Why are you a...???

When I switched from an Oregon to a Nevada driver licence recently, I had to register to vote... and for the first time, I felt I was unable to self-identify with any of the main political parties out there.  I'm now officially a "Non-Affiliated Voter".

I first registered to vote at age 18 as a Democrat.  Some time later, after learning more about how the real world works, I switched to the GOP.  But party affiliation has never been particularly important to me, beyond the general access to the political process that comes with being a member of one of the major parties.  My politics overall are fairly moderate (by which I mean that the extremes on both sides tend to balance out...) so neither the Democrats nor Republicans have ever fully represented my own ideals.

But while traditional core Republican values (think 30 years ago, before the Christian Right managed to get Reagan elected and really mucked things up) appeal to me in many ways, today's party is so far removed from those days (or at least, the leadership is) that I simply could no longer stick with them.

Anyhow, a while back I came across this discussion thread regarding simple (one or two sentence) statements of why people are Democrats.  I find it interesting that so many people can think that their party has a monopoly on virtue, but whatever (that is a phenomenon in no way limited to Democrats, of course; each party tends to be smug about its superiority in different ways).

So, open discussion... if you belong to a political party, describe in just one sentence why you belong to that party.  If you don't belong to any political party, describe in just one sentence why.  Or, alternately, describe in just one sentence what your ideal party would stand for.

UPDATE:  Interested in a rough estimate of which party you should be affiliated with?  Check out the World's Smallest Political Quiz (courtesy of the Libertarian Party web site).

Comments

[David B. Wright]

To kick things off... since I no longer belong to any party...

The "Wright Party" stands for individual liberties and equality under the law; fiscal responsibility in government budgeting; maximum economic opportunity for all; and the minimum possible government involvement in peoples' lives, consistent with the above.

Based on that:

I am NOT a Democrat because I do not believe that government exists to "make life better" for anyone; rather, it should provide an environment where anyone can make life better for himself.

I am NOT a Republican because I do not believe that government has any business regulating peoples' personal lives, nor do I believe that it is fiscally responsible to run massive deficits because of enormous tax cuts.

I am NOT a Libertarian because -- well, mostly because most Libertarians I know of are whack jobs who don't think government should do much of anything at all; I do have strong Libertarian leanings but I'm not that extreme.

I am NOT a Green because -- well, mostly because most Greens I know of are whack jobs, period. But to be fair, I don't actually know any Greens, so I could just be on the crack pipe with this one...

I'm sure I've left out somebody's favorite minor party... so let me know who I missed...

[phriedom]

My political party believes in not calling people whack jobs when we're trying to promote civil discourse. :-)

But heck, Libertarians are easy to make fun of. Did I tell you my favorite Libertarian joke?

"How many Libertarians does it take to stop a Panzer Division? None, the free market will take care of it."

[David B. Wright]

Point well taken.

But then, I'm not necessarily targeting the whack job demographic. Not intentionally, anyhow. So I doubt if many folks reading this blog will take offense... ;-)

[David B. Wright]

And... funny joke... but a wholly inaccurate statement of the Libertarian "party line". A strong military for the physical security of the people and their property is one of the few legitimate uses of government power. More or less. Of course, they are always worried about granting too much power to the government.

The LP official web site has a link to the "World's Shortest Political Quiz", which I'll post above as an update to this entry. I was not entirely shocked to find that I came out dead center, but just a hair into Libertarian territory (70% on both scales).