Political Affiliation and Ideology

How do you describe yourself?

  • Liberal

    Votes: 202 33.9%
  • Conservative

    Votes: 147 24.7%
  • Moderate

    Votes: 111 18.7%
  • Democrat

    Votes: 96 16.1%
  • Republican

    Votes: 69 11.6%
  • Libertarian

    Votes: 136 22.9%
  • Independent

    Votes: 158 26.6%
  • Capitalist

    Votes: 128 21.5%
  • Socialist

    Votes: 117 19.7%
  • Pro Free-Trade

    Votes: 68 11.4%
  • Isolationist

    Votes: 26 4.4%
  • Anarchist

    Votes: 37 6.2%
  • Progressive

    Votes: 138 23.2%
  • Medievalist

    Votes: 24 4.0%
  • Dawnolite

    Votes: 15 2.5%

  • Total voters
    595

TerryRodgers

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jun 24, 2009
Messages
194
Reaction score
12
I'm not affiliated with any party system. The system is broken. I have no idea how to fix it except that I feel in my heart no one currently in Congress has the ability or chops to do so. I believe we will eventual fall flat on our faces and through all the turmoil something hopefully better will rise.
 

Night_Writer

It's all symbolic.
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Nov 5, 2011
Messages
1,053
Reaction score
86
Location
The New World
I'm essentially a Libertarian, but I really miss the Natural Law Party. They were one of those indie political parties, like the Libertarians or the Populists, but their ideology was based entirely on science, even their economic ideas. And when they talked about it, it all made sense. It was great.

They didn't have the funding they needed to stay afloat though, so they don't put up candidates for election any more. But they still exist as an organization.

I checked Libertarian.
 

Robbert

Practical experience FTW
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Oct 15, 2011
Messages
5,633
Reaction score
227
Location
GMT
I think I understand what makes people jump off a bridge, glued to the box, take drugs...but I'm at a loss as to why people bother to vote.


Politics is dirty business the world over, no matter what political system is in place.
 

robjvargas

Rob J. Vargas
Banned
Joined
Dec 9, 2011
Messages
6,543
Reaction score
511
I think I understand what makes people jump off a bridge, glued to the box, take drugs...but I'm at a loss as to why people bother to vote.


Politics is dirty business the world over, no matter what political system is in place.

What's the alternative? Let someone decide for you?

By not voting, that's exactly what you're doing. Letting someone else decide.

But voting is more than showing up on those special days and punching the right buttons. Freedom ain't no spectator sport.
 

Haggis

Evil, undead Chihuahua
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Oct 14, 2005
Messages
56,217
Reaction score
18,303
Location
A dark, evil place.
What's the alternative? Let someone decide for you?

By not voting, that's exactly what you're doing. Letting someone else decide.

But voting is more than showing up on those special days and punching the right buttons. Freedom ain't no spectator sport.
Sorry, but I don't buy the "vote for the lesser of two evils" argument. While I've only missed one presidential election in my life, I will and often have "wasted" my vote on third party candidates or write ins rather than voting for the evil I detest less. And I don't for a minute criticize people who share Robbert's viewpoint. I have an innate distrust of people who want to make decisions for me. For me to vote for them they have to prove me wrong.
 

Don

All Living is Local
Super Member
Registered
Joined
May 28, 2008
Messages
24,567
Reaction score
4,007
Location
Agorism FTW!
It's very important to make a choice between the corporate-sponsored and party-approved oligarch in the red tie and the corporate-sponsored and party-approved oligarch in the blue tie. Otherwise how can you have a society divided on "us vs. them" lines?
 

robjvargas

Rob J. Vargas
Banned
Joined
Dec 9, 2011
Messages
6,543
Reaction score
511
Sorry, but I don't buy the "vote for the lesser of two evils" argument. While I've only missed one presidential election in my life, I will and often have "wasted" my vote on third party candidates or write ins rather than voting for the evil I detest less. And I don't for a minute criticize people who share Robbert's viewpoint. I have an innate distrust of people who want to make decisions for me. For me to vote for them they have to prove me wrong.

I didn't say anything about evils or about candidates.

What I said was about participation, not about the ballot.
 

Haggis

Evil, undead Chihuahua
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Oct 14, 2005
Messages
56,217
Reaction score
18,303
Location
A dark, evil place.
I didn't say anything about evils or about candidates.

What I said was about participation, not about the ballot.
Fair enough. I suppose. But if I think the candidates of both of the major parties suck, why should I vote for one or the other? I've already said I often vote for a third party, or write in someone else's name. But many people think that vote's wasted. And in a way they're right. My vote for a third party candidate goes nowhere. Would you then suggest that by voting for someone who has no chance in Hell of winning I'm then letting "someone else decide?"
 

robjvargas

Rob J. Vargas
Banned
Joined
Dec 9, 2011
Messages
6,543
Reaction score
511
Fair enough. I suppose. But if I think the candidates of both of the major parties suck, why should I vote for one or the other? I've already said I often vote for a third party, or write in someone else's name. But many people think that vote's wasted. And in a way they're right. My vote for a third party candidate goes nowhere. Would you then suggest that by voting for someone who has no chance in Hell of winning I'm then letting "someone else decide?"

As far-right as I know I come across, I haven't voted Republican in the last three elections.

The first step is to get involved. Remember the informal definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.

Participation matters. The odds are stacked against us. But they are a certainty against us if we don't even try.

It's not enough to vote. We need opposition candidates who can fundamentally change the conversation in this country. And no one's going to guarantee that it'll work. But without that vote, it definitely won't work.
 

Don

All Living is Local
Super Member
Registered
Joined
May 28, 2008
Messages
24,567
Reaction score
4,007
Location
Agorism FTW!
As far-right as I know I come across, I haven't voted Republican in the last three elections.

The first step is to get involved. Remember the informal definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.

Participation matters. The odds are stacked against us. But they are a certainty against us if we don't even try.

It's not enough to vote. We need opposition candidates who can fundamentally change the conversation in this country. And no one's going to guarantee that it'll work. But without that vote, it definitely won't work.
But people have been doing the same thing over and over for decades, and that thing is voting. It hasn't stopped the ascendency of the oligarchy, the consolidation of power into fewer hands, the increasing power of the corporations, an ever-growing regulatory burden on small businesses, the destruction of the purchasing power of the dollar, the growth of Empire and the police state, or the transfer of wealth from the lower and middle classes to the One Percent.

This is nothing new, either.
Emma Goldman (1869-1940) said:
If voting changed anything, they'd make it illegal.
Yet people still relentlessly claim that voting matters.

That sounds like a textbook example of the very definition you put forth, to me.
 
Last edited:

robjvargas

Rob J. Vargas
Banned
Joined
Dec 9, 2011
Messages
6,543
Reaction score
511
But people have been doing the same thing over and over for decades, and that thing is voting. It hasn't stopped the ascendency of the oligarchy, the consolidation of power into fewer hands, the increasing power of the corporations, an ever-growing regulatory burden on small businesses, the destruction of the purchasing power of the dollar, the growth of Empire and the police state, or the transfer of wealth from the lower and middle classes to the One Percent.

This is nothing new, either.

Yet people still relentlessly claim that voting matters.

That sounds like a textbook example of the very definition you put forth, to me.

In my post, which you quoted, I said that voting by itself doesn't matter.

Voting is just one part of a participation requirement of a free people. Without all the other parts, voting is an illusion.

1) voting
2) running
3) serving
4) demanding accountability and ethics.

And even that isn't a comprehensive list. If "we" are tired of "them" screwing us over, then stop letting "them" be the only choice we have.

Freedom's hard. It doesn't just happen, and it doesn't maintain itself.
 

Mark Moore

Banned
Joined
Dec 22, 2011
Messages
1,041
Reaction score
39
Age
45
Location
Florida
Hmm, apparently, I already voted in this poll, but I don't remember all of my choices, and I can't find that I'd actually written a response, so...

I'm not affiliated with any party (so independent). Liberal, socialist. I typically vote Democrat, because Republican is far worse.

I'm anti-gun (except for law enforcement and military). You say you'll have a few rounds waiting for anyone that tries to take your gun away from you? Fine. I hope they respond in kind.

Legalize pot. Criminalize tobacco. Don't go after the users (unless you're already investigating them for something else), just the suppliers.

Get rid of mandatory life sentences for non-violent criminals. Release from prison accordingly. And pay them for the inconvenience. $1,000,000 each ought to suffice.

Get rid of "mind-reader" laws. No, the people that "should have known" about a crime but otherwise didn't participate should not go to prison. Release accordingly.

Outlaw capital punishment. Simply group the violent prisoners together, don't guard them, and let everything work itself out naturally. Efficiency of manpower.

Create an earnings cap. $1,000,000 per year, max, no matter what the job. Distribute the rest on down the chain. Individuals don't need billions of dollars, and, quite frankly, shouldn't have that much money.
 

Robbert

Practical experience FTW
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Oct 15, 2011
Messages
5,633
Reaction score
227
Location
GMT
Voting is just one part of a participation requirement of a free people.

I consider myself a free thinker. If I'd been lying into your face, while you still voted me into office, then what do you guess I'd think of you?

At the level of nation elections, politicians are nothing more than installed puppets who...

...serve their masters (i.e. the interests of the elite)

...serve their own agenda (i.e. line their own pockets)

...serve their voters every four years (i.e. another round of empty promises)
 

DoodleSnickers

Registered
Joined
May 23, 2014
Messages
35
Reaction score
3
I try not to pull myself too close to any ideology, since my views are shotgunned all over the place, but I think the closest one would be Libertarian. Not the Rand type of Libertarian (or in more recent times, the rather irritating trend of people who call themselves Libertarian to avoid calling themselves hardcore conservatives), but simply one who believes in freedom above all else. Of course, I'm nowhere near purely Libertarian, that's just the ideology that carries the highest percentage of my beliefs.
 

chickenma

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Sep 2, 2013
Messages
181
Reaction score
12
Location
Northern California
I'm registered Green Party, but describe myself as an Anti-Capitalist Libertarian.
I'm defining Capitalism as the creation of capital through debt (enriching the banks). I'm defining Libertarian as government hands off business and business hands off government.
 

EffinGoose

Registered
Joined
Jun 17, 2014
Messages
38
Reaction score
2
Location
Witty location based quip
I'd say my viewpoints mostly align with progressives and democratic socialism, but honestly like the other recent posters I feel leery of actually labeling myself as such without significant re-framing of their viewpoints.

I pretty much agree with Robbert about the issue of national politicians.
 

JimABassPlayer

only four strings
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Aug 10, 2014
Messages
103
Reaction score
17
I've pretty much run the full gamut of politics throughout my life.

In 1972, while still a youth, I passed out cards for Nixon (a socially liberal Republican) at four different polling stations in our neighborhood (and would like to think I was solely responsible for his historic landslide re-election). :crazy: (Okay, maybe a few others had something to do with it, as well.) :D

Just four years later, I supported Carter (a fully liberal Democrat), actually having high hopes for him. Less than half way through his administration, however, all such hopes had been dashed, as he was revealed to be a weak and grossly incompetent embarrassment (and this from a formerly ardent supporter of his).

Four years later I (as a registered Democrat) voted for Reagan (a fully conservative Republican), because I had come to despise Carter (whom I had admired just four years previously), and also because I truly felt comfortable with Reagan.

Incredibly*, I did not vote for Reagan during his re-election bid in 1984 (even though some of his debate responses against Mondale were some of the best I'd ever seen, before or since). For reasons I don't wish to disclose, I was angry with him and refused to give him my vote in his re-election bid.

* I say "incredibly" as Reagan was re-elected with far more votes in 1984 than he had received in 1980; as such I was probably one of only a relatively small number who had previously voted for him, then subsequently against him.

Throughout the 80's I went off the liberal deep-end, having voted for Ted Kennedy, Jesse Jackson, Walter Mondale and Michael Dukakis.

In 1991 I awoke as from a deep slumber and realized (as Reagan had said many years before) that I hadn't left the Democratic party, but that the Democratic party had left me. As the Democrat party had moved so far away from my views that I could no longer (in good conscience) remain within their ranks, I registered as a Republican, held my nose, and subsequently voted for Bush Sr. in 1992 (I didn't like him then, and I still don't like him now; however, comparable to Clinton*, IMO, he was the better of two evils).

* Clinton was actually the catalyst who drove my parents (both life-long Democrats) out of the party.

While I have been a conservative Republican ever since, I do not (by any means) blindly endorse every Republican concept and/or action. (To cite one obvious example, I was publicly, and very vocally, against both invasions of Iraq -- although, for different reasons each time.) I never cared for Dole, but again (as previously in 1992) cast a vote for the one I saw as the lesser of two evils in accordance with my political views -- and have essentially been doing the same ever since, as (with the sole exception of the vote I cast for Reagan in 1980) I have never been fully behind any Presidential candidate for whom I've voted in the last 34 years.

Sad, but true. Such is the nature of an imperfect world.
 
Last edited:

Chase

It Takes All of Us to End Racism
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jan 13, 2008
Messages
9,239
Reaction score
2,316
Location
Oregon, USA
As bad as the Republican party is, the Democrat party is worse. I'll waste my vote on any viable alternative.

I'm a constitutionalist. Nature gives me the inalienable right to protect myself and my family; the constitution only describes means available. I was a soldier for ten years and a volunteer aid to law-enforcement for 36 more. I know better than to count on either for immediate protection, so I'm practiced in my own defense.

I worked hard all my life to provide for myself and family. I paid taxes and obeyed laws. The few times I bent or broke a law, I worked through the consequences without a court-appointed attorney. I actively support several charities for the unfortunate and continue to volunteer my time. Thus, I can't possibly hold any liberal view.