Why do people vote exclusively Democrate or Republican?

Hi Bonnie,

Many years ago, four scholars of voting behavior named, Campbell, Converse, Miller, and Stokes, wrote what many believe is the seminal work on the American voter. They concluded that most people vote simply on the basis of blind party identification (which is also your observation -- so, you're in good company).

The reason for this is that CCM&S concluded that politics for the vast majority of Americans was not something of central value. Of far greater importance were things like jobs, family, hobbies, etc. In short, they maintained that politics was a distant thing on the horizon, and most people failed to grasp how political actions could seriously impact their jobs, families, etc. And so, they opted for party identification as a means of reaching a conclusion without having to devote serious attention to the problem. You see, as a rule of thumb, we tend only to take the time to make informed critical distinctions about thing we either like, or think to be of central imporatnce to our lives. And because neither of these factors applies to the vast majority of voters, party ID simply became the default position.

They were not complimentary in their assessment of the American voter; and unfortunately, it appears that their grim assessment still hold water after all these years.

Hope this helps. Cheers.

In the past, if you voted your party, you could be assured that your vote was for what that party stood for. Often this was helpful when you had a large number of people from which to choose. You couldn't possibly know the platform of each person. Voting the party, you knew what that party was all about and as such, the person in the party would be expected to follow the party line, so to speak. But its become less so in recent times.

Voting the party has become difficult. It's becoming hard to differentiate. You can get liberal minded people in both parties and conservative minded people also in both parties.

I, like you, vote for the person. I used to vote the party but try hard to vote for the person and what they advocate, not the party. I no longer know what the "party" stands for.

I cannot agree more. I am an Independant. My vote normally looks like a mish mosh of "D's" and "R's". I have no use for political parties. I woudl love to see political parties go away and just vote for the candidate. Maybe in anouther 100 years it might happen. In the mean time, I guess we are stuck with the D's and R's.

I vote exclusively republican because democrats are complete imbiciles. I will even research judicial candidates for any hint of a liberal background.

Why in the world would I want to vote for anyone to serve in public office if they support the following causes:

murdering unborn babies for no reason beyond personal comfort

mercy killing old people in preference to medication

use of emotional blackmail on every issue conceivable

calling our military service members losers

condemning America over terrorists

selling of carbon credits to suckers with money

condemning corporations with folk tales and ghost stories

drawing the race card when backed into a corner

Please, people! Do you really want these mean-spirited idiots running our country?

I vote independent and for who is running, although they force the voting public to choose either or.

Then the goverment has the electorial college to USE even though it should be done away with.

I am from a family of nine republicans and you could not pay me to vote with them. I did vote for Reagan though.

I vote against candidates and parties. This year I am voting against republicans because they abused the power and the trust. I haven't seen a good candidate yet, just the lessor of two evils.

I'm Republican but have crossed party lines many times in State elections.

its who best represents your particular demographic...and if your party has more seats,its more powerful...Im certainly not going to select a Repub Congressman and then vote for some goofball Dem Senator so he can bang heads with my Congressman...so I vote the straight Repub ticket....

I'm a republican who has voted for both parties. I never voted for Bush because I never felt he was quilified for anything.

I admit when my party is wrong. I wish others would also. Both sides.

Political parties control the electorate which should not be the case because voters must elect a candidate based on his qualification and not on his affiliation.

VOTE for your choice as US President on my 360 degrees blog and know who will likely win.