For the Record, I am NOT a Democrat

A couple of pieces of mail this week were at least amusing in the amount of "assumptions" made that I'm some frothing-at-the-mouth Democratic Party loyalist who sees nothing wrong with the Democrats.

Actually, I can find enormous fault with the Democratic Party and I've written about several issues here in the past year-and-a-half. But for me, the gravity of faults and schisms among the Republican Party is much heavier. Only part of this can be explained by that party's steady progress to the far right (and those who read semi-regularly know I don't believe every GOP voter is on the far right but the most visible and vocal components of it are indeed well to the right of Ronald Reagan. Even among Republicans, there's little question of this. (The Dems, in the same time period, have become more centrist, moving away from the left into a more centrist area once seen as the hard-and-fast venue of the Republicans.)

But in reality, I have never been a registered Democrat or Republican. While at times, I have supported more Green Party candidates than those of either major party, I've always registered as an Independent. (Why? Because neither party has given me sufficient incentive to align with them.)

The closest I've ever come to strict party affiliation was my passing college-era attendance at Young Republican meetings (try not to think less of me, ok? ::grin::). I've never voted a straight Dem or GOP ticket in my life; instead, I choose the best candidates after much research which is - at least here in Vermont - a mix of GOP, Dem, Green, etc.

I'm actually appalled at anyone who can vote a straight ticket because that strikes me as more about politics than about the right choice. Sure, there might be a time when you genuinely feel all the candidates of a particular party are the best choices, but I doubt this happens frequently for most thinking people.

And there, Dems have a disadvantage. I think the "vote a staight ticket" phenom is much more likely among GOP voters who have been far more indoctrinated into an "us vs. the Godless whore hippies" mentality. But I suspect thinking GOPers like thinking Dems don't practice this.

This is the long way around saying: Stop assuming I'm a Dem or a Dem operative.