Do you vote strictly party lines and why?

[hobbsyoyo]

Not quite, but certainly for the US senate, since that's so partisan it doesn't even matter because like all the members of a given party are basically identical.

While still partisan, the US Senate is much less so than the House of Representatives.

I vote strictly for Dems. I have in the distant past voted for 1 or 2 liberal republicans for local office. It (party lines) is the only way to vote given the current system. Even if you like your local congress person, say the rare sane Republican, and you fancy yourself a sophisticated "moderate" so feel good about your reasonable self voting for both parties...you are wrong. The very first vote a "moderate" senator like Olympia Snowe will make is to hand over all power to the radical base of the party by voting to put Mich McConnel in charge of all the levers of power. She will then vote 95% with the party and do one or 2 cross over show votes after extracting everything she wants in a bill so she can run back to tout her New England moderateness. A vote for Snowe is as good as a vote for Jim DeMint.

This is the system we have. The same goes for Repub voting for a Dem however the Dems have less party discipline and are more likely to crossover esp. to help some corporate interest in pursuit of re-elect $$$.

That was something I thought of as well. They may hold moderate views but in the end they vote the way the party tells them to. It didn't used to be like this, or at least it wasn't as bad. Now party identity comes before national interests it feels like.

 

[ELITEOFWARMAN8]

I vote for whoever I think is the best candidate. I am a Libertarian and I think it's stupid thought to vote solely on party lines.

 

[Joecoolyo]

Haven't voted yet, but I don't plan on voting strictly anything. Even if it may turn out like that.

 

[bhsup]

If you look at ever person I have voted for, I think you'll find I've voted for 60% Democrats and 40% Republicans, and a majority of my congressional votes have been for Republicans. I have never voted for a Republican for President though.

Local politicians and local issues are different. Under the right circumstances, I could totally vote for a Republican for mayor. I MIGHT be convinced to vote for a Republican for Gov. Given the current state of the national party though, I'd never vote for one for President.

Amusingly, I'm that, just rotated 180 degrees

 

[Dachs]

For those who don't vote along party lines and also hate the parties, do you vote at all? Just curious, not criticizing.

I don't "hate" the parties. Hate is something reserved for certain sports teams and their fans.

Anyway, I do vote, but only every four years, on the grounds that I do not consider myself to be educated well enough in the relevant issues to satisfy my personal criteria for voting except in cases where I am saturated with the relevant information (presidential election cycles).

 

[JollyRoger]

I vote about 80% Dem, though I will vote Republican for the crappy jobs like dog catcher.

 

[BvBPL]

I vote strictly along panty lines.

 

[duckstab]

In theory, no. In practice, yes. I think the last time I pulled a lever for a Republican was c. 1987. I've voted for a handful of third party candidates since then, usually because the Democrat wasn't much better.

But my history is pretty similar to the OP's and that of several others in this thread. I've always been socially liberal and regardless of how favorably I might be inclined towards certain Republican policies, the bundling of those policies with the intolerance and conformism of the religious right have made it impossible for me to give them my vote.

That's particularly so in Texas, where anyone who can make it through the Republican candidate selection process has been vetted by a bunch of people who disagree with me about almost any issue you could name. I might vote more of a mixed ballot if I lived in a state where there was such a thing as a GOP moderate.

 

[Core Imposter]

I voted for Democrats in the past but in my 37 years of voting, both parties have drifted so far to the left that I see the choice as basically being in the primary between a liberal Republican and a moderate Republican. Only since 2010 have real conservative Republicans come back on the ballots and of course I will support them.

Only a personal appearance by God and a firm direct order from Him would ever get me to vote for another Democrat, because the Democrats are wrong.

In my mind, pols like Romney represent what the Democratic party used to be. Basically, I can't detect rational thought or speech emanating from the Democrats anymore.

 

[GhostWriter16]

I voted for Democrats in the past but in my 37 years of voting, both parties have drifted so far to the left that I see the choice as basically being in the primary between a liberal Republican and a moderate Republican. Only since 2010 have real conservative Republicans come back on the ballots and of course I will support them.

Only a personal appearance by God and a firm direct order from Him would ever get me to vote for another Democrat, because the Democrats are wrong.

I don't think God will ever be telling you to vote for a Democrat

He may tell you not to vote Republican though

 

[Core Imposter]

Most revealing photo of Obama EVER!

http://news.yahoo.com/photos/telepr...a-speaks-during-campaign-photo-174748405.html

 

[GhostWriter16]

I'm getting fed up with the Republicans as well. They still support a big, expensive to run government, but still want to lower taxes. We can't do both...

The Democrats do want to raise taxes proportionally, but they still want a big government, in fact, I think they want a bigger government than the GOP do, just a different type of government.

Ron Paul is unique in that he actually wants to REDUCE the government. Among all the candidates we've had, I think he and Gary Johnson were pretty much alone in that this year.

 

[bhsup]

YOu guys realize the ultimate solution is to vote ME in as supreme and absolute dictator for 10 years, yes?

I guarantee you, I'd balance the budget, take care of our national debt(maybe not entirely pay off, but make it trivial to say the least), have American walking tall again, and basically just fix everything.

 

[Core Imposter]

YOu guys realize the ultimate solution is to vote ME in as supreme and absolute dictator for 10 years, yes?

I guarantee you, I'd balance the budget, take care of our national debt(maybe not entirely pay off, but make it trivial to say the least), have American walking tall again, and basically just fix everything.

And your position on abortion is?

 

[Cutlass]

I vote strictly for Dems. I have in the distant past voted for 1 or 2 liberal republicans for local office. It (party lines) is the only way to vote given the current system. Even if you like your local congress person, say the rare sane Republican, and you fancy yourself a sophisticated "moderate" so feel good about your reasonable self voting for both parties...you are wrong. The very first vote a "moderate" senator like Olympia Snowe will make is to hand over all power to the radical base of the party by voting to put Mich McConnel in charge of all the levers of power. She will then vote 95% with the party and do one or 2 cross over show votes after extracting everything she wants in a bill so she can run back to tout her New England moderateness. A vote for Snowe is as good as a vote for Jim DeMint.

This is the system we have. The same goes for Repub voting for a Dem however the Dems have less party discipline and are more likely to crossover esp. to help some corporate interest in pursuit of re-elect $$$.

Pretty much this. I can't vote for a Republican for any significant office until the Republican party as a whole moves back at least as far left as Eisenhower. They have moved so far to the right in my lifetime that they are not even recognizably part of the 20th, much less the 21st, century any longer.

 

[GhostWriter16]

YOu guys realize the ultimate solution is to vote ME in as supreme and absolute dictator for 10 years, yes?

I guarantee you, I'd balance the budget, take care of our national debt(maybe not entirely pay off, but make it trivial to say the least), have American walking tall again, and basically just fix everything.

And your position on abortion is?

He's pro life and pro-state's rights. Signed

 

[sophie]

I haven't really voted since the 2010 midterm elections. I don't really see a point (not in a "it's only 1 vote" kind of sense, more of a "I don't really like politics and I don't have the patience to sit down and figure out who to vote for"). I will vote given sufficient motivation (particularly if there is a prop I really like/don't like), or if there's someone running I care about (such as in this presidential election). Otherwise I can't really be bothered.

 

[Kennigit]

I'm just registering to vote for this election (didnt bother 2010), but I'd probably just vote along party lines for US senate/House of Representative votes that appear on same ballot (Democrat). President I don't think I would ever vote for a republican the way the current political climate is heading--republicans becoming more conservative and encouraging even more social conservative policies--but I could consider voting third party. It's just that the third parties in the US also suck, and the Green Party has some weird things in their party platform (I'd look to them since my primary concern would be supporting an actual universal healthcare system/single payer).

I don't care much about random local things to warrant voting for it if it isn't on the same ballot.

It's also tough to really distinguish for the Green Party how much the candidates will follow the platform and the relative importance/priority of various things in the platform, because often candidates for the green/libertarian parties were also just affiliated with democrat or republican at some point and split off.

 

[Smellincoffee]

In local elections I vote a mixed ticket, because there's no discernible difference between the two parties at the small level. I always vote against my two senators because they've been in office for decades and their voting record is abysmal. I'm not seeing any real leadership from the two parties recently to make voting for national-level figures commendable, except to prevent tea party lunatics from gaining power.

 

[FriendlyFire]

I always vote communist fascist .... wot ?