Got this email today; it reminds me of some of you younger folks in this forum!

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

Take a republican, give him a new wife, a new set of baby twins, a new mortgage, and new car payments.... then take away his job and don't offer him another good job for a few months. lets see how long he stays republican.

I'm a republican

I got married to someone with liberal views. (after being married to a republican), moved into a new house, bought a new car, got pregnant, already had 2 kids, had 2 miscarriages, couldn't work and my husband couldn't work..... And I'm still a republican now.

how did you survive?

Me and my wife could lose our jobs today and we'd be fine for about a year. That's without any government handouts at all. Factor in unemployment benefits and I can hang in there for another 6 months on top of that. That's me, my wife, my house and my car. Did I mention I usually vote Republican except for my Democratic Congressman who I always vote for religiously because he's done some good immigration related "casework" for multiple family members.

I agree. That's why I'm Libertarian. The Dems and Repubs are 2 sides of the same coin. At the end of the day you end up with less money and rights.

I actually looked up the NJ Libertarian party a few days ago. They sound crazy just like the Greens. Why aren't there any NORMAL 3rd parties?

The libertarians are about freedom and personal choice (yes. including drugs). Most people aren't ready for this yet. As long as you don't hurt someone else why should people care what you do? But they do.

From the website of the NJ Libertarian Party. Sounds pretty nutty to me:

We strongly oppose all measures that punish employers who hire undocumented workers. We oppose state immigration restrictions, whether for the purpose of cooperating with Federal restrictions or otherwise.

Undocumented non-citizens should not be denied the fundamental freedom to labor and to move about unimpeded.

http://www.njlp.org/platform.php

[faith 0]

Take a republican, give him a new wife, a new set of baby twins, a new mortgage, and new car payments.... then take away his job and don't offer him another good job for a few months. lets see how long he stays republican.

I'm a republican

I got married to someone with liberal views. (after being married to a republican), moved into a new house, bought a new car, got pregnant, already had 2 kids, had 2 miscarriages, couldn't work and my husband couldn't work..... And I'm still a republican now.

how did you survive?

we lived off of the small amount of child support that I get for my kids. We begged and borrowed from family until I was medically cleared to go back to work. We put bills off that could wait and just sucked it up and ate cheaply for the month. It can be done if the will power is there to survive.

[meauxna 15]

A woman gets raped but it's not the raper's fault. It was his upbringing or societies fault. Whatever liberal.

If I don't believe that's true, am I a Republican?

(hurry, election time coming up here again and the R candidate looks pretty good at the moment)

[Fischkoepfin 1]

Treading the party line is never a good idea because it leads to stereotypical assumptions. Like in KD's example, which conflates paying taxes with being graded on work in school. It also is based on the claim that Republicans are hard-working people who pay the way for liberals (aka Democrats) who have fun but don't work and want to reap the benefits. The assumption that liberals are spineless but conservatives have spines and therefore clearcut viewpoints is another oversimplification that doesn't really work in reality.

I don't think that it's that simple. Sure we can assume that what we see in Congress, etc is truly representative of either side, but even if Congress were our only source of information concerning political viewpoints we couldn't come to this black and white picture. Just look at the way in which the immigration debate shows a bunch of waivering politicians on both sides who try to walk a tight rope presumably trying to please their constituents (private and corporate) and betraying their own and their parties' beliefs at a moments notice.