I seem to be on both parties bad sides.

[techy101]

I think Obama is by far the better option between the two this round, but there is one thing that has been really pissing me off. It seems now that you MUST subscribe not to various political ideals, but instead to a complete ideology.

For instance, I have long been in favor of Nuclear power. It's the safest, cleanest, most efficient option we have, but has the large issue of waste, which can be dramatically lowered with reprocessing, but still has a fair half-life. Even after events like 3-mile island (which the general population was exposed to the equivalent of one or two x-rays) and Chernobyl it has still killed/injured a lower percentage of people since it's implementation than any other.

This issue has been a decidedly republican one and gets me "in trouble" with my left leaning friends.

On the flip side I have very strong feelings for the pro-choice argument. I took a friend to get an abortion (was not the father though) and was there for her through the whole thing. It's extremely difficult but IMO this time it was the correct decision. I won't go into all the reasons, but the big one was that she had been taking Percoset recreationally for the first while until she found out she was pregnant. This stance puts me way on the left side of things with the democrats.

These are only two examples of where I (and I think most people) really fall in the middle of things. I think it's safe to say that I am a centrist. It seems like that idea of balance has disappeared in todays world. I tend to vote more left, but I have cast quite a few ballots for the right as well.

You need to be a full blooded republican or a full blooded democrat to have any feelings of support. Otherwise you get crap from both sides, and they both inform you of how wrong you are. Well how the hell can you be "wrong" on both sides? That would imply that neither one of them is right???

I hate that when I go to vote I have to vote for an entire ideology. I have to vote for the (now) neo-conservative ideology or the far left wing ideology. For the idea that if the republicans win the middle class will be taxed more while the rich make out like bandits. That we will start invading any country that looks at us wrong, etc... Or that if the democrats win we will turn in to a gun-banning nation of hippies, and tax the rich so badly they'll all end up as middle class again... (I'm just pulling random stereotypes here)

Neither candidate is even close to bi-partisan as they both try to say they are.

What happened to balance in the world? Why is it that one must now live by one of two mandates, and anything in between is akin to sacrilege?

I feel that I have a unique opportunity for perspective on some of these things. I grew up in a rich household. My father is a very successful Private Practice Cardiologist who started out his career in a 1 room attic apartment in Chicago (med school) and a beat up VW Rabbit, and now has 2 houses, 3 cars, and 2 boats (A little much IMO, but it's not my life)
On the flip side I work in the theatre. I work and live among artists. I get along with these people much better than I get along with the more well off crowd (far from a rule, but a majority of the time). The theatrical crowd is almost all very very left leaning and extremely vocal.
So it feels like I live in a world kind of stuck in between. On one side is my family, the conservative upper/upper-middle class and the other is the world of starving artists.

Maybe this is the reason I can't seem to subscribe to one school of thought or the other, but it just seems insane to me that a persons feelings on an issue be handed down by what party they like more, and that anyone who believes differently than them is a terrible person (many examples on both sides on this one, but since it's here the thread about the "obamabots smashed my window")
How can anyone decide their feelings on an issue before ever actually taking to the time to learn about both sides of it???

That's the end of my rant, this has been bugging me for the past few weeks and I needed to get it off my chest.

[NikFu S.]

I share pretty much all of your thoughts here. I test almost perfectly as a centrist, yet tell people I am a conservative Republican, because I believe I hold the best values of that ideology. I also happen to be pro-choice. I'm pro guns. I'm pro war provided there is a good reason. I'm pro government provided they do not hide things or control too much.

Hell, I'm pro violence in every form provided it's justifiable. At the same time I am pro rights, pro let-people-do-what-they-want provided it's reasonable and doesn't harm anyone who doesn't want to be harmed.

My ideology doesn't revolve around religion, or my family, or my friends, or money, or corporations, or individuals. Liberty and justice for some? That's bull****.

The party system is bull****. Part of the problem is you have to be a scheming, conniving individual to rise to the top. If you aren't stepping on toes and breaking down doors you aren't likely to get anywhere, so it is the selfish, arrogant people who often make it. To me it seems natural, survival of the fittest, but I consider myself fit as well and in the name of liberty and justice for all I will try to destroy (in one sense or another) those I see as unfit from where I stand, even if it is not near the top.