What makes you Dem/Repub/Indep?

[Lunar]

My independent status is a statement against partisanship.

[Peter]

My independent status is a statement against partisanship.

Mine is a statement against awful candidates.

[TomC]

Civil Rights and other social issues

[MODU]

In America, Your symbol would be an (I), for irrelevant.   Being an independent is like abstaining from the political process.  It's "independents" (typically moderates) that by their silence allow extremists to take over political parties for their own evil devices.

I am an Independent, and I'm far from silent or irrelevant. 

I use to be a Republican (long before many of you were born) but switched to an Independent until the Reform movement of Perot came along.  While I disagreed with some of his views, he addressed many of my concerns, such as "business as usual" needed to stop between the two dominant parties.  I have long believed that our society cannot be cookie-cuttered into either Party A or Party B.  As we clearly see, each party contains their own "sub Party" which focus on key points which are in conflict with the main party's core ideals.  After Perot came and went, I've carried on the soul of the movement for reform, and have carried it to the ending of the domination by the democrat and republican parties.  Time to get true representation of the population in government, and that can only occur when there are more choices for the voting population to choose from.

[Frodo]

I consider myself increasingly an independent as opposed to a Democrat.

Economically as well as socially, I am leaning more in the Republican direction, though I fear I never will gain the affection of antitax zealots or the Religious Right.

Environmentally I am more of a Democrat, being supportive of the Clean Air and Clean Water acts, as well as Growth Management acts (like those in Washington and Oregon) that protects farmland and pristine wilderness areas from development, as well as being open to mandatory CO2 emissions limits and a carbon tax to battle global warming.  I also favor what Democrats in Congress have done in shifting investments away from traditional fossil fuel industries to alternative energy sources (including nuclear energy).

Foreign policy wise....well...I'll get back to you on that.  Had it not been for the Iraq War debacle, I would be strongly in the Republican camp.   

[NDN]

In all honesty, it's really out of disgust for the Republican Party more so than anything. The pandering to religious conservatives, fiscal irresponsibility, creeping authoritarianism, belligerent foreign policy, and general mean-spiritedness of much of the GOP just completely scares me away from them. I might vote for them in local (or gubernational) elections, but that's as far as it goes.

With that said, I take issue with a lot of Liberal Democrats on issues like Business Regulation, Trade, Guns, and Crime & Punishment. So I pretty much fall under the New Democrat wing of the Party, even if I am more socially libertarian than many of them.

[Undisguised Sockpuppet]

Disgust at corporate whoring, vomit inducing disgust at them being a 'good ol' boys' party which speaks in a dixie accent/is owned by dixie tories, disgust at the religious right, disgust at incompetence at handling the borders, inability to competently handle trade deals(we should renegotiate trade treaties to make them be in favor of us) and incompetence in foreign policy. However I dislike the dems embrace of the health nuts/leftist social engineers, political correctness,'populist economics'(I think we need reform but price controls/protectionism just ugh), their indiscreet love affair with gun control, unwillingness to have balls(I *like* the meanspiritedness of the GOP I just wish the party that disgusted me less had those same balls), Euro(read: idiotic) stances on crime/national security, socialist economic stances(I may want economic reforms but I don't want to go to a Euro Social democracy), tolerance of illegal immigration and general inability to stand up to the fundies on social issues. To be honest both parties disgust me but the wannabe SD dems are marginally less vomit inducing than the christofascist GOP.

[Jaggerjack]

Because I'm a die-hard liberal. 'Nuff said.

[SPC]

Because the Democrats have turned into the party of fascism and socialism and the Republicans have turned into the party of capitalis with strong socialost tendencies and unnecesary spending. In other words, I'm a libertarian-leaning independent because the two major parties are too liberal (euphemism for socialist).

[© tweed]

I'm a Democrat due to loyalty.  I'm disillusioned with the corporatists that control the party however.  And I'm growing more radical through time.

[tik 🪀✨]

I find the contempt for independents a bit ridiculous. The most irrelevant people, in my opinion, are the staunch, unwavering members of parties and nothing more. They're the ultra-partisan idiots who aren't well informed but spout off the party line simply as opposition to the other side. In my opinion, the two party system in America is a massive travesty for real democracy. It's hard to find good, critical debate of the issues in the public sphere. In its place you get partisan attacks and blind support by people completely convinced that they're right and the other side is foolish. They're both foolish and they're fooling themselves.

I agree with Democrats more often than not with social issues, and I defend some government regulation so that businesses do not become too powerful. I have some conservative views such as small government and generally letting people live as they want. The Republican party's pandering to the religious right in support of social restrictions is the complete opposite from real conservatism, which ideally I believe would allow people to do as they please without the government sticking in its nose.

As for foreign policy, I'm completely opposed to our current preemptive offensive military strategy. Nation building is a terrible stain on our nation's history. Invading other countries and killing hundreds of thousands of people just so we can set up a government that will partner with our businesses makes me want to vomit. Often the governments we institute go on to commit genocide against an opposition within the country. The only intervention that I think is worthwhile is to stop atrocities or help fix problems or keep the peace. We might have an economic interest in changing the way other countries' society functions, but it's still not our place.

I also hate all of the wars we have against abstract nouns. Terrorism is a tactic, and so is fear of terrorism. The war on drugs is ludicrous and is another stupid distraction from solving real problems. The only acception I make to this are hard, extremely addictive drugs, which through addiction can have a very negative impact on society. Poverty is a problem that could be more easily solved through better funded education which gives people opportunities to move up. Welfare is necessary, but should not be as easy to abuse.

I know I've rambled on enough and no one's probably read any of this, but censorship is another thing that I am passionate about. This is especially true for nudity and language. I don't think we should have hardcore pornography on network television, but I don't think a little kid seeing breasts or hearing the word 'sh**t' in public is going to harm them. In fact, if that were the norm, they would lose their power. Besides, it is not the government's place to do parenting in place of actual parents. Our current system is basically punishing everyone for a tiny minority holding on desperately to old fashioned and baseless (besides meaningless tradition) ideals.

Neither side fully embraces any ideas I align myself with, and I think supporting either side blindly is doing too much to keep the system the way it is rather than transform it into something worthwhile. All that I can see to do is collect as much information on both sides as I can and vote the way I think is best.

[angus]

Tipper Gore needs to get a vibrator, and a life.

Actually, it's a little-known fact that algore has a tiny square keyhole on his back and, during her college days at BU when algore was attending Harvard, Tipper had a special key that she could stick in there and turn to make him vibrate.  Unfortunately she lost her key during the 2000 presidential campaign and never found it.  Maybe algore needed it to put social security in his lockbox, but the loss of the key may explain why she was spending more time behind their twenty-room, 10,000-square-foot Belle Meade mansion receiving gardening lessons from Ramón the Gardener and speaking out against movements to round up undocumented aliens.  With algore all cooped up in that 20-room mansion writing books about how greedy Americans are warming up the globe by living large, Tipper probably decided she needed a little warming up of her own.

[Joe Biden 2020]

I'm a Democrat because of economic issues.

[Ban my account ffs!]

I am a Democrat because the Republicans, at least in Minnesota, are the "I'm white, I'm wealthy, and I live in the suburbs" party.

Republicans here are very mean-spirited, and it shows in the way they campaign and the way they have contempt for anybody that isn't white, wealthy, and from the suburbs.

There is an "elitist" wing of the Democratic party in the U.S.  They're the "I'm smarter than you" crowd.  But on the other side, you have the "My blood is better than yours" crowd.. and at least I can go to school and become an elitist.  Nothing short of draconian medieval bloodletting will get me in with the Good Ole' Boys of the Grand Old Party.

I have a real sense of identity with fellow Democratic-Farmer-Laborites in northern Minnesota.

I know my local representatives (all of which are DFLers) and I believe the party benefits enormously from this urban-rural partnership that we have.  There's an element of down-homeness and you can put a face on the party.  I see the Republican party as a faceless crowd of the religiously obsessed, the arrogant rich, and cultureless suburbanites.

[HardRCafé]

Republicans here are very mean-spirited, and it shows in the way they campaign and the way they have contempt for anybody that isn't white, wealthy, and from the suburbs.

That is bizarre after the Paul Wellstone memorial rally and the Mike Hatch media meltdown.  With both parties so mean, no wonder Jesse Ventura won.

[Jaggerjack]

My liberalism (and I really hope Jacobtm doesn't go screaming ZOMG UR JUST SCARED TO BE INTERNED)

[YRABNNRM]

Because no other color looks good on me.

[Gabu]

Because I hate freedom.  And I want the terrorists to win.

[YRABNNRM]

Because I hate freedom.  And I want the terrorists to win.

Well we know why the Canadian flag is next to your name; the question is "What makes you a Democrat?".

[Gabu]

Because I hate freedom.  And I want the terrorists to win.

Well we know why the Canadian flag is next to your name; the question is "What makes you a Democrat?".

There are Democrats that aren't Canadian?

[Hash]

I'm an independent formerly Democrat because I'm deceived at the awful role the 110th Congress is doing. It's worthless and so are all its leaders. Also, I'm conservative on some issues that the Democrats are liberal on, and vice versa.

[Boris]

I like the red Illinois avatar better than the green Illinois avatar (which, of course, is identified everyone's favorite alleged brain-tumor recipient who is actually from Florida). And people who don't sport avatars tend to be somewhat pompous.

Although it'd be kinda cool if there were a political party that based their ideology on facts as opposed to special interest groups or the latest whim of the American public. But hey, it'd also be kinda cool if a million dollars in cash suddenly appeared on my desk right now.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

All political parties (and all politics, frankly) are based around interest groups of some sort. That's the whole point.

[Beet]

All political parties (and all politics, frankly) are based around interest groups of some sort. That's the whole point.

What about valence issues?

[Democratic Hawk]

I'm a Democrat because of economic issues.