Support a candidate or a party?

arbilad · Head Chef

Support a candidate or a party?

Duke of Mirth · Profuse Pontificator

I vote for candidates. Mostly they belong to one party. I have no loyalty though to the donkeys or the elephants. At the end of the day parties are all about power and money.

bokbadok · Senior Bucketkeeper

arbilad wrote:

I'm not loyal to any party. For instance, if I don't like the Constitution Party candidate for president, or if I feel that there is a better candidate, I won't vote for the Constitution Party candidate. It's that simple. The Constitution Party, by and large, represents my political beliefs. But what matters more is the candidate.

Maybe you should vote for the Green Party candidate.

dianoia · Senior Member

My opinion is worth beans in terms of this particular discussion, but that's because our political system works differently than yours. (I think yours has a better system of checks and balances, BTW.)

Sometimes I've voted based on my local candidate, sometimes I've voted for the party, and sometimes I've voted for a particular Prime Minister. It changes from election to election. But up here we're more like Israel - but without that silly 40-different-parties thing.

Yesterday was the provincial election. I voted party. But that's because I like the conservative track record -you've got to admit a provincial government that got us deficit and debt free is a pretty decent thing.

mirkwood · Senior Bucketkeeper

I pick the best candidate and don't worry about which party he/she is a part of.

Cocobeem · Keeper of the Holy Grail

I support a gender mainly. Mostly men get my vote.

historian · Senior Member

Actually, I think most of us are strongly affected by the party label. For example, if someone ran from the "Cthulu party" who of us, wanting to stand up for truth and justice, could vote for such a person? The label a candidate is willing to wear tells you something important about the candidate.

Unfortunately, I think many people also, wittingly or not, think in terms of "my team" or "the other guys." There can be a lot of undeserved loyalty to a candidate from "my team."

George Washington wanted us to avoid political parties, and he had a good point about them. How, in a huge country, we could recognize and select good candidates without parties, I don't know. But it would be interesting if we could.