so i'm thinking of voting republican
 

Lol posted it in the wrong forum.

I feel like a man without a party. :(

In the past I've generally been pretty vehemently Democrat because I was always disgusted by the stranglehold the so-called Christian Right has on the Republican party, and that the Republicans always seemed to be preoccupied with silly issues like evolution v. intelligent design, gay marriage, abortion and soforth. I thought the Republican platform was basically made up of these issues and there was no real substance there except fear and hate. That may have been true a few years ago, I dunno.

But since I've moved south and been inundated in conservative politics I've found myself being convinced by some of them. Well, convinced is the wrong word; I've found that these guys are often arguing for things I've believed in all along and thought the Democrats were for. In particular, I've started listening to talk radio, and I'm currently in Jacksonville, Florida, which is the nexus between Neal Boortz in Atlanta and Rush Limbaugh in South Florida. I guess it may just be because there's nothing here to listen to besides the so-called conservative talking heads (Here we get 3 hours of Boortz, followed by 3 hours of Limbaugh, followed by 3 hours of Hannity.)

This is scaring me a bit. I want to call myself a Libertarian but that still seems to have the ring of a dirty word to it. Most people don't seem to have even heard of Libertarians or if they have seem to think they're some kind of fringe thing. Plus, it's going to be a long time before a Libertarian candidate has a chance of winning the presidency.

I'm becoming jaded, I think. The Democrats lately are disgusting me, particularly in their inability to see Hillary for what she is. I think my fall from the party had to have been when Hillary tried to enact that measure to change how she voted on the Iraq war. That's pandering and spite on a level I can't comprehend.

On the other side, the Republican candidates still generally stand on issues that I'm generally on the other side of (gay marriage and the death penalty in particular.) Mitt Romney seems like he's gaining a lot of ground, but I think his Mormonism, for as much as he's trying to downplay it, is going to get in his way. I'm sure this is more prejudiced than I'd like it to sound, but I can't bring myself to trust Mormons. I don't trust people of high faith generally, but it takes a special kind of credulity to believe that Joseph Smith read the Truth from a fucking top hat with a magic rock. I think this is the opinion of a lot of people, even if they won't necessarily say so.

For as much as I'm at odds ideologically with Romney, I would prefer him to Hillary. But it's not gonna happen. So I'm scared, I suppose. I'm feeling lost. :( I'm not sure what my point in posting this was but I guess I'm ideologically shaken. People used to tell me that people tend to become more conservative as they grow older and I used to roll my eyes and think I'm gonna be a Democrat forever, and now I've realized how much that clashes with my opinions about how to approach things.

the two party system is a scam. Your vote for republican or democrat will keep essentially the same people in power and create no real changes for our country :)


so don't worry bout it

that's basically the conclusion I came to :\

It might be helpful for you to just ignore the day-to-day coverage for a bit, stop listening to the talk radio (I listen to them too), and take some time to figure out what it is you believe in, and be sure of it.

Don't feel obligated to be a party person. It's not the 1950's anymore. Take each election as it is, and really match the candidates up on the issues. Think of yourself as a free agent...the big secret in this modern abortion we call electoral politics is that people who are figured out get marginalized. The moment D's or R's take you for granted, well they take you for granted. Keep 'em on their ties!

But definitely shut out the noise machine for a bit. Liberals will try to make you feel bad for not thinking a certain way, and conservatives will try to convince you that you're really conservative and just don't know it yet. That might be true, but you should figure that out on your own.

Oh, and here's another way to look at Romney...

Yes, Mormonism is kind of weird, but it only weirds us out because the Mormons we tend to meet in life are pretty devout and intense. The Bible has some pretty wild stuff too, yet we don't think about it when Rudy Giuliani talks about his faith. You know he eats Jesus every week, right?

And Obama? Have you looked into his crazy, hybrid church?

I have a lot of reasons to not vote for Romney, but his faith is not one of them. He is a successful businessman and the former governor of a blue state. I don't know that his faith has ever interfered with any of that.

It's not him so much I'm worried about. He's been downplaying his faith and keeping it on the backburner in relation to his actual politics, which is admirable considering the way the Republican party has been over the past eight years. I'm more worried about the Mormon church abusing his position in some manner. There's a lot of shady dealings there that most people don't know about. I guess I'm just paranoid.

Yes, the creepy tree stump man will save us all!

Mike Gravel for President

You know, I'm currently Independent, but I'm thinking of changing to Yippie after the primaries.

No, seriously.

My life may be short, but I went from Democrat to Hippie to Yippie to Libertarian in a matter of a few short years.

I liked being a pseudo-Yippie until I felt that all they did was stir the pot.

I'm a liberal in many senses of the word, but after having an awful job where the majority of the people were dyed-in-the-wool Greenpeaceish liberals, I've lessened my outlook a little. I'm not a Republican by any stretch, but I'm definitely more leftist than I thought and possibly more than the Democrats. I just like eating meat and see a point in owning guns (not carrying them around for fear of 'crime', but in general).

So I share your point, but I wouldn't go Republican. If anything, keep in mind what they put into office and did all around. While Democrats aren't the best, almost any political party out there is better than Republicans.

I wasn't kidding about Gravel.

It's the intelligent alternative to asphalt.

GOOO RON PAUL!!

Please, whatever you do, don't vote for Romney. I do not like Mitt Romney. I was made unhappy while watching this clip of Romney explaining to a wheelchair-bound lifelong muscular dystrophy sufferer that he would indeed arrest him for his "crime".

Bleh, that's a political trap.

What was Romney supposed to say, "well you seem nice enough, for you I would let the law slide!"?

It would've been nice for him to admit the blatant retardedness of that law.

Then he could've made out with a dude, and given up his gun.

yeah honestly I think he handled that well - it was obviously a prank to get him to look bad, and he just refused to play after he figured it out

Maybe I don't know the meaning of prank but how was that an obvious prank?

Regardless of my own opinion that marijuana should be decriminalized - I watched the video and realized there were thousands of ways that he could have handled that situation, and he chose the most fearful way, you can see the fear in his eyes. An answer that would not appear callous would be "I am against medical marijuana, but you've given me a lot to think about and I think you for your brave stand - civil disobedience isn't easy for anyone, especially someone who faces so many daily challenges as yourself". As a politician, he really should have been able to think of that more quickly than I did.

I'm sure giving a robot answer to a kid in a wheelchair would've come across really well.

Romney is already accused of being a Ken Doll, so I don't think he wants to embrace the inner Ken in those situations.

any way you want to look at it, this was a trap. nobody takes these seriously, except for the fringe elements like NORML and their ilk. there's no way Romney didn't realize that he was being set up and I'm pretty damn sure that his handlers prepare him for any situation like that, but why should he play their game?