of voting for McCain in the primaries last year

Me too.  I considered him to be the least-bad choice among the Republican candidates.  For the general election, I was on the fence between McCain and Obama until McCain announced his choice of running mate.

[Captain Utopia]

You are asking humans to go against their hard-wired need to categorize and compartmentalize.  Good luck with that fight. 

Back in the day, when news was carried by horseback.. it made sense to have political parties. But I'm thinking of a project like votorola or metagovernment where individuals can register an opinion on issues they care about, then compare against politicians to see which ones have the closest ideological match. The categories and compartments are still there, just more dynamic and numerous.

In the 60's the argument ran "The Beatles" or "The Rolling Stones?" - now technology and communication have allowed for a zillion genres with crossover appeal, and it seems unlikely that any one band will be as influential as was possible before. People enjoy sub-compartmentalisation more than compartmentalisation. Thing is, while it is a modest goal to buy a guitar and start a band in your bedroom, not until now has it been feasible to have any level of political impact with the low-investment widely-available tools.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Guilty of voting for McCain in the primaries last year

Me too.  I considered him to be the least-bad choice among the Republican candidates.  For the general election, I was on the fence between McCain and Obama until McCain announced his choice of running mate.

Um, yeah.  Because we NEEDED another war, and Iran would do as well as anyplace else, right?

Palin was icing on the cake, but McCain was no choice at all.

[Kurt Christ]

if there was a version of libertarianism that didn't venerate the free market as the one true expression of the human soul, I might be able to get behind that.

This. I normally avoid identifying myself with parties when I can and describe my politics based on my stance on individual issues, which ends up as a mishmash of shit that the Republicans support, shit Democrats support, shit Libertarians support, and shit that no politician supports because it runs counter to the interests of professional politicians.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

You are asking humans to go against their hard-wired need to categorize and compartmentalize.  Good luck with that fight. 

Back in the day, when news was carried by horseback.. it made sense to have political parties.

Learn to monkey.

[Pariah]

if there was a version of libertarianism that didn't venerate the free market as the one true expression of the human soul, I might be able to get behind that.

Bingo

[Cain]

Um, wouldn't that be something like libertarian socialism?

[Kurt Christ]

Um, wouldn't that be something like libertarian socialism?

I'm well aware of Libertarian socialism, and used to identify myself as such. I've got some problems with the workability of a lot of the models proposed by them, though, and generally place it on the level of a nice, but generally impractical, at least for now, idea.