I'm beginning to see that my voting preferences are not necessarily in line with my political views as much as they reflect how angry I am with a given party at a given time. If you want my vote, your best course of action is not to screw up while you're in office, or better yet - not to do anything that's flagrantly inflammatory.
Take my political views without any party politics guiding me. I believe in freedom above anything else - the freedom to do whatever I choose to, so long as that behavior does not negatively impact those living in society with me. If confronted with a problem that arises from that issue (I shoot off fireworks, and risk burning down the neighborhood; I speed and run the risk of an accident; I own a gun, and may use it to commit crime) - I am very skeptical of the government saying no you can't - but I don't have a problem with using more severe penalties as incentives to deter these behavior when they cause problems (i.e., I burnt down my neighbor's house playing with fireworks - I am punished for burning down his house, and the fireworks present amplifies the punishment). I do not trust the government with my personal information; I am leery of any government run programs, and think the private sector can do better. I expect bang for my buck; my tax dollars better be used to keep me safe, pay for an army and police, but not to keep welfare queens from working, and not to fund expensive public projects that do not affect me (bridge to nowhere; which I expect state funds to pay for). I'm sure many others feel the same way I do.
So I'm split, usually. Republicans are more than happy to say they want less government, and some of them actually mean it. Democrats are the ones that really get on my nerves when it comes to stepping on my freedoms - it's usually them that comes up with the mantra, "X is shown to be unsafe; it should be against the law". The libertarian chart that they pass around to recruit more members has this to say of the party affiliations, and it tends to be true:
Democrats favor large degrees of personal freedoms and tighter government control on economic freedoms (business regulation).
Republicans favor large degrees of economic freedoms and tighter government control on personal freedoms.
Personally, I see them both grab as much power as they can get a hold of. Now, ordinarily, I would tend to lean on the Republican side of the scale, because, being a straight white male, I don't have to worry about fighting for a lot of the personal freedoms that others have to fight for. I believe in equality for all, gay marriage, and so forth, but I'm not going to take time out of my day to fight for anyone else's rights, except those days I have to vote.
So why don't I vote Republican more often? I would, if they weren't so flagrantly corrupt. It seems like every time there's a fight involving big business gouging the people, it's always the GOP on their side. Whether it's Dick Cheney's secret energy conference, or the tax breaks that oil companies get, or Net Neutrality, or the consolidation of media companies, or the recent "Credit Card Bill of Rights" hearing that was brought before Congress, it always seems that the GOP is on the same side. Which is fine by itself, I suppose, but the tactics they use are always so underhanded - suppression of debate, closed hearings.
And then there's the Democrats. Hillary Clinton is pushing hard, real hard, to do whatever it takes to win the nomination, even if it destroys the party. She wants to get the DNC to take the votes in Michigan and Florida as is (where none of the other candidates even campaigned, because it was against the party rules), which is completely unfair. She has no chance at this point of obtaining the delegates she needs to clinch the nomination, and not even a chance of taking the delegate lead from Obama, which means she's banking on the fact that she can win the superdelegates. And if the superdelegates override the voters on this one - the Democratic is done. I'm never going to support a candidate of theirs again. This momentum they've gotten - all these young voters excited about making a difference - that'll be gone. The best hope I have at that point is that they collapse entirely, and another party will eventually take their place.
Here's hoping it's one that I don't have to compromise my positions to vote for.
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3 comments:
What about the poor Floridian or Michigander whose voice isnt even heard? Two entire states who have no say in who the democratic nominee is. Good grief. Its not just the GOP that is corrupt.
I don't have a whole lot of sympathy for them. I followed that story from the beginning. The DNC said they'd take their delegates away if they held the elections early, months before, and they did it anyway.
Maybe they had a right to complain that they were entitled to hold their primary whenever they wanted, but they knew that their votes weren't going to count, and they should have dealt with that before they pushed their primary up. They jumped ahead of other states for a reason, they wanted their votes to be more relevant than other states, thinking the nomination would be clinched early.
Still, if they want to revote, that's fine. It's looks like Michigan's going to anyway. What wouldn't be right is if the votes were counted as they were - the DNC rules said they weren't going to be counted, and the other candidates didn't campaign in that state. You shouldn't punish a candidate for obeying the rules.
I think Ron Paul will still be on the NC primary ballot. You can then write him in for the general election. It's not throwing away your vote, it's making a statement. NC always vots GOP anyways.
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