I am not a Democrat, nor a Republican.Though I lean towards the right (on some issues far right) I prefer to vote on a case per case basis.Which means that I vote on whether I think the guy or gal i am voting for will do what i believe is the right thing if elected. I personally find the current atmosphere of "who is most electable" with the Democrats absolutley appalling (repubs did the same thing before 2000).I mean c'mon.. most electable? who cares what issues they stand for or just how close they reaaly are to Bush on the issues.ITs more about getting a Dem in office. Who cares what policies they will enact, who cares that under them Iraq will likely become a true quagmire and will likely result in a reintroduction of the draft (where are the troops going to come from Kerry?). The Iowa caucas and has once again proved how pathetic and sad the american electorate has become..
You can't help but do what the Democrats are doing. That is the way the system is set up. If you try to do something else, the system makes sure you lose. It is a very difficult mathematical problem to determine the aggregate will of many individuals, and it is proven that there is no perfect method of doing so. It is also the case that different methods of selection will result in different outcomes, even given the exact same voting preferences. Democracy is much more of an illusion than you think it is.
Reintroduction of the draft? I haven't heard that hysteria since 1991. Anyway, if you really think it doesn't matter at root whether the elected president is a dem or republican, then you don't understand how the system works. Each party is beholden to different groups and these different groups do indeed set different courses for the party in charge of the executive branch. The most obvious examples of this effect are judicial nominees. I am sure Al Gore wishes that the Nader voters understood this. And Bush, Sr. probably had the same thoughts about a lot of Perot's loonys.
You factor it in in every election. Surely you can go too far in terms of stressing it. But your guy has to be electible.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1077906,00.html http://www.thememoryhole.org/mil/defendamerica-draftboards.htm http://www.congress.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d108:SN00089: http://www.congress.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d108:HR00163:@@@L&summ2=m& Better start doing push-ups.