I think that’s more of a case of mislabelling than of the parties being close together. If 90% of the party disagrees with you, you’re not really representative of the party’s beliefs.
I understand that but they’re still in the party. AOC and Omar are Social Democrats but they still run under the Democrat ticket, for example. On the right we see a mix of right libertarians, fascists, Christian nationalists, white nationalists, esoteric fascistss, and neo-monarchists (I’m sure I’m missing a few), but they’re all running under the Republican ticket because our two party system is broken and incapable of capturing the sheer depth and diversity of political ideologies within the country. The labels of democrat and republican are largely useless on an interpersonal basis and only vaguely useful on a systemic scale.
I’m an anarchist but my voter registration says democrat because I checked that box when I was 18 and never bothered changing it. You’d be “right” to call me a democrat, but only to a superficial and largely unimportant degree. I’m sure there are republicans in a similar situation as well and people who may be closer to democrats but choose to vote Republican due to specific policy issues. Abortion is one that comes to mind. It may be hard to believe but there truly are people out there who only care about abortion and otherwise have no strong political opinions outside of that. They would be a better fit for Republicans than Democrats. Again, the 2 party system is fucked and splitting hairs over people who don’t nearly fit into one of the boxes (which is 99.9% of people) is a pointless distraction
There aren’t two boxes. There are two groups of opinions, and the one you’re closest to is the one that you vote for. Your affiliation probably won’t match the majority of a party for every possible issue, but that’s fine, because there’s no need to put anyone in boxes. Your party is, for all intents and purposes, the one which you most agree with. I don’t know where you think I’m splitting hairs, unless you just mean that people close to 50/50 on party agreement can’t be neatly categorized, which should be obvious.
Single-issue voters don’t have my respect. Mostly because I don’t believe they actually have a single issue; I believe many would choose a new issue if theirs became obsolete, that many are hypocritical in their views on their own single issue or related issues, and most importantly, that valuing one issue over the dozens of other problems that they should be caring about is immoral.
I’m ideologically opposed to party and institutional politics on a foundational level. The fact that people are forced to compromise on their values, the “lesser of two evils” system, the whole “closest to your values” thing is a horrible way to approach politics. It rings true if you don’t think about it too hard but it’s pretty bullshit. At the end of the day, when you are only permitted a political voice at the ballot box, you are forcing yourself into the labels you’ve been given by a group of parasites that do not share your interests…
And yeah, single.issue voters probably have other issues. That doesn’t mean they fit within their chosen party’s platform. There are plenty of pro-lifers who fit better in the democratic camp on other issues but value abortion above the rest. I’m not saying it makes sense or is worthy of respect. It’s simply a thing that is
I think that’s more of a case of mislabelling than of the parties being close together. If 90% of the party disagrees with you, you’re not really representative of the party’s beliefs.
I understand that but they’re still in the party. AOC and Omar are Social Democrats but they still run under the Democrat ticket, for example. On the right we see a mix of right libertarians, fascists, Christian nationalists, white nationalists, esoteric fascistss, and neo-monarchists (I’m sure I’m missing a few), but they’re all running under the Republican ticket because our two party system is broken and incapable of capturing the sheer depth and diversity of political ideologies within the country. The labels of democrat and republican are largely useless on an interpersonal basis and only vaguely useful on a systemic scale.
I’m an anarchist but my voter registration says democrat because I checked that box when I was 18 and never bothered changing it. You’d be “right” to call me a democrat, but only to a superficial and largely unimportant degree. I’m sure there are republicans in a similar situation as well and people who may be closer to democrats but choose to vote Republican due to specific policy issues. Abortion is one that comes to mind. It may be hard to believe but there truly are people out there who only care about abortion and otherwise have no strong political opinions outside of that. They would be a better fit for Republicans than Democrats. Again, the 2 party system is fucked and splitting hairs over people who don’t nearly fit into one of the boxes (which is 99.9% of people) is a pointless distraction
There aren’t two boxes. There are two groups of opinions, and the one you’re closest to is the one that you vote for. Your affiliation probably won’t match the majority of a party for every possible issue, but that’s fine, because there’s no need to put anyone in boxes. Your party is, for all intents and purposes, the one which you most agree with. I don’t know where you think I’m splitting hairs, unless you just mean that people close to 50/50 on party agreement can’t be neatly categorized, which should be obvious.
Single-issue voters don’t have my respect. Mostly because I don’t believe they actually have a single issue; I believe many would choose a new issue if theirs became obsolete, that many are hypocritical in their views on their own single issue or related issues, and most importantly, that valuing one issue over the dozens of other problems that they should be caring about is immoral.
I’m ideologically opposed to party and institutional politics on a foundational level. The fact that people are forced to compromise on their values, the “lesser of two evils” system, the whole “closest to your values” thing is a horrible way to approach politics. It rings true if you don’t think about it too hard but it’s pretty bullshit. At the end of the day, when you are only permitted a political voice at the ballot box, you are forcing yourself into the labels you’ve been given by a group of parasites that do not share your interests…
And yeah, single.issue voters probably have other issues. That doesn’t mean they fit within their chosen party’s platform. There are plenty of pro-lifers who fit better in the democratic camp on other issues but value abortion above the rest. I’m not saying it makes sense or is worthy of respect. It’s simply a thing that is