Party Line Voting and the Absence of Reality.

In a few days those of us Americans that take our responsibilities as citizens seriously will go to our respective polling places and vote.  Hopefully before we do we have throughly researched the candidates, and have made a decision based on criteria that each of us as an individual places importance on.

Unfortunately this is usually not the case.  Many voters that I speak with state that they usually vote party lines, in effect trusting that a politicians decision to align themselves with one of two major political parties is enough information to base their vote on.  This seems extremely lazy and irresponsible to me.

While everyone has the right to place their vote as they see fit, I do question the rationality of this decision.

During the last few years we have heard a lot about the Democratic Blue Dog Coalition, a group of moderate to conservative Democrats.  These self described Democrats believe in what most people would assume to be Republican ideals.  How can this be, all Democrats are Liberals, right?

In July-August of 2009 Gallup polled 47,000 Americans to see how they classified themselves politically.  Only 25% of  those polled classified themselves White non-Hispanic liberal Democrats, while only 23% classified themselves White Conservative Republicans.  Amazingly 6% of those polled stated they were White Conservative Democrats, and 11% White moderate-liberal Republicans.  

The percentages are based on the entire 47,000 polled of which 25% were Hispanic, Black, and Asian/other and were only listed in the percentages by only their races.  According to Gallup's website "(The ideology and partisanship of blacks, Hispanics, and other ethnic and racial groups will be examined in future Gallup analyses.)"  You can see the full results here:  http://www.gallup.com/poll/122672/conservative-democrats-liberal-republicans-hard-to-find.aspx

What this poll shows me is that party line voting does not assure that your ideals are necessarily being represented.  Less than 50% of the polled classified themselves according to the widely believed convention of Liberal Democrats and Conservative Republicans.  While this poll does not, in my opinion,  give  a complete and accurate analysis of the populations political affiliation, it does prove that there are no givens in politics.

All through history both major parties have had members that classified themselves as Conservative, Moderate, and Liberal.  Add to this the whimsical changing of parties and affiliations by politicians and you should be able to see how easily you can mistakenly vote for someone that you would not directly vote for if you were informed.

Based on these facts I submit that there is no one party that can meet all of anyone's needs for representation.  Each candidate is an individual just as you are, and each has their own beliefs and opinions.  We should be voting based on our individual criteria of the candidates merits, experience, background, and whether or not they would be appropriate for the position they are applying for.  

If you are attempting to vote for a candidate that shares your ideals based on their political party you may be in for a BIG surprise; the number of politicians that vote in opposition to their supposed beliefs would amaze you.  If you don't believe me, just watch the commercials during primaries.  The opponent is more than happy to tell you all of the candidate's inconsistencies.

For those of you that do care, please take a few minutes and really research each candidate carefully. You may be surprised.