So, how much to the right do you lean? Considering even the democrats are right wing, it seems that most americans are rightist.

Personally, I don't feel Raj should have to explain herself. Seems to me she is the type of person to let you make your own decision based on the information that you find for yourself and that it shouldn't be her responsibility to explain anything to anyone.
If she were running for office, then hell yeah she would have to explain herself.
But it's not like there's an essay question in the voting booth as to "why I'm voting for,...."

Besides that, if YOUR views are so easily swayed by someone else's opinion, maybe your beliefs aren't so steadfast either.

Make 'em suffer Raj! Make 'em suffer! lol

Well, no one is TELLING her to state her opinion; we're just asking. And if she doesn't want to tell, I don't care, it's all good.

Did I say that? Noooooo.

Personally, I don't feel Raj should have to explain herself.

Sorry, maybe I misunderstood you, but to me 'should' always sounds kind of obligatory.

Personally, I don't feel Raj should have to explain herself. Seems to me she is the type of person to let you make your own decision based on the information that you find for yourself and that it shouldn't be her responsibility to explain anything to anyone.
If she were running for office, then hell yeah she would have to explain herself.
But it's not like there's an essay question in the voting booth as to "why I'm voting for,...."

Besides that, if YOUR views are so easily swayed by someone else's opinion, maybe your beliefs aren't so steadfast either.

Make 'em suffer Raj! Make 'em suffer! lol

I didn't say my views would be swayed, but I'm just curious to hear another person's point of view and perhaps have the opportunity to have some light shed on a volatile subject. In no way am I trying to pressure her into saying why she believes it, but she asked why she even mentioned the fact that she in republican and I gave some good reasons as to why it should be encouraged for people to talk about these things and not shy away from them. It's not her responsibility at all, but I think that it would make for some interesting conversations! Isn't that why we are all here? To have some interesting conversations with interesting people about music, life and the world around us?

Anyway, it's kind of curious that you mistook what I wrote as being some kind of attack. I made a concentrated effort to not be offensive in what I wrote, just energetic and passionate about an important subject. Perhaps it didn't come out the way I meant or you misread some of the points I made. In any case, I apologize if I offended anyone.

You bring up an interesting point though! Perhaps people SHOULD be required to write down why they vote for someone after they vote! That would make for some very intriguing reading and would probably shed alot of light as to how informed voters are before they step into that machine and pull the lever. Hell, that might even be a good way to deter voter fraud! It would never happen, but it would be a damn interesting sociological experiment.

Well, technically yes, that is the meaning.
But that isn't how it was intended.
I just find it silly that she should have to explain her views,... er, excuse me,... I just find it silly that she is being asked to explain her views when it is of your own will that you decide to post anything on these forums.
Besides that, with all of the sneaky little anti-american comments that pop up in this sort of conversation... even I second guess my posts on occasion for fear of being categorized. Who wants to open up that can of worms? And I'm a loud mouth who agrees with most of you, but it gets exhausting when your expected to defend your views all the time.
Anyway, I digress.

Sink, I didn't see it as an attack at all. Really.

If I were on the other side of the fence and had people asking me to explain my views, I would be annoyed. If I wanted to explain my views, I would. And if I don't, then I don't and it should just be left as a grand mystery. lol
I don't necessarily even have a good reason for it, other than I'm sick as hell of talking about this crap. lol
Maybe she isn't annoyed at all by it, I don't know.
I'm just tired of having to be reminded of all the crap going on in the real world when I come here to get away from it. *shrug*

Ignore me. Really.

Kerry scares me less.....
Bush, well.......*takes a deep breath....

Sink, I didn't see it as an attack at all. Really.

If I were on the other side of the fence and had people asking me to explain my views, I would be annoyed. If I wanted to explain my views, I would. And if I don't, then I don't and it should just be left as a grand mystery. lol
I don't necessarily even have a good reason for it, other than I'm sick as hell of talking about this crap. lol
Maybe she isn't annoyed at all by it, I don't know.
I'm just tired of having to be reminded of all the crap going on in the real world when I come here to get away from it. *shrug*

Ignore me. Really.

You see, you explained how you felt and you made me understand how you feel much better!! Explanation is the key to understanding each other and that's why I don't think it's silly to seek explanation from someone about what they believe. It's obviously the person's choice to explain or not to explain, but it's silly itself to chastise other people for seeking that explanation.

By the way, it's sort of hard to ignore you with that giant menacing Forum Adminstrator block above your avatar. It's like a cop's badge or something.

Hey, I didn't do that. LOL
Besides, who cares about the "Forum Administrator" thing.
I'm still at my stupid job in my stupid cube goofing off like the rest of you.
If I wanted to yell at somebody, I'd be doing my actual PAYING job, lol.

You all make great points, really. The problem is that some of the posts that have been made in this thread and others in the past are pretty extreme, and I don't feel every person involved in this discussion can remain level-headed and civil with their posts, thus the reason I generally avoid poltical threads on any board.

Believe me, I am very knowledgable regarding politics, even to a fault. I listen to AM talk radio all day then proceed to go home and switch on the news. I read books, I read stuff on the internet. But I'm willing to listen to both sides and then make a decision. I truly wish every voter had to go through some kind of prerequisite and maybe even an IQ test before being allowed to vote, but that's never going to happen in this day and age of political correctness.

So, ah, yeah. What I will say is that I don't like Kerry at all. At all. And it would be even worse if something were to happen to Kerry and Edwards had to take his place.

And that's all I'm going to say! Again. Ugh.

I truly wish every voter had to go through some kind of prerequisite and maybe even an IQ test before being allowed to vote, but that's never going to happen in this day and age of political correctness.

Amen to that! Old people should be required to take their driving exam over again when they hit 60 too. That's another matter though.

Stupid political correctness is gonna get us all killed some day.

I truly wish every voter had to go through some kind of prerequisite and maybe even an IQ test before being allowed to vote, but that's never going to happen in this day and age of political correctness.

Amen to that! Old people should be required to take their driving exam over again when they hit 60 too. That's another matter though.

Stupid political correctness is gonna get us all killed some day.

I 100% agree to both of your points!

The reason I dislike Bush is probably that he just made some unforgiveable mistakes. Invading Iraq isn't even the worst, it's his stubbornness in saying that it was justified. Even after the word got out that they didn't have weapons of mass destruction, he just keeps on saying that it was a justified war. And I'm not against war at all, sometimes force is needed to solve a problem. Most democracies today work because of the monopoly of the state to use force.

But when he keeps saying he did the right thing by invading Iraq to me that means that he doesn't think before he acts, and also he doesn't reflect on his actions and draw conclusions from that. Instead, he's convinced that Iraq was an evil that had to be dealt with, and there's no way he's going to think otherwise.

People are allowed to make mistakes, even politicians. But people should also keep an open mind, and learn from their mistakes. Refusing to do that is alright too, but in that case somebody like that shouldn't be allowed to run a country, especially if it's the US.

Now I don't like Kerry either. The democrats are similar to the liberals here in the Netherlands which is about the most right wing party we have around here. I myself usually vote for some catch-all party (of which we have a lot) that happens to appeal to me. The reason I hope that Kerry wins is that hopefully he will be a competent politician. I really don't care whether the winner is republican of democrat. The only thing I can hope for is that that someone takes his responsibility towards the world serious.