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Monday, June 14, 2004
Moving Targets
As a continuation of my thoughts on political identity, I want to reassert that I don't understand why people tie their positions so much to political parties. Parties are a practical necessity, it would seem, but they are also intellectually incoherent. At best, they represent a group of politicians who agree with each other more than they disagree and who are willing to support each other sometimes even when they do disagree.
Rather than voting for a favorite party, it seems to me that the better voting strategy would be to vote in whatever manner better moves the political center in the direction you want it to go. Such a strategy would encourage voting for the "other" party (the one you identify with less) whenever that party runs a candidate who is unusually close to your own political position. For example, I voted for Bill Clinton in 1992 because I thought he was a fairly conservative Democrat and I wasn't overly impressed with Bush Sr. I actually preferred Bush Sr. somewhat, but I figured that Clinton would be able to pass conservative policies that Bush couldn't and would move his party a little to the right. For the most part, I think that turned out to be true, even if I did become disgusted enough with Clinton to vote for Dole in 1996.
If the Democrats had managed to run someone I could trust on the war, such as Lieberman, I probably would have voted for them again. Having a capable Democrat prosecute the war might silence the far left enough for the country to act with greater unity and resolve. I would even be tempted if McCain did decide to be Kerry's veep, but that doesn't look likely.
Eddie 5:25 PM
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