I don't really know how to start this thread.

Usually, when I vote, I'll look closely at both candidates and where they stand on issues. Oftentimes, these candidates will overlap in many cases, particularly in elections for "smaller" offices. I then narrow down what is most important to me and vote accordingly, but it seems like there's give and take no matter who I vote for.

But when it comes to Senate or Presidential elections, opinions, etc. Why are the Dems and Reps so overwhelmingly divided? There's no cooperation at all. There's little shared opinion or consensus. You're forced to take these 2 sets of entirely different belief systems as a whole.

This is terrible for me because I consider myself to be socially liberal and economically conservative. Live and let live and don't ask me to pay for it, more or less.

If you go down a list of issues, the most absolutely important ones, there's just total division on what to do and neither side seems to have any give.

Environment either must be furiously protected or used as a tool of industry.
War in Iraq is either completely necessary or a crime.

It just goes on and on and on and it disgusts me. There's almost no such thing as a moderate anymore. If there is, who is it? Where are they? Why aren't they speaking louder?

Everyone, everyone should be hoping that when the dust clears by '08 we have two different parties holding the legislative and executive branches. Personally I'm not too concerned who's where and which is which.
The federal government has been an out-of-control monster the past 6 years, a complete and total embarrassment.
The only thing that can save it at this point, I fear, is serious gridlock.

Personally I don't think average Americans are that divided. But of late the politicians and pundits like the play the us verses them game, so if it's Dem "we gotto get rid of those evil Republicans, and to the Republicans it's the Dems are evil. Conservatives like to characterize liberals as a bunch of Godless, sodomites that want to come in your house burn bible and take your gun. Liberals will define conservatives as a bunch of money grubbing corporate whores/religious wackos that want to kill the Planet and bring about Armageddon and they hate black people too. Anybody with common sense knows this is bunch nonsense, but unfortunately enough people buy into this stupidity to screw it up for the rest of us.
Another problem is the congressional districts are done; they are either made safe for Republicans or safe for Democrats. This tends to weed out a lot of moderates; if a district is competitive the other party will try to pick it off, which could mean a moderate will lose their seat. Also most of the leadership from both parties in congress tends to be from either a hard left leaning or a hard right leaning places, so the agendas will favor that extreme.
On Presidential elections I find to be great exercises in hypocrisy. During the primaries candidates always play to their respective bases, then when they get the nod they do a big jump to the middle, and what is a choice between milk toast or milk toast.
I am of the belief that local and state elections are more important to people’s everyday lives than national elections.
My personal dream is; someday everyone in America will go to Polls one year and vote for anybody but a Democrat or Republican.

I miss Billy and Newt

I think it's because both parties are trying to appeal to the extreme sides of their parties. The Democrats are afraid of alienating the far left. And Republican's are afraid of alienating the bible thumpers. That's why you have Democrats voting in favor of loose immigration laws and not openly supporting the war, and why you have Republican's making complete jackasses of themselves by voting to make gay marraige unconstitutional.

SEE!

LOOK!

WE'RE APPEALING TO YOU!

That seems very libertarian. I've always wondered why Libertarians and Liberals couldn't get along a little better. I mean, we agree on at least 50% of issues.

Now you've got your thinking cap on.

Because we agree with Republicans on the other 50% of the issues and that infuriates you. Thank you for answering your own question.

Wow. You said something halfway sensible for once. You should get a prize.

I've been saying for quite some time that we need a third party. As a young Libertarian, it seems that they would be the preferred party for the majority of my generation. Of course, three parties simply wouldn't work with the electoral college. That and public perception are the huge roadblocks to a real change in politics in this country. But I agree with you 100%, as this has been my viewpoint basically since senior year of high school.

I agree of course. The Democrats have done their fair share of bullying voters (like in the last two elections) and its inevitable that third parties will emerge. I can see the appeal of groups like the Green Party and Libertarians. The Republican/Democrat system is long overdue for a makeover.

The truth is, the parties are polarized, not only in government, but also in the electorate. We all like to think of a wonderful ideal where greens and libertarians can get together and intellectually discuss the issues and come to a peaceful compromise.

But party identification is a powerful thing and it shapes everything. Party ID is THE best predictor of vote choice of voters, and members of Congress, and how we view public figures, news events, and the sources of news we seek.

Duverger's Law subjects us to a two-party system....which I don't see as a bad thing. Personally, I think the desire for us to come up with new parties and some intellectual political utopia is to make ourselves feel good instead of taking a hard stand on things in which we believe.

Lastly, when you look at other countries, for example the UK, we have still have very weak parties.

don't be an ass, this sort of thing does not help. littlewing is right on with this post.

the places where bipartisan cooperation are just too shallow of a pool...immigration, education, taxes. compare that to the ocean wide divisiveness on the life and death issues of war and human rights...

i guess what i am trying to say is that the places where we find common ground just is not enough to hold us together.

I wouldn't say dead on, but I agree with half of it. His analysis of the Republican appeal to the far right is on the money. But I'm not so sure the Democrats are trying equally hard to appeal to the far left. Sure there is some element of that, but there's equally an element of appealing to the right. Why else would Democratic presidential candidates do things like distance themselves from pro-choice, anti-capital punishment, and previously, embrace the war on Iraq?

The trouble with the Democrats is that they haven't got the slightest clue what to appeal to.

I consider myself somewhat of a left leaning libertarian. I've always liked the live and and let live, don't harm anyone and you are alright with me.

I'm not really sure how divided we are. As it has been pointed out, politicians are catering the the extremes and the major media love pointing this out and painting everyone with very broad strokes. I mean, we can't be that divided if right wing and left wing americans are living, working, and building friendships together. I think if we were that divided, you would have none of that.

Of course the media loves to pander to these extremes for ratings. It really isn't interesting to hear about a thinking, logical person using reason to describe his/her worldview. The media needs that "God hates fags" and "the wipe my ass with the flag" group to bump up ratings and i think it makes us seem more divided than we really are.

i like this point.

I think we are very, very divided.

It's all about the cultural divide and societal decay. As society changes, becomes more multicultural, many people see this as a decline. They see an America that was once dominate, beautiful, and plentiful. It's not like that now and everyone sees it. The two parties are presenting different causes for the decay, and so they offer different remedies, which make sense depending on which of their respective causes you believe.

Yup, and this is why these up coming elections are NOT the slam dunk that the Democrats seem to think they are gonna be.

I think the vast majority of people have similar values and aspirations. The two party system and the media, benefit from exaggerating the differences in us. The political agenda is dominated by issues which are most contentious and the dynamic seems to be one which seeks differences rather than common ground.

Fundamentally I believe most of us have similar wants and needs, yet our political system and media benefits from the construction (and reinforcement) of superficial differences between us.

If the Democrats seriously think the elections will be slam dunk-- I can't think of a better guarantee that the American public will not vote them into office.