Forums / Discussion / Serious Debate

I've been hearing a lot about politics, and I want to support the Democratic party, but the majority of the people I've interacted with in my home area are Republicans. I personally never liked the Republican party, but I don't think I should support Obama anymore due to hearing nothing but negative about him coming from everyone I know who isn't a family member. Hell, even he staff of my FUCKING SCHOOL DISTRICT is against Obama, and fhey make it so blantantly obvious when they put a campaign ad to take down Obamacare in our FUCKING YEARBOOKS. Thus, I don't think I should support either political party, but is it a good decision?

You really shouldn't. Political parties merely exist to make people conform to one of two political beliefs and keep them from going their own way. Personally, I'd prefer a president from an independent party with the intent to fix the country's most glaring issues – namely, the horribly outdated school system.

Like Jimmy says, that's actually quite a good thing. All parties do is bring strife, especially America's two party system. Just know what your values are and don't associate them with a party or anything, just vote on what you think is right, not if the politician is part of a party. George Washington was independent himself and he blatantly told everyone not to get caught up in petty party struggles which John Adams, his succesor, attempted to do, but then Jefferson shit all over that and basically started the party wars, albeit with different parties but it was the same concept.

Being independent is great. It should happen more often and independent politicians should be more prevelant.

Fuck. Yes.
They have done nothing to deserve the honest support of anyone. As far as I'm concerned, we desperately need a system where everyone runs for office totally on their own merits, with no parties whatsoever. How would that work exactly? That's for the next great genius to figure out. I just hope their future parents get to fucking soon.

Do not support the Democrats or Republicans. They do not have the best interests of Americans in mind.

I personally vote third party, even though it never goes anywhere.

To quote Lewis Black, "The only thing worse than a Democrat or a Republican is when these pricks start working together.

It's fine if you identify yourself with one political party over the other or if you choose to be independent. The important thing is to keep your facts straight, know where your information is coming from, and don't let your bias get in the way. And also remember that being a part of one party doesn't mean you have to agree with every little thing that party does.

Essentially what Crimson said.

Besides, if you want equality in America you are going to have to push for a much different system to be implemented. Not a Winner takes All system, but rather winnings given to both sides based on their performance. That way even the 3rd parties can get involved and not be swept under the rug.

Unfortunately, that might take a revolution. Enjoy your Elephant/Donkey monopoly.

Of course it's okay, fuck those guys.

I was thinking of starting a thread similar to this, because I'm convinced that the current political system is producing nothing but gridlock. Democrats in Congress believe their most important duty is to oppose Republicans, and for Republicans it's to oppose Democrats. Almost all have forgotten that they're supposed to be public servants elected to represent their constituents first, and their party second.

The way things are these days though, the constituents don't even come in second behind the political parties. The massive financial support of lobbyists and special interest groups means they're just as important to many politicians as their party is. Ordinary citizens who actually voted for them are a distant third at best. If a legislator is getting millions of dollars from the oil industry, it doesn't matter if most people in their home state think we should be reducing our dependency on fossil fuels.

The worst part is, I think the majority of voters in the U.S. know perfectly well that the system is plagued by cronyism and pandering to special interests. It's probably why voter turnout is so low in the U.S. compared to most other democratic nations. Things don't change because these two, well-established parties have unparalleled resources to influence the media, buy various forms of advertising and otherwise convince people that they're the only ones qualified for their jobs. As much as they bicker with each other, Republicans and Democrats know they have a good thing going right now and the last thing either of them want is competition. Like Natsuru pointed out, it may be painted two different colors, but it's still a monopoly.

Sure. The hardcore partisans on both sides will hate you but they're loudmouthed idiots who are not worth listening to.

However, while we have a two party system, I recommend getting involved in whatever party you see as less wrong so you can vote in the primary elections and influence the future of governance. Otherwise the aforementioned hardcore partisans will be the only ones voting and we end up with the politicians we have today.

Winnings given to everyone? That would probably end badly if this whole "at least you tried" charade our generation has keeps up. Have you ever read "Harrison Bergeron"? That's what we'd be on track for.

Chances are you're a left-wing voter. America's political system is very right-orientated. Even the Democrats can't really be considered left-wing party and still have a lot of centre and centre-right opinions. And because of the two-party battle in politics there, this won't really change soon.

Also, don't let yourself be influenced by your surroundings too much. You're able to not side with Republicans even though your surroundings promote voting for them, yet you're not able to side with the Democrats because your surroundings are against them. So it seems that you're still letting yourself be influenced a bit. Dig into it a bit, and decide for yourself what's the best choice to make, and don't let it be influenced by a yearbook quote.

What RM said, there are plenty of legitimate reasons to either support or oppose Obama Find out your values and make your decision based on those and not just because everyone else is doing it. The users above said don't support a particular party, I would take it further and say don't support or oppose any particular person. Support the individual ideas instead. To oppose something just because of who it comes from is the definition of an ad hominem which is one of the most common logical fallacies.

It's typically okay to be neutral in politics, and probably a wise move if you are surrounded by the opposite party.
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I probably am not going to have the most popular opinion, but I think our lobby system is fine as it is. It can be added upon and some small reform to tweak the system, but I don't think we need a drastic overhaul. One of the reasons why we have problems with lobbyists to begin with, which is always the big complaint I tend to hear, is because corporations have the ears of politicians. This may sound crazy, but maybe the reason why corporations send people to represent their interests to congress to protect their trade is to make sure lobbying groups against them don't succeed?

Now of course, lobbying for monopolized rights and funding is what I am against, and that should get away from politics because of our markets of flamboyant freedom, but it is in my belief the system has to be open for everyone, including merchants and corporate leaderships.

Not supporting either party at this point in time is probably a good decision. Neither really have our best interests at heart. Like Sergey said, most of them have forgotten that they are supposed to be public servants.

My recommendation would be to look at history objectively (and when I say objectively, I mean with as little bias as possible), and maybe read up on the U.S. Constitution to understand how our government is supposed to work, if you haven't already. I personally have found that watching things like History Channel Documentaries on major world events has helped me understand our party system better.

Ultimately, though, who you support should be up to you, and you alone. Do your own homework, and come to your own conclusions. Consider both sides of an issue. Our founding fathers wanted for us to be an informed populous, not a society of ill-informed people who are easily manipulated.

That's my two cents, anyway.

with a winner-takes-it-all election system, resulting in a two party system, you're pretty much fucked at the moment and in the future, since that's not too likely to change soon.

i couldn't imagine living with a political system like this, there are many smaller parties here, and the "big two" have to take those seriously, since they most likely will have to form a government with one or two of them.
people who think they can't choose one of the two major parties mostly think they can't choose any, they don't vote and don't participate in political life, and i think that not agreeing with any of the two major players is a cheap excuse for being lazy and uninterested in politics, although there are non-voters who claim that their non-voting will give the parties something to think about, which is bullshit, it only strengthens the conservative and the radical parties since those have the most loyal voters.

but yeah, that's how it is here, as i said, on the other side of the pond you have virtually a two-party system and the others can't really do anything because of the first-past-the-post principle, electors, and some other relics that prohibit a functioning democracy.
you shouldn't be bothered by other's political opinions though, if you can back them up well, they won't search unpleasant debates with you, if they like you personally, if they don't like you, well, fuck'em, you shouldn't care, it's your opinion, and you shouldn't conform just because the majority thinks differently.

then again, who is giving you that adivce? i get a lot of hate when expressing political opinions since i'm far-left, i get insulted as communis pig all the time (on the net that is, and maybe a little at public information stands before elctions), then again, i shouldn't feel too flattered, since even obama gets this kind of insults.

Both parties suck, so of course it's good to ignore them both. I'd recommend focusing more on the local elections (county and below), then on state or federal. Not only are candidates going to be far more personal and "real," but they also impact you much more directly (road commission, taxation, city regulations, school boards, etc) than state or federal legislators do, your vote is vastly more important (with many elections won with under a hundred votes), and there's little money or special interests involved since they're not "important" enough to care about.

A couple of people have mentioned this already, but I would really like to stress that whatever political party you choose or do not choose it's incredibly important that you vote once you become of age. Not only would your lack of a vote just give more voice to the radicals that will ruin everything, but even when in the vast minority your vote will still mean that your government is less likely to stay completely one-sided towards the majority. I would say it's even more important to vote if you are independent or belong to a smaller third party. People like to think their one measly vote for a third party won't change shit, but that kind of thing can add up and grow quickly. If we nurture that and encourage more people to get to the polls it will increase the chances of one day overthrowing the current two party system. It's obviously hopeful and optimistic, but changes have to start somewhere.

I do not directly associate with any political party, because it keeps me from being lumped in with the crazy ones. However, my views are more "left-wing" than anything else, and falls into "Classic Liberalism" from what I've researched.

Two sides of the same coin, and they both serve the international corporate/financial/baking regime of the Rothschilds et al. American politics is all about divisiveness, so that people will be too focused about some issue or another and the fact that others take a different stance on said issue, to stand against the current materialistic postmodern socio-economic-political system. Even communism and capitalism are basically the same shit if you think about it, the difference being wether or not the central government or conglomerates of corporations control the means of production, which really ought to be in the hands of the people doing the actual work of production. Capitalism is well and good when it comes to small businesses, but also opens the door for corporate interests to take control. Examining the "socio-" part of "socioeconomic", this "social liberal/conservative" business is, as I implied earlier, simply a tool for dividing the masses. The one side is rooted in watered-down Christian (or Islamic in some parts of the world) doctrine, the other in hedonistic materialism. A social system, fairly independent of the state and its laws, that stesses honor, tradition, and morality would work better, the beliefs espoused by pre-Christian philosophers in Europe and the Confucians and Taoists of ancient China are a good basis indeed. Furthermore, people are too detached from their communities which I think explains a good deal of the social ills we face.

tl;dr- a short treatise refuting (post)modern society, economics, and politics

Don't focus on whether you are a "Republican" or a "Democrat". Look at what each party and if you feel that one party is better than the other, or represents you better, feel free to vote for that party instead of your favorite.

Is it okay to not support either political party? Yes it is, especially if you live in a nation like Greece with all parties corrupted by greed and irresponsibility. And never but yourself in a
mold, you're a multidimensional human like everybody else and nobody's pawn. And remember…

might want to take a look at this
of course, like all tests, this isn't 100% accurate, but it can give you a rough overview about your political tendencies, and it's kinda interesting to see your position compared to various political figures and parties, it also doesn't simply categorize left- or rightwing, but diffres between economical and social viewpoints.

As I think someone already said, America essentially only has one party that just hates itself. Look where Obama and Romney are on the compass.
(There have been other political compass threads here on KYM, but I can't seem to find the most recent one, does anyone have a link?)