How will you vote from this election forward?

[FeebMaster]

Damn, where are the liberatarians when you need em?

They're voting Republican, of course.

 

[Hazzard]

You voters don't?

I'm reminded of lyrics by the band Rush here.

"If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice."

Perhaps a better discussion in APS?

 

[orionengnr]

Art--

"It's a lot easier to vote for "the good guy" at the local level. Easier to get involved in his election campaign, as well. And if you don't do that, don't gripe.
State level? Fortunately, most small-town candidates in Texas tend to be at least mildly conservative. The big-city liberal vs. conservative thing is at least reasonably evened out."

I would be interested in your perspective on the Governor's race. I believe that both of our Texas Senators have a good grasp on things, and I have no problem voting for the one that is up for re-election. Likewise, my local representative, whom I have met several times. He "gets it"...one of the few.

Now our Governor does, IMHO, not "get it" at all. About 30 days ago, he suddenly became a Border Believer. Although I had written him repeatedly on the issue for the last 2 1/2 years (as long as I have been a Texan) I received absolutely zero until 30 days ago. And even now, I get a letter signed and sent by a staff assistant...no Governor's signature.

So, for whom will you vote?
IMHO, Kinky is a bad joke, although many view him as a protest vote.
Strayhorn is not much better, although I believe I will vote for her as a somewhat more legitimate protest vote.

Perry will probably prevail, which makes me retch.

 

[cookekdjr]

Would have helped if you had a category for "the best candidate". There are good candidates in both parties.
-David

 

[ETXhiker]

Anyone who blindly votes for someone based on the letter by their name is really voting foolishly. You have to know the candidates. I will generally vote for the person who I feel represents the largest number of my interests.

Translation: Democrat. Just say it, it's okay. But...

If your candidate votes with his party and his party doesn't support the 2nd amendment, then everything else can be taken from you. The Dems are ENEMIES of the 2nd amendment, at least at the national level.

I call myself a conservative, not a Republican. I will probably vote Libertarian the first time they have a snowball's chance of getting double digits at the polls. But with global jihad, North Korea, Iran, China, Russia, communists like Chavez just south of the border, I refuse to waste my vote on a symbolic gesture. I've been diasappointed with Republicans in a lot of things lately. But Democrats have a track record of tough talk and no action. Don't need Neville Chamberlin types right now.

 

[Soybomb]

Translation: Democrat. Just say it, it's okay. But...

Good try, but no. If i had to pick any single party it would be libertarian. I'm not single issue voter. I care about more in life than just guns. I see things that are much more immediate concerns than guns. Sometimes that mean I vote democratic because there's a republican who would love to limit my freedoms and legislate his religious views like alan keyes, and other times I must vote against a Democrat who is corrupt or financially irresponsible, such as blagojevich. Honestly I can't imagine how anyone can fall within any party's lines on every issue unless they care about an exceptionally small number of issues. Instead you can just vote republican and get a big pro-gun president who says he'll sign another assault weapons ban anyway. Or elect a republican governor who would ban .50 weapons in a state. Thats why I say its important to know the candidates and not the party.

 

[Lone_Gunman]

The Republican party should be very afraid when only 65% of a pro-gun forum are willing to vote for them.

I think there are bad times ahead for the Republicans.

 

[earplug]

Lessor of two evils

Since I left the major parties.
I look at the idea of voting for the less evil as if Poland had A choice in voting for invasion by Russia or Germany.
I will always vote for the best from now on.

 

[bclark1]

I've voted libertarian in the primaries, but I just can't find a niche there. For every pre-daughter-coming-out Alan Keyes, who believes in small government, low-taxes and high-freedom, protecting innocent life and all that good stuff, there are ten pothead hippies who just want to make it safer for themselves to slam hallucinogens while they sleep around with as many unwashed, hairy people as they can. While morality is relative, I think there are some time honored codes that have superceded empires and politics, and I simply can't support amoral abuses of freedom. I believe in social services, for it's been said that the measure of a great society is how well it takes care of its weakest members, but that still doesn't really sway me to vote liberal. The liberal systems do not help the weakest members, they help those who know how to milk the system. Care for the disabled, sick, elderly and other truly marginalized sectors has taken a back seat to lots of lazy, selfish drains who are simply too unambitious to pull themselves up by the boot straps. Actual good or merely lesser of evils, I end up being a pretty partisan voter. While people may debate how that goes on federally, it's been good locally. My family and I have fairly good contact with our state reps, I can talk to them about gun-related legislature, and I even got a shining reference letter for OCS out of one of them.

Anyway... spent way too much time on the board today! Time to hit the hay.

 

[Autolycus]

I will vote Libertarian. The 2 major parties turn me off. The Democrats in general are anti 2nd amendment and have some very socialist like tendencies. The Republicans in general are anti 1st amendment, anti 4th amendment, anti 5th amendment, and very theocratic in my opinion.

I voted Republican in the last 2 elections. (They were the only elections I have ever been allowed to vote in due to age) and I was left with a bad taste in my mouth. In my state, Illinois, I could vote Republican and it still doesnt make a difference.

Even if my vote was the one deciding vote in an election between a Democrat who will disarm America or a Republican who reappeals all laws I dont think I could stomach voting for either.

The sad thing is that we are now left with choosing the lesser of two evils. Dumb and Dumberer are the candidates we have to choose from. I just will vote my heart which is Libertarian.

 

[borrowedtime69]

save America form the klintons, gores, deans, kerrys, or mirtha vote republican!

Soybomb
Anyone who blindly votes for someone based on the letter by their name is really voting foolishly. You have to know the candidates. I will generally vote for the person who I feel represents the largest number of my interests.

i hate to respectfully disagree with you view. i vote republican all the way every time. i believe in the "Party trumps person" motta.

i want all republicans in every office because i want the republican party to fill the court vacancies with conservitive judges, i want the republicans to run the legislature and in effect ennact laws that help the conservitive cause (lower taxes, get rid of the welfare state, solid on defence, vouchers in schools, etc.). the Democrat party does not reflect any of my values as i feel that the really have no values of their own (other than what todays poll tells the dems what they should be faking to show concern). further more i absolutely DO NOT trust the lefties with the economy, defense, gun rights, taxes, and the evironment.

i will never vote for a Democrat because if one gets in office he/she will be heavily influanced by othe groups that are extreamists.

Democrat politicians are chronic lyers, they dont really ever come out and give solutions to problems to help their nation, they merely complain and attack if kerry had gotten the vote and got into the white house, this country would have been attacked much more than we've had. he also would have handed the US over to the control of the United Nations.

a vote for the Democrat party is a vote against the US.

 

[Biker]

I know some Dems, and they all know how to use the caps key.

Biker

 

[AJAX22]

I'm voting libritarian this election.

I'm sick of voting for the lesser of two evils,

its time to take a stand and say, this is the party which closest matches my own ideas and beliefs. its not a perfect fit, but it best represents who I am.

I won't give my vote to someone who I do not support simply because the other mainstreem canidate is bad.

the two party system is the enemy of representitive democratcy.

 

[xd9fan]

I honestly think we are rapidly developing conditions which will allow a viable third party to develop and, no, I am not talking about libertarians. I suspect it will take a form similar to the Federalists.

I hope your wrong. I hope anti Federalist...but given American Socialism........I will not bet against you.

The Republican party should be very afraid when only 65% of a pro-gun forum are willing to vote for them.

I think there are bad times ahead for the Republicans.

They deserve it. That party needs a disciplined stiff kick in the a$$.

 

[.41Dave]

i want the republicans to run the legislature and in effect ennact laws that help the conservitive cause (lower taxes, get rid of the welfare state, solid on defence, vouchers in schools, etc.)

So do I, but despite the Republicans complete control of all 3 branches of government for the last 6 years, none of these things have come to pass. (Yes, I know about the tax cuts, but the Republicans just turned around and added or raised other taxes, for a net wash.). Under the Republicans, government spending is out of control, and makes even old Bill Clinton and the Dems look like misers. Liberty is under greater threat than ever before. The shredding of the Constitution and the demise of the 1000 year old right of Habeas Corpus under the Republicans is chilling. If a Democrat president had ever tried to push through something like the Patriot Act or the Military Commissions Act, the Republicans likely would have fought tooth and nail, and sought impeachment for the president who tried it. Instead, An allegedly Republican president works to strip America of her Essential Liberty, and the so-called Conservative Republicans submit with barely a sheep-like bleat of protest at being led to the slaughter. The sad and repugnant fact is, the Republicans are no longer conservatives. The party is in thrall to the "neoconservatives", who are in fact old-line Trotskyite Leftists. In reality, your choice is a vote for "the lesser of two evils" between a Leninite Leftist, or a Trotskyite Leftist, or a quixotic vote for Liberty and the old Republic by voting 3rd party. Unless the republican rank and file realize (and soon) that their party has been subverted, prepare for a Leftist dictatorship with the option (at least temporarily) to switch flavors every 4 years.

i hate to respectfully disagree with you view. i vote republican all the way every time. i believe in the "Party trumps person" motta.

You also disagree with George Washington, who very cogently warned AGAINST the evils of political parties in his farewell address. Looking around today, most everything he warned of has come to pass.

"I have already intimated to you the danger of parties in the state, with particular reference to the founding of them on geographical discriminations. Let me now take a more comprehensive view, and warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of the spirit of party, generally. This spirit, unfortunately, is inseparable from our nature, having its root in the strongest passions of the human mind. It exists under different shapes in all governments, more or less stifled, controlled, or repressed; but, in those of the popular form, it is seen in its greatest rankness, and is truly their worst enemy. The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries, which result, gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of Public Liberty. Without looking forward to an extremity of this kind, (which nevertheless ought not to be entirely out of sight,) the common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it. It serves always to distract the Public Councils, and enfeeble the Public Administration. It agitates the Community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms; kindles the animosity of one part against another, foments occasionally riot and insurrection. It opens the door to foreign influence and corruption, which find a facilitated access to the government itself through the channels of party passions. Thus the policy and the will of one country are subjected to the policy and will of another." ~ George Washington, from his farewell address on September 17, 1796

 

[dot 43]

Republicans are the price I pay for keeping Democrats out of office. The price is exorbitant, but it's worth it.

 

[Ian]

I don't vote. I won't be sucked into giving my approval of any candidate - they will inevitably be evil. It's you people who do vote who have to bear the moral weight of putting some Constitution-gutting power-monger (of either party; they're both the same) into office.

 

[Manedwolf]

For whatever politicians I can find that aren't anti-gun and also aren't horribly corrupt, dangerous theocrats or lip-service tools thereof, dictator-enablers, authoritarian socialists, rubber-stamp yesmen for the executive branch, pets of lobbyists, pork-barrel addicts, pedophiles or shielders of pedophiles.

I sometimes wonder if that leaves ANYONE of any incumbents.

Republicans are the price I pay for keeping Democrats out of office. The price is exorbitant, but it's worth it.

Right up until they get so cocky at being unopposed that they add 2A to the rest of the bill of rights they've been using for toilet paper recently, yes. "Only terrists need assault rifles! Cause..they could, y'know, shoot up a mall...hurt 'merkins."

I want a viable third party. One where the candidates can quote from Jefferson and Adams et al, from the Bill of Rights and even the Federalist Papers without a teleprompter.

 

[wingman]

Perry will probably prevail, which makes me retch.

Same here but I will vote against him....................



I have long been a Republican supporter, however I feel we can no longer
have the luxury of voting one issue and we need to rid ourselves of folks
who don't do the job either party, my opinion vote them out.

 

[Robert Hairless]

We have to be proud of the gun owners who don't vote, or who vote for third-party candidates that don't stand a chance of winning, or who vote for anti-gun Democrats.

Those gun owners aren't stupid. They know that their failure to vote means that they aren't expressing a preference. They also know that when they vote for a candidate who has no chance of winning they are not helping pro-gun candidates be elected. And they know that they give an even bigger boost to anti-gun candidates by voting for them, and when they vote for Democrats they are helping an anti-gun party dominate the Congress. So those gun owner are not stupid.

They also know that this one issue has irreversible consequences. Gun owners know that Mayor Nagin of New Orleans confiscated firearms, lied about doing so, and created such strict conditions for their return that very few gun owners have been able to get them back even after the NRA and SAF are being successful in their suit against New Orleans. Gun owners know that when their firearms are banned--as Bill Clinton's Democrats did immediately after they took control--they will never get them back.

Nevertheless, those gun owners are willing--even eager--to suffer the inevitable consequences and surrender their right to own firearms because they have higher principles and more important issues in mind.

What can you say about guys like that? All the rest of us can do is be proud that such people exist in the United States of America and try to figure out what life here will be like without private ownership of firearms. So let's hear a rousing cheer for those highly principled gun owners! Hip, hip, hooray! And let's give them a nod of appreciation: :banghead:

 

[DRZinn]

For every pre-daughter-coming-out Alan Keyes, who believes in small government, low-taxes and high-freedom, protecting innocent life and all that good stuff, there are ten pothead hippies who just want to make it safer for themselves to slam hallucinogens while they sleep around with as many unwashed, hairy people as they can.

Unfortunately, you're right. But WHO CARES?? They can slam hallucinogens and sleep with unwashed hairy people all they want and it won't affect your rights or mine.

I simply can't support amoral abuses of freedom

Neither can I. That's why I don't want the government telling those hippies what they can't do, especially when that means they'll restrict my freedoms, too.

My default position is to vote Libertarian. If there are circumstances involved which make this a bad idea (such as a swing state where voting Libertarian would help elect a Socialist), I'll reconsider.

 

[BigG]

Highly Principled Gun Owners -

Well said, Robert Hairless.

 

[wingman]

Nevertheless, those gun owners are willing--even eager--to suffer the inevitable consequences and surrender their right to own firearms because they have higher principles and more important issues in mind.

All sounds very noble however unless we get those "more important issues"
under control firearms for average Joe will cease to exist. We have a out
of control population issue mostly from immigration, loss of middle class jobs,
outsourcing, rising medical cost, on the present path private gun ownership
will be gone in 20 years, I have seen the changes first hand having grown
up in the 40's/50's. Simply it cannot be a one issue vote any longer.

 

[Keith Wheeler]

Huckabee.

 

[Manedwolf]

It seems like, now, being a single-issue voter on gun control while ignoring all the rest of the rights-violating legislation and the people who support it is akin to trying to stand in front of your own tree while a forest fire is burning up the others. If you ignore it, by the time it gets to you, it will be too powerful for you to stop, and your tree will be burnt up too.