posted on Apr, 10 2010 @ 04:03 AM
Originally posted by Hadrianit was interesting to hear how if people even knew their own political philosophy, they'd likely be shocked
by who they can agree with without the obfuscation of their celebrity leadership.
This is true. There are many people that affiliate themselves with one party or the other based on perception or a family history of leaning one way
or the other. Some people just vote for a letter next to a name without having a clue what that person's ideals are.
My wife is one of those. A diehard democrat since she was a girl in high school who idolized Bobby Kennedy. The last couple of years her eyes have
opened and she's realized that the party she's always voted for has changed over the years and she plans to vote republican for congress in our
district this fall. Not a far right republican but for her, that's a major leap. She would never buy into libertarianism because she doesn't agree
with some of it's tenets but she's willing to get back to where she pays more attention to politics in general.
People change over the years as well. I was a pretty liberal minded(Social liberal, fiscal conservative) person when I was younger but I would never
go so far as some of the progressives in office today. I also wouldn't go so far as to agree with all the principles that libertarians believe in but
I lean more in their direction. Libertarians aren't liberal or conservative, they're kind of off to the side. They embrace aspects of both liberal
and conservative philosophy(As defined in recent times) and if given a chance, would make an excellent choice as a third party. Alas, the country has
devolved to the point where we have a sports mentality, where it's Yankees-Red Sox, Packers-Bears, Cowboys-Eagles, Celtics-Sixers, USC-ND, tOSU-UM.
We won, you lost. It shouldn't be about "sides". Our population is too diverse to have two choices.
The problem with our two party system today is, you have democrats that are considered to be liberal and republicans that are considered to be
conservative but it's not that cut and dried. There are plenty on both sides that lean towards the middle, plenty that lean far to one side or
another and the key to electing someone that you can relate to is knowing where they stand on various issues and voting for the person that best
represents your belief set. You shouldn't vote for someone that has the best chance to win, the person who is the "hip" choice at the time, or the
person that has one letter or another next to their name. You should vote your conscience.
Even then you won't always get what you voted for but at least you gave it thought. You're can't account for another person's character but if you
don't get what you voted for, then adjust your vote accordingly when you have the opportunity. It's not a perfect system but it works better when
people just pay attention.