Am I a liberal Republican or a conservative Democrat?

[JRP1994]

I can't decide, if I had to register with one party to run for office, which party I would align with more. A bit about my views:

• In favor of removing government entirely from marriage, but, barring that, in favor of legalizing gay marriage
• Opposed to abortion, but with exceptions
• In favor of middle-class tax cuts
• In favor of comprehensive immigration reform
• Opposed to an interventionist foreign policy
• In favor of moderate gun-control reforms
• Believe in man-caused global warming
• In favor of a strictly enforced work-requirement for able-bodied welfare recipients
• Opposed to increasing the minimum wage, but not rigidly so (could be persuaded with evidence, but haven't familiarized myself enough)
• In favor of a balanced-budget amendment

So, am I a republican or a democrat?

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

That clearly puts you as a moderate Democrat. The GOP has been taken over by complete crazies so you'd be to the left of about 95% of Republicans.

[ElectionsGuy]

You sound like you could be a moderate libertarian. But I would say liberal republican, because the minimum wage and balanced budget amendment clearly put you as a fiscal/economic conservative.

[Warren 4 Secretary of Everything]

You're a 1960s Republican. But if you wanted to run for office, you'd be perfect as a Georgia Democrat.

[Swedish Rainbow Capitalist Cheese]

Yeah, if you are intending to run for office you'd probably be better of in the Democratic corner, simply because of electoral prospects. With those set of views you'd unfortunately not win a Republican primary. (Well maybe in Maine, but even there it'd be sort of hard)

[bedstuy]

Nobody should be a Republican.  Even if you're a conservative, you should be a Democrat. 

• In favor of removing government entirely from marriage, but, barring that, in favor of legalizing gay marriage

This sounds like an interesting compromise, but if you think about it, it makes zero sense.  They government is not in the marriage business, they're not Yente the matchmaker.  The government is in the business of marriage law, as they provide law for every area of life.

• In favor of a balanced-budget amendment

Blatantly silly position.  Mandated spending limitations and set-asides always muck things up.  Plus, you create the problem of lacking the flexibility to recover from financial panics and recessions and crises.  Just imagine 2008 with no TARP.

[CatoMinor]

Well party ID is based 100% on your choice, regardless of your ideology. You appear to be an independent, so by definition you can be neither.

[MATTROSE94]

Your views are somewhat similar to mine actually, with the exception of your position on the balanced budget amendment. On a side note, while I would have started to vote increasingly Democratic on the Presidential level in the 1930s, I probably would have supported mostly Republican candidates for Senate and House races until the late 1990s or early 2000s.

[SWE]

You sound like a conservative Democrat to me.

[Stranger in a strange land]

Nobody should be a Republican.  Even if you're a conservative, you should be a Democrat. 

• In favor of removing government entirely from marriage, but, barring that, in favor of legalizing gay marriage

This sounds like an interesting compromise, but if you think about it, it makes zero sense.  They government is not in the marriage business, they're not Yente the matchmaker.  The government is in the business of marriage law, as they provide law for every area of life.

Some of my libertarian and conservative friends support this, but it's really a cop-out rather than a compromise. Marriage impacts upon so many things, from inheritance to property rights to immigration, that it's really impossible for the government to not have laws relating to it.

[H. Ross Peron]

[7,052,770]

Definitely Democrat. I bolded the only ones that are more Republican than Democratic, although in your state all 3 could go either way.

• In favor of removing government entirely from marriage, but, barring that, in favor of legalizing gay marriage
• Opposed to abortion, but with exceptions
• In favor of middle-class tax cuts
• In favor of comprehensive immigration reform
• Opposed to an interventionist foreign policy
• In favor of moderate gun-control reforms
• Believe in man-caused global warming
• In favor of a strictly enforced work-requirement for able-bodied welfare recipients
• Opposed to increasing the minimum wage, but not rigidly so (could be persuaded with evidence, but haven't familiarized myself enough)
• In favor of a balanced-budget amendment

[Maxwell]

What about the minimum wage one Harry?

[IceSpear]

Let's take a minute to remember that not even Thad Cochran and Eric Cantor are conservative enough for today's GOP.

I think that answers your question.

[Flake]

Exactly this.

I think you'd be described as a John Barrow democrat, you'd do well in Griffinland (northwest Georgia).

[Mr. Illini]

Conservative Democrat, obviously. You could have fit into the GOP 15-20 years ago, but nowadays they shun people that are even to your right. Welcome to the tent.

[courts]

you're not a conservative (whatever that means) or a good fit for the republican base

[Never]

Let's take a minute to remember that not even Thad Cochran and Eric Cantor are conservative enough for today's GOP.

I think that answers your question.

That doesn't really explain the entire picture here; abortion supporter Gov. Brian Sandoval is accepted by the GOP...

Anyhow, I think that OP would do fine in either party. He could be a John Barrow Democrat, but it's worth noting that the Blue Dogs like him are becoming a smaller segment of the Democratic party. Down in Georgia, Nathan Deal was a founding member of the Blue Dog Coalition, and now he is the Republican governor.

[SWE]

Let's take a minute to remember that not even Thad Cochran and Eric Cantor are conservative enough for today's GOP.

I think that answers your question.

That doesn't really explain the entire picture here; abortion supporter Gov. Brian Sandoval is accepted by the GOP...

To be fair, Sandoval represents a state that went for Obama twice. Even the most extreme Tea party activists at are more likely to tolerate a republican moderating in a Democratic state than in a Republican state like Georgia.

[Never]

Let's take a minute to remember that not even Thad Cochran and Eric Cantor are conservative enough for today's GOP.

I think that answers your question.

That doesn't really explain the entire picture here; abortion supporter Gov. Brian Sandoval is accepted by the GOP...

To be fair, Sandoval represents a state that went for Obama twice. Even the most extreme Tea party activists at are more likely to tolerate a republican moderating in a Democratic state than in a Republican state like Georgia.

Very true, but it is important to understand that neither Republicans nor Democrats are monolithic across the nation, as you pointed out.

Yes, Georgia is a conservative state with conservative senators, but some other Southern Republican states have relatively moderate senators (like Lamar Alexander in Tennessee and Lindsey Graham in South Carolina).

OP does have some fairly moderate views, like support of immigration reform and belief in global warming, but there are Republicans in the South who support both. Mike Huckabee believes in global warming and as recently as 2008 argued that we should do something about it, and Lindsey Graham believes that there should be immigration reform (so does Marco Rubio, though I don't consider Florida to be a culturally Southern state like Georgia, and of course, Florida is a swing state and Georgia is a Republican state).

[TNF]

Conservative Democrat

[muon2]

Conservative Democrat, obviously. You could have fit into the GOP 15-20 years ago, but nowadays they shun people that are even to your right. Welcome to the tent.

In IL his views would fit in fine with the GOP today, particularly in suburban Chicago.

[Oldiesfreak1854]

Conservative Democrat, obviously. You could have fit into the GOP 15-20 years ago, but nowadays they shun people that are even to your right. Welcome to the tent.

In IL his views would fit in fine with the GOP today, particularly in suburban Chicago.

There are hardly any of those Republicans left in suburban Chicago.  They've been joining the Dems in droves since Clinton's election.

[Rockefeller GOP]

Be whatever matters emotionally to you and VOTE however you want.  I'm an ancestral Republican, just as there are many ancestral Democrats still in Southern states.  You don't have to march lockstep with your party platform, and I'd argue that the more Democrats/Republicans who DON'T do so, the better.

But if you're dying for an answer, I'd say conservative Democrat.  Part of that might be biased thinking because you're from the South (where the Democrats are conservative on some things and Republicans seem to be conservative on all things).

[muon2]

Conservative Democrat, obviously. You could have fit into the GOP 15-20 years ago, but nowadays they shun people that are even to your right. Welcome to the tent.

In IL his views would fit in fine with the GOP today, particularly in suburban Chicago.

There are hardly any of those Republicans left in suburban Chicago.  They've been joining the Dems in droves since Clinton's election.

I would strongly disagree overall, though I agree many of them voted for Clinton and Obama, they didn't like Kerry in 2004 and Bush got their vote. Even today there are still lots of those Pubs in my area. They are in local offices and they make up a lot of voters. Mark Kirk tapped into them in 2010 and so far it looks like Rauner intends to use them in this year's election for Gov.