October 30th, 2008
People in the Middle
If you can put aside your (justified, in my opinion) reflexive “WTF is wrong with you?” response when you hear someone say “Fiscally, I’m Republican, socially I’m a Democrat”, you should check out this site. It features a series of short statements by “people in the middle for Obama”, as filmed by Errol Morris. Really well done, I think.
unacoder says:
what’s wrong with saying that?
October 30th, 2008 at 3:32 pm
MB says:
At best, Unacoder, it perpetuates a harmful myth. Presumably, the folks saying that are trying to say that they prefer to be conservative in spending. Which, as Reagan, Bush, and Bush have all demonstrated, isn’t at all an actual characteristic of Republicans. It’s a meaningless platitude that gives no/low-information voters a false crutch, come voting time.
(And then there’s socially Democratic. One of the two likely Democratic nominees for VA Gov next year is a guy who supported a constitutional amendment barring all unmarried couples (regardles of sex) from enjoying any legal benefits comparable to what a married couple gets. Probably not the sort of bigotry the speaker had in mind.)
October 30th, 2008 at 10:17 pm
unacoder says:
your response underscores my dislike of party affiliation (which is why i asked the question to which i already guessed the answer). parties are not fine grained descriptors of any person’s beliefs. at least not anyone i’ve met. there are always philosophical disagreements.
what i understand when folks say that (as i’m sure you do as well) is they think gubmint should “stay out of my business and get into yours; stop spending on your programs and spend on mine.”
October 31st, 2008 at 2:13 pm
MB says:
Well, I think there *are* some fairly reliable differences between the parties. It’s just that they’re not the ones people are referring to when they use this lazy shorthand.
October 31st, 2008 at 7:28 pm
unacoder says:
oh, believe me, i know. i can’t remember a time i’ve been more disgusted by the republicans.
October 31st, 2008 at 8:15 pm