So, I'm an independent now....officially..

[SEVERUSMAX]

....it's a watershed for me, who once voted straight Republican tickets. .

But I don't think that I've left the GOP, so much as we drifted apart...yes, that's right. No relationship keeps its initial passion, and they went one direction (religious fanaticism, police state methods), while I went another (libertarianism on social issues/civil liberties, while protectionist/economic nationalism on trade).

Hey, they're too fascist now even for Bob Barr....what does that say?

Of course, that's not true of McCain. Just of Bush....and his cronies. And 2/3 of the Republican Congressional caucus (though to be fair, they don't run the Congress anymore).

Anyone who thinks that McCain is Bush 3 has never met the Senator. I still prefer him to Obama. A veteran vs. a man with a radical past....hmm...

However, I intend to split the ticket a lot. There may be plenty of Libertarians getting my vote this fall. A lot....just not Bob Barr. It's too important to keep Obama out IMO. No offense to any Democrats. I just don't think he's ready for the Big Leagues.

 

[desertslave]

Welcome to the Ticket Splitters. I assure you, you're NOT alone.

Personally, I want a "no" vote. Something to tell those wanting to be elected (and their committee-critters) to go back and work harder to give us some really useful candidates.

Who says I don't have a rich fantasy life?

 

[voluptuary_manque]

Welcome to the Ticket Splitters. I assure you, you're NOT alone.

Personally, I want a "no" vote. Something to tell those wanting to be elected (and their committee-critters) to go back and work harder to give us some really useful candidates.

Who says I don't have a rich fantasy life?

My kinda voter!

 

[TE999]

....it's a watershed for me, who once voted straight Republican tickets. .

But I don't think that I've left the GOP, so much as we drifted apart...yes, that's right. No relationship keeps its initial passion, and they went one direction (religious fanaticism, police state methods), while I went another (libertarianism on social issues/civil liberties, while protectionist/economic nationalism on trade).

Hey, they're too fascist now even for Bob Barr....what does that say?

Of course, that's not true of McCain. Just of Bush....and his cronies. And 2/3 of the Republican Congressional caucus (though to be fair, they don't run the Congress anymore).

Anyone who thinks that McCain is Bush 3 has never met the Senator. I still prefer him to Obama. A veteran vs. a man with a radical past....hmm...

However, I intend to split the ticket a lot. There may be plenty of Libertarians getting my vote this fall. A lot....just not Bob Barr. It's too important to keep Obama out IMO. No offense to any Democrats. I just don't think he's ready for the Big Leagues.

Welcome to the thinking voters section, sev. I left the Repubs back in '93 when I realized they were all light and no heat like the Demos.

Libertarians like me are on both sides of the fence on a bunch of issues and a one-size-fits-all party platform don't fit me.

Bob's my man, and if that's 'throwing my vote away', well it's mine to throw and screw the status quo.

 

[SweetPrettyAss]

Welcome to the Ticket Splitters. I assure you, you're NOT alone.

Personally, I want a "no" vote. Something to tell those wanting to be elected (and their committee-critters) to go back and work harder to give us some really useful candidates.

Who says I don't have a rich fantasy life?

I don't think I've ever voted a straight ticket. I expect to vote for McCain this year and for a Dem. challenger in the House. There is no senatorial election this year. As for local and statewide offices, I will wait and see who gets my vote.

I wish we could vote "None of the above" and have it mean something. We would not have elected any pres. in either of the last two elections. Of course you can vote for yourself or Donald Duck or throw the vote away some other way.

 

[Le Jacquelope]

I voted for Bush in 2000. I corrected that mistake in 2004.

I guarantee you, McCain means 4-8 more years of Bush. The GOP won't allow him to be any different. 8 more years of war in Iraq, guaranteed. 8 more years of our best jobs flowing overseas. Guaranteed. 8 more years of our veterans getting the shaft when they need medical care. Guaranteed. 8 more years of Guantanamo-knockoffs and domestic police state surveillance. Guaranteed. 8 more years of Hurricane Katrinas. Guaranteed. 8 more years of skyrocketing national debt and 8 more years of us being the laughingstock of the world.

Gasoline at $6 a gallon. Guaranteed.

Great Depression by 2016.

All solid gold guaranteed, under McCain.

 

[DesertPirate]

I was an independant from 74 - 81 and a Republican since. I have yet to vate a straight ticket and hope I never will.
I changed to vote in the primaries and went with my beliefs instead of doing what so many did in NM at the time. A friend explained it, most folks in NM are conservative but the Dems outnumber the Reps. 2.5 to 1 so almost half the Dems are really Reps who vote for the worst candidate in the Dem primary and the vote Rep in November. Kind of explains why NM has had a Rep Senator and 2 of the 3 Representatives, in a supposidly Dem state.

 

[SweetPrettyAss]

I was an independant from 74 - 81 and a Republican since. I have yet to vate a straight ticket and hope I never will.
I changed to vote in the primaries and went with my beliefs instead of doing what so many did in NM at the time. A friend explained it, most folks in NM are conservative but the Dems outnumber the Reps. 2.5 to 1 so almost half the Dems are really Reps who vote for the worst candidate in the Dem primary and the vote Rep in November. Kind of explains why NM has had a Rep Senator and 2 of the 3 Representatives, in a supposidly Dem state.

Something like that holds true in most places. Being registered Dem. is more PC than being registered Rep. but the voters vote their wallets or consciences when they get in the voting booth.

 

[Stella_Omega]

Vote Bob Barr, you ex-Republicans, it's a great idea.

 

[Belegon]

....it's a watershed for me, who once voted straight Republican tickets. .

But I don't think that I've left the GOP, so much as we drifted apart...yes, that's right. No relationship keeps its initial passion, and they went one direction (religious fanaticism, police state methods), while I went another (libertarianism on social issues/civil liberties, while protectionist/economic nationalism on trade).

Hey, they're too fascist now even for Bob Barr....what does that say?

Of course, that's not true of McCain. Just of Bush....and his cronies. And 2/3 of the Republican Congressional caucus (though to be fair, they don't run the Congress anymore).

Anyone who thinks that McCain is Bush 3 has never met the Senator. I still prefer him to Obama. A veteran vs. a man with a radical past....hmm...

However, I intend to split the ticket a lot. There may be plenty of Libertarians getting my vote this fall. A lot....just not Bob Barr. It's too important to keep Obama out IMO. No offense to any Democrats. I just don't think he's ready for the Big Leagues.

Sev,

McCain of 2000 or even 2004 was not toeing the party line and seemed to be a very different man to me.

But the events of the past couple weeks have soured me on even the "no matter what, we'll have an improvement over Bush" statements I had made before.

I'm sorry, but John McCain's integrity is clearly past tense at this point. Ask the Hiltons. Ask the people that helped him prepare an attack ad on Obama for visiting the troop hospital concurrent with the one he prepared attacking him for NOT visiting the german hospital (not mentioning, of course, that Obama visited hospitals in Iraq and Afghanistan.)

John McCain has sold his soul. And that saddens me, although I was never going to vote for him.

As recently as mid-July, I was hoping we could see a fall campaign season based on issues. That hope was clearly a false one.

And I'm sick of hearing the "he's a veteran" card played. Duke Cunningham is a veteran. Kerry is a decorated veteran, Gore is a veteran and Bush went AWOL from Arkansas.

Being a veteran doesn't make you a legitimate great military leader any more than me having played baseball past college makes me Babe-fucking Ruth.

Custer was a veteran. Sitting Bull was real impressed.

 

[rgraham666]

I find it very, very funny to see Obama called a 'radical'.

By Canadian standards he's very middle of the road.

But we're all hardline Communists up here, so I would.

 

[iluvyou3638]

i am a democrat....officially. but unofficially i only did it so i can vote in the primaries.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Lets define what fascism is, first.

"Political philosophy that became predominant in Italy and then Germany during the 1920s and 1930s; attacked weakness of democracy, corruption of capitalism; promised vigorous foreign and military programs; undertook state control of economy to reduce social friction."

Fascists deliver what most people want: Jobs, homes, education, medical care, transportation, food, and retirement.

Hitler and Mussolini and Franco made the trains run on time. But you cant take your shit out on the street or you'll get shot.

 

[keeblercrumb]

Amsterdam Dreams

Lets define what fascism is, first.

"Political philosophy that became predominant in Italy and then Germany during the 1920s and 1930s; attacked weakness of democracy, corruption of capitalism; promised vigorous foreign and military programs; undertook state control of economy to reduce social friction."

Glad we got that sorted out.... Thanks JB!

-KC

 

[rgraham666]

They took control of the economy? Really? Like in 'seized all companies and placed them under state control?'

That would be news to Krupp, Thiessen, Porsche, Messerschmit and a lot of other companies. Who quite liked the Nazis since the Nazis broke the unions and supplied them with slave labor.

They were less happy when their factories got bombed flat but they hadn't thought of that when Hitler came to power.

 

[keeblercrumb]

Amsterdam Dreams

Unlike Bob Barr, of course. But really.... I think you should split your ticket...

Maybe I will vote for Nader too.....

Maybe.

-KC

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

KEEBLER

Thats what I'm here for. To keep you people on the ranch, if not the corral.

Too many believe a fascist is anyone who disagrees with CLOUDY about anything.

 

[DesertPirate]

Vote Bob Barr, you ex-Republicans, it's a great idea.

Only if the same percentage of Dems vote for Nader

 

[SEVERUSMAX]

Welcome to the thinking voters section, sev. I left the Repubs back in '93 when I realized they were all light and no heat like the Demos.

Libertarians like me are on both sides of the fence on a bunch of issues and a one-size-fits-all party platform don't fit me.

Bob's my man, and if that's 'throwing my vote away', well it's mine to throw and screw the status quo.

What's scary is that he was once a hard-core member of the same neo-con wing of the GOP that Bush is. Now he's talking much different, though Ron Paul seems to have reservations about him. But, hell, the ACLU gave Barr an award....something they don't do to people they think are still members of the religious right, neo-con element.

To clarify, it isn't just that McCain is a vet. It's that he is the polar opposite of Obama in experience, in qualification to be President, in gravitas, in being above pop culture politics, etc. He was right about the surge, which demonstrates that he has more wisdom than simply what he gained in the Hanoi Hilton. He has shown a more practical energy plan, as opposed to Obama's, which might work for the long-term but will wreck the economy in the meantime, so as to make the long-term moot. He has also consistently opposed earmarks, which shows some promise of fiscal restraint.

By contrast, Obama has ties to black-nationalist elements (the radical past to which I was referring), to ministers like Rev. Jeremiah Wright in particular, and to some dubious characters in his hometown of Chicago. He's a freshman senator, and while that is not necessarily a bad thing, I do believe that a public servant should at least complete his first 6 years in the Senate before seeking higher office (though Constitutionally speaking, Congress is no lower than the Presidency, of course).

However, I do reservations about McCain, though I have met the man and like him personally.

1. Campaign finance "reform", which always seem to restrict personal freedom.
2. A past history of cultivating favorable media attention at the expense of principle.
3. A tendency to flip-flop on some issues, even when the new position seems better than the one, still concerns me. And I don't like the idea of more judges like Alito, though Roberts is not too bad.

Suffice it to say that any tentative plans about the general election are just that....tentative. I reserve the right to change my mind. Both Obama and McCain should be familiar with that concept.

But if I do, it won't be to vote for Obama. That's anathema to me. His basic philosophy of government and mine are too far apart.

As for fascism....it's not about nationalization of industry. It's about a chain of command, of sorts, economically speaking. The State indirectly controls the economy through regulations and planning, which companies have to follow, in exchange for which, yes, the unions are broken and the workers have to fall into lockstep as well. And take-home pay is always small. Read Rise and Fall of the Third Reich some time. You'll get a better idea. William T. Shirer had a very well documentary history of the most infamous fascist regime of all time.

It's pretty much what the Federal Government did to the country in WW1, by the way, with its wartime mobilization regulations, etc. I could make a solid case that Wilson was not only a racist but a fascist as well.

Yes, I understand that Obama is pretty normal for Europe and Canada. That's Europe and Canada, however. This is America. And while I like and respect my fellow Litsters from Europe, Canada, etc., I still think that America should keep to her own way of running things. Vive le difference!

To be fair to Bob Barr, I was once a member of the religious right, too, and if I can change, so can he.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

There's nothing inherently wrong being a fascist. Its a good cross between capitalism and socialism.

People bitch about political corruption and the Darwinian nature of capitalism, and fascism cures both ills. It eliminates all the silly bullshit that pols and tycoons perpetrate.

True! You make no money working in a fascist nation, but food is cheap, rent is affordable, real public transportation exists, schools are free, medical care is covered, etc. If you want to work you can get a real job. If you want to be an MD you can do it. You wont get rich practicing medicine, and you wont spend any money for your education. Ditto for sports stars and other celebrities.

Our system agonizes over the poor and the rich, and fucks the middle-class.

 

[LordMithras]

Ex-Labourite here. Been independent for a while now. It can be fun, indeed. Of course, Irish politics are a bit different from American.