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Hurrah! A quick attempt to practice what I preach!

In this thread, all I want to see is the reasons you vote for your chosen party. By this, I mean more a list of pro's about one side, than con's about the other. We can leave that sort of pointless mudslinging to the Politicians themselves.

I have to shoot off now, so I'll post mine later. Thought I'd start it off whilst the topic was in my head.

Remember, your opinions are personal, but your attacks shouldn't be. Keep it civil, keep it on track.

Unless you’re counting Bull Moose I don’t have a party. I support the best candidate
Here’s what I support
*US Bill of Rights including the 1st and 2nd Amendment
*Balanced budget
*Closed Border
*War on terrorists
*Education
*Government leaving me the CENSORED alone

Strangely enough, I'm for many of those things as well...

*Freedom to say anything, even if those in power or their backers would rather I didn't, and the proper place of the 2nd Amendment, not the overblown weight it's been granted by "activist judges"
*A budget that doesn't include Reagan-era-level military spending waste, money for no-bid contracts for associates of members of the administration, or bridges to nowhere.
*An actual functioning immigration system, where our borders are secure (hint: border fences don't make for security; just ask east/West germany) and companies/employers don't employ illegals over Americans and/or ship the job overseas.
*War on terrorism where terror actually is... and somebody round up that Osama guy, while they're at it.
*Equal education opportunity for all, not just those with good enough credit or rich parents or who trade risky service for the education they should be able to get as part of an advanced, technical, civilized society.
*No wiretaps without oversight, no new "security" agencies, no government regulation of who can and cannot do what with whom (outside of actual criminal acts, which does not include Biblical law), no religion in the law.

Liberal Democrats:

-Free university education, it's a social cost, not a personal one
-Higher taxes for the most wealthy, tax breaks for the lower earners
-Legalizing cannabis, legalizing drugs removes funding from organized crime and means use can be controlled
-The only consistently anti-war party
-Genuine and practical environmental policies
-Anti-ID cards, pro personal freedoms
-Support election reform to a more representative system

That's what I've got off the top of my head.

A pox on both Houses!

Vote for an Independent!

A pox on the independents!

Vote for me!

See, my precinct captain gives me a vetted list...

I spoiled my ballot paper, do I really need to give you a reason?

Liberal Party here in Oz because the Labour party is run by the unions, full of ex-union bosses and gets all its money from the unions.

And a union membership has plummeted over the last 20 years and they have done very little for conditions, they are not the people I want running the country. If they were in the private sector their sharholders would have sacked them years ago.

And I'm in the doctors union in Queensland, but a least they don't give money to any party, and do good things for us like fatigue restrictions (do you want a doctor operating on you who has been awake for 36 hours?).

I vote Conservative. Why?

Because Labour are crap-for-brains stalinists who wouldn't know a good decision or accountability if it was rammed up their backside by a rocket.

The liberal democrats are lying, thieving, cheating gits who can't see issues through, as far as local government goes.

The green party are a joke. They're just wrong.

UKIP are people like my father. Out of touch, just past middle age, socks with sandals, blaming everything on immigrants.

BNP may as well be called the British Nazi Party.

And the monster raving loonies are crazy.

Compared to this, the Conservatives are capable of organising a piss-up in a brewery, they know how to run a damn country, and having met some of the people they'll be making ministers, I can say they're at least decent people.

Skorpion wrote:I vote Conservative. Why?

Because Labour are crap-for-brains stalinists who wouldn't know a good decision or accountability if it was rammed up their backside by a rocket.

The liberal democrats are lying, thieving, cheating gits who can't see issues through, as far as local government goes.

The green party are a joke. They're just wrong.

UKIP are people like my father. Out of touch, just past middle age, socks with sandals, blaming everything on immigrants.

BNP may as well be called the British Nazi Party.

And the monster raving loonies are crazy.

Compared to this, the Conservatives are capable of organising a piss-up in a brewery, they know how to run a damn country, and having met some of the people they'll be making ministers, I can say they're at least decent people.

Lolz.

I haven't voted in years, not sure if I ever will again. My life has changed so much since that time that I don't really have any idea what to vote for anymore.

Because one time the individuals and party I voted for were a minority opinion among my peers. I think I enjoyed the angst.

Because I thought things would turn out differently

In my family it is *understood* that you vote a certain way.

2nd amendment.

That pretty much sums it up.

Waaagh_Gonads wrote:Liberal Party here in Oz because the Labour party is run by the unions, full of ex-union bosses and gets all its money from the unions.

And a union membership has plummeted over the last 20 years and they have done very little for conditions, they are not the people I want running the country. If they were in the private sector their sharholders would have sacked them years ago.

And I'm in the doctors union in Queensland, but a least they don't give money to any party, and do good things for us like fatigue restrictions (do you want a doctor operating on you who has been awake for 36 hours?).

It's true that there is plenty of union money in the Labor party, but for much of the last 20-30 years we've had a lot of Labor governments, none of whom have really done anything to encourage union membership. In a few noticeable cases, Hawke Keating, the opposite has been true.



I don't really have a political party. Ideology is good and well, but ultimately ideology doesn't write legislation, people do. As a result I'll back competence over ideology everytime, especially in Australia where the political debate is all very centrist. Even the minor parties people like to decry as extreme nutters aren't really that far from the centre. In the recent state election I voted for the conservative Liberal party, because Labor had five ministers caught up in corruption scandals.

Grignard wrote:I haven't voted in years, not sure if I ever will again. My life has changed so much since that time that I don't really have any idea what to vote for anymore.

Because one time the individuals and party I voted for were a minority opinion among my peers. I think I enjoyed the angst.

Because I thought things would turn out differently

In my family it is *understood* that you vote a certain way.

2nd amendment.

That pretty much sums it up.

That is how I feel about this election as well.

I don't cast my vote based upon party affiliation, but generally the Dems line up more with my views.
- Highly permissive social policy
- Action which will narrow the wealth gap in order to divest economic authority
- Appropriate economic regulation/deregulation (a healthy market is a cyclic market, boom to bust)
- Education
- Not using the opening of dialogue some kind of incentive, we are not a superpower
- Corespondingly lithe military designed for intervention, not occupation (I can't believe they want to build a new nuclear carrier)
- No "War on X"

As an addendum, I will never vote for someone who treats the free-market as a fetishized ideal. Nor someone who treats state regulation in the same manner. Both extremes have been proven wrong in theory, and in history.

I vote Lid Dems, mainly in the hope that they will continue the social reforms made in Scotland during their coalition with Labour nationwide. By that?

Free homecare for the Elderly.
Freed childcare
Free University tuition, plus various other sundry improvements.

To me, they are the only Political Party worth trusting. The Tories and Labour Parties just take turns stuffing the country over, or at least, thats how it feels.