Reply #182: Alaska is a hopelessly Red state, so... [View All]

[Goldstein1984]

most of my non-local contributions go to NGOs and candidates in other states. Since I pulled out of the Democratic Party about ten years ago I have the luxury of voting for democratic candidates without receiving all the junk snail mail. Emails are another matter.

Nicely written and you perfectly describe not only my current stand on what I call the "Principles versus Party" issue, but the general view that caused me to go Non-partisan (Independent) in the first place.

Regardless of their negative qualities, and there are plenty of those, I think the Teabaggers are responding to basically the same general sense that the parties are no longer serving the interests of the people.

It's important that we vote with both our votes and our money. I also think that dissent is patriotic as long as the dissent is being voiced to those in power. Their political future should be a function of whether or not they are listening.

We may ultimately have no logical choice but to vote Democrat because it's the lesser of two evils, but nobody has to follow the party line between elections. People of principle should voice and act on the principles.

Thanks for a great OP.