Calling all Democrats, Liberals, Conservatives, Republicans, Libertarians, Socialists, Anarchists, etc.?

Hi John,

You're exhibiting a rare commodity -- political maturity (which is probably why you don't like politics much). Let me try a different approach to answering your question.

A long time ago, a highly respected poltical scientist named, E. E. Schattschneider coined a series of Political Laws. According to his 3rd Law, "You cannot get all of the SOBs into one political party.." So, you're right. There are good points and bad for everyone. Thus, being blindly partisan is idiotic. That being the case, why, then are so many people blindly partisan.

Another group of political scientists (Campbell, Converse, Miller and Stokes) wrote the seminal work on American voting behaviour, and their conclusion was that the typical voter chooses on the basis of Party ID and superficial aspects of personality and appearance. In other words, most voters are dolts.

The strange paradox is that people tend to identify with their politics on a visceral level, and yet never take the time to be fully informed about it because they don't want facts to get in the way of their biases. It's very rare to find someone who can rise above the passion and look at issues.

You ask what can be done about it. Nothing really. That's just the way politics is for the vast majority of people. So you can either laugh or cry; but you're not going to change it.

I hope this helps. Cheers, mate.

You sound like me! I have never found any candidate that meets my personal platform 100%. I study, learn, read, and decide where my vote goes not by party but by who best sides with my issues and I have never found a candidate who sides with me 100%. And, I have voted for candidates of the 'other' party.

I go on line and read the views of others and it is scary just thinking about what our country is coming to. No tolerance for an opposing view. No tolerance for the opposite party. And no independent thinking.

Yes, we absolutely need "open minded people that can look without blinders." But, how do we get people to become responsible in their voting to put the open minded people into office? How do we get people to look at where they and not their party, stands on issues and to take the time to research and learn before casting that ballot? Oops, answered a question with a question. That's because I don't know the answer.

Each party has it's own political agenda and core belief that is why people belong to a particular party because they align themselves with that core belief. Their are reasonable and unreasonable people within and not all are 100% in lock step. If you don't find the message that you are most in tune with in any of the major parties you should look into the many sub parties but most people think the lesser of two evils and compromise.That is why there are independents that don't belong to any party but are tuned into what's going on and have a very powerful voice but only at election time. When one party wins they have to wait and see who was right

This whole mess is the fault of the people-not the government. To allow you to do something is not the same as making you do something. They allowed you to use credit cards, they did not make you use them. They allowed you to buy a home, they did not make you buy it. They allowed you to buy a car, they did not make you buy one. You knew better, but you went ahead anyway and now you must blame someone for your greed. You knew you could not afford that house, you knew that credit cards are a rip off (unless you use them wisely and pay them off every mo.) You knew you could not afford a new car, but you bought it anyway. Now its time to pat the fiddler. Oh ya lets blame Bush, The banks, the credit card company, the unions, anyone except the person at fault. I did none of this and I am fine.

Yes, people need to be smarter when it comes to how they make their political choices. Ad agencies, teachers unions, special interests, law firms, and biased reporters are partly to blame. We should also consider raising the voting age to 21 again. Younger people are so easily misled. It's not their fault..they just don't know any better.

Yes I think our entire society would be improved by more open-mindedness to others' experiences and opinions. That being said I don't think that there's much you can do to directly change other people except to approach discussions with reason and rationality and present new or 'other' ideas in an open-minded manner (not an attack). Most ppl I think are well-intentioned and will listen to reason. Most ppl also I think feel the need to defend if they think they, or their ideas, are being criticized too heavily.

Restore Constitutional law, because the european parties that have been at war for 300 years have manifest in the USA and altered the country's values.

we should get rid of extreme talk shows and fake news casts, many are just as convinced that obama will be a bad socialist, marxist communist liberal prez that will destroy our country, i saw a bit of the same for bush but we saw how bad he was every time we turned around.

the problem is we all need to work together and admit mistakes, our government should work together like running a business that is successful and works for it's customers.

i heard stories of republicans avoiding democrats for meetings in the same commities by going to different confrence rooms and one time they all hid behind a door.

dems have the power and it is hard to say it they will act the same way but i am sure there are some hard feelings.

the best we can hope for is everyone works together cause devide and conquor does not work.

I'm thinking that if ALL of the AMERICAN voters changed their registration to INDEPENDENT, and abandon the Donkey and the Elephant, that we just may get the attention of the old dirty politics as usual gang and just maybe get CONGRESS to work for WE THE PEOPLE rather than GREED INC.

just my $0.02 worth....

Politics is all about power and helping your constituents. Some people are more hardcore in their views than others. Some go along with their party no matter what. The two party system is corrupt in itself and as along as we have that, what you are suggesting will never happen. The best to hope for is a divided government unable to push their "agenda". Also, the bigger the federal government gets, the more oppressive it can get and obviously corruption will run rampant.