Do you feel like America votes by party or by candidate?

2016-07-26T04:49:24-04:00

America as a whole, I know PLENTY of people that will vote only in their party, and would never think about voting outside of it. What are some ideologies that you find appealing on the opposite side? What are some downsides of your party?

Response by SPC(P) Private RallyPoint Member made Jul 26 at 2016 4:52 AM

2016-07-26T04:52:10-04:00

Pros:
Republicans - Ownership of firearms, Non-PC, Business oriented (if some sorts)

Democrats - Right to choose (abortion, who you marry), improving infrastructure, non intervention military

Libertarian- All of the above!
JohnsonWeld2016!

Response by SPC(P) Private RallyPoint Member made Jul 26 at 2016 4:55 AM

2016-07-26T04:55:46-04:00

Cons:

Republicans: No right to choose (marriage and abortion), interventional military, faith based for the most part

Democrats: Lack of economic sense (at least Bernies views), PC POLICE, restrictive ownership of firearms

Libertarian: Ideologies aren't universally accepted within, wacko nutjobs (and I mean wacko) in some cases

Response by SGT David A. 'Cowboy' Groth made Jul 26 at 2016 6:07 AM

2016-07-26T06:07:28-04:00

Independents: not enough voters, or candidates.

Response by SSG Private RallyPoint Member made Jul 26 at 2016 6:20 AM

2016-07-26T06:20:03-04:00

When it comes to conservatism, Barry Goldwater was the gold standard. He was the conservative that other conservatives got measured against.
Today, Barry Goldwater would be labelled a liberal and would be chased out of the Republican Party.

Response by LT Erik Frederick made Jul 26 at 2016 6:24 AM

2016-07-26T06:24:07-04:00

Overwhelmingly people vote for their party. I'll leave the "why" for another post but address a huge problem: no one is trying to appeal to independents or crossover votes. With lower voter turnout, its much easier to "get out the vote" of the existing base. This leads to partisanship of the harshed kind. It discourages solving problems because they are more important as "get out the vote" issues in the next election. Even worse, it puts incredible pressure elected officals to AVOID compromising or working woth the other side.

Response by Cpl Jeff N. made Jul 26 at 2016 6:32 AM

2016-07-26T06:32:38-04:00

All parties have planks. You have to align with the candidates of the party whose plank you can support the most. Very few will agree with everything in the plank. Even the candidates don't. There are only two real parties in this country. The libertarians keep running nut cases and independents cannot garner any real constituency leaving most to vote D or R.

Response by SGT William Howell made Jul 26 at 2016 7:55 AM

2016-07-26T07:55:28-04:00

I never vote parties. I hate the republican party and all the old turds running it. I relate more to that party though because I am all about not becoming socialist.

In the words of my dear grandmother, " I never vote the party, but I never met a democrat I liked."

Response by LTC Tom Jones made Jul 26 at 2016 8:53 AM

2016-07-26T08:53:18-04:00

My Mother used to say that Americans vote their pocketbooks. Certainly true of many.

Response by SrA Edward Vong made Jul 26 at 2016 8:53 AM

2016-07-26T08:53:40-04:00

From what I have seen, the majority of Americans vote by party.

Response by Capt Private RallyPoint Member made Jul 26 at 2016 9:09 AM

2016-07-26T09:09:58-04:00

Not only do they vote by party, they view the world by what the party says.

Almost everything a candidate says is vilified by the other and praised by its own members.

Democrats think their part is 100% correct and republicans are 100% wrong. Republicans feel the republicans are 100% right and democrats are 100% wrong.

NEITHER is even close to the truth.

Response by MCPO Roger Collins made Jul 26 at 2016 9:36 AM

2016-07-26T09:36:57-04:00

I have voted for both parties in the past, although my conservative leanings go mostly for the propaganda from the right. They are the same, it just depends on who you want to believe. I voted twice for Governor Bredesen (D) in my state and would have again, had he not been term limited. I would be in a tough spot if he ran for president.

Response by PO3 Donald Murphy made Jul 26 at 2016 9:51 AM

2016-07-26T09:51:08-04:00

When your vote doesn't count, then it helps to defray that by implementing a team atmosphere. You're not voting for your "party" you're voting for your "team." Hence the opinion that some people vote for anyone as long as it's a member of their party.

Response by LTC Paul Labrador made Jul 26 at 2016 10:13 AM

2016-07-26T10:13:33-04:00

America votes by who the media tells them to vote for.

Response by SSG(P) Private RallyPoint Member made Jul 26 at 2016 10:30 AM

2016-07-26T10:30:43-04:00

In my opinion you shouldn't limit yourself to voting for a party. You should always look at the candidate. This is one of the reasons I think we need to do away with the two party system. We should present candidates as just that. Not the Democratic or Republican nominee. Anyone who wants to run should be able to and shouldn't have to choose a party.

Response by SGT Dave Tracy made Jul 26 at 2016 10:42 AM

2016-07-26T10:42:47-04:00

My party is myself: All upsides, no downsides, yet 300,000,000 opposite sides to be found.
;-)

I digress.

I think we're more independent than in generations past. If you think about it, how many of our parents and grandparents were Die-Hard _________? And those claiming themselves as "independents" has grown over the years, and if I remember correctly, more people call themselves "independent" today than claim party affiliation.

That's not to say there aren't many Die-Hards these days, and they are the core of the parties ever deeper entrenching of their hard-line party positions, but if you step away from the party conventions, and see where America stands, you'll notice that, while people tend to lean one way or another, not so many are solid Red or solid Blue.

As for myself, I visualize my overall position as that of a scatter chart. Think of a shotgun blast pattern, where every hole in the target represents a single issue. On the horizontal axis, the further from center left or right represents the more liberal or conservative interpretation of the issue I have. The vertical axis would represent how passionately I would feel about said issue; the higher on the chart (visualize the target) the more passionate, and the lower, the less passionate. It's fair to say that most issues will skew to one side or the other--as mine does--but most folks aren't shooting squarely right or left of dead center.

Response by CMSgt Mike Esser made Jul 26 at 2016 11:46 AM

2016-07-26T11:46:40-04:00

Party

Response by Capt Tom Brown made Jul 26 at 2016 3:12 PM

2016-07-26T15:12:12-04:00

PO2 Ed C. When faced with a totally unacceptable candidate for whatever reason, a person is not left with much more than voting the party line or not voting at all, esp if there is no 3d party candidate around. I have been thinking about just voting in the local elections such as city, country, and state level and just avoid the pain of voting for a major candidate. If I don't know much or anything about the local candidates it may come down to voting for them along party lines. Not a good situation for anyone.

Response by PO3 Sherry Thornburg made Jul 27 at 2016 5:33 PM

2016-07-27T17:33:36-04:00

Its a little of both. I think it takes a great deal of anger for anyone who has aligned themselves with a particular party to choose to vote for a different candidate Or, One or the other party nominates someone that catches people on fire with a good message, so you have an outpouring of positive support.

Response by Cpl Mark Oresko made Oct 9 at 2019 9:29 PM

2019-10-09T21:29:33-04:00

I like to watch the debates while also understanding each candidates background. Where they’re from, what they’ve done, their beliefs, proposals for important topics, new ideas, thoughtful approaches to resolve social issues. Healthcare Medical, Civil Rights, Govt Programs, Budgeting, National Security. Then I decide who I like from each party. Whoever I like the most that makes it to the end gets my vote. Sometimes I find myself in favor of the Democratic Party candidate like John Edwards, then when he got booted I ended up voting for John McCain. That’s how I roll. My parents and people tend to not share there opinions or reasons because of negative criticism. Especially if future events turn out negatively.

Response by SFC Ralph E Kelley made Dec 10 at 2019 4:59 PM

2019-12-10T16:59:05-05:00

Candidates