A quick question for all
 

Before posing this question I want to mention that replies with name calling will be deleted. On to the $64,000 question.

What views makes you a republican, democrat or whatever. Can this still be classified in today's political atmosphere ?

In general, Democrats are the least against my vision of America and Republicans are the least for it.

At core, simplified down to one dimension, Democrats often care about the welfare of others and want to make sure everyone is taken care of; Republicans typically care primarily about themselves, and resent any necessity of taking care of others.

I grew up in Ohio in a UAW family since my dad worked at the Ford Assembly plant in Lorain. It did not make my parents strict Democrats (my dad voted for Carter in 76 if the old Grits, Frits and Metz bumper sticker on our 74 Maverick was to be believed but voted for Reagan in 80) but it sort of made me one.

I cannot vote Republican today because of the current nativist bent personified by the birther Tea Party movement (Trump) and the impression that the Jerry Falwell wing of the party has come to dominate the mainstream GOP. The party is starting to remind me of those right-wing political groups in the UK and Western Europe who do not like immigrants as their rasion d'etre. Plus the fact they want to gut Medicare and Social Security.

It's a natural division. See Optimates and Populares in the old Roman republic. The privileged elite wants certain policies; the 'champions of the masses' have differing aspirations.

But Democrats tar anyone who believes illegal immigration is out of control.

Related to defense of the established social hierarchy is defense of the established tribal membership (at heart, tribal genetics). Again, the right wing wants to defend, while the left likes the idea of extending and distributing the benefits.

The stronger the Conservative influence on the government, both state and federal, the more I come to understand why people hate the government. But it's not because I LIKE what they do. Their ideology is based on fables of utopian days of yore and men impossibly pure.

In short, they're crazy, so I opposed them.

Dave

Single most important issue to me will be separation of church and state. One party embraces it while the other is looking for every opportunity to rewrite the law, or defund programs based on religious opposition. Intruding into wombs and bedrooms is not democracy.

I've been voting Democrat because I perceive them as the lesser of two evils.

This time around however I am delighted to say that I will have the opportunity to vote, at least in the primary, for someone that actually represents what I believe in. Bernie Sanders.