US citizens vary greatly on their interest in politics and in the involvement in politics. The interest goes up greatly when the economy or a war or a specific issue that effects them directly is raised. Obviously with the economy effecting everyone, the level of interest has gone up greatly. With the increased interest in politics, there is increased partisianship and an increasing distrust for government officials who do not represent us the say we want t be represented.
I believe that 2% of this country is heavily involved in politics, local or national, and these people are extremely partisian and their partisianship may go beyond their own beliefs on many issues. From their, I believe that another 20% of people, a group that I think I fall into, are interested in politics and maintain and ongoing interest in current affairs regardless of the state of the economy. Another 30% are active when in comes to election time and in general, presidential elections. The remaining 48% of the citizens, have little to no interest in politics unless it directly effects them and they do not believe that their opinion counts (I guess they never saw Swing Vote).
The problem is that 2% of the country fight over the direction of this country and do not adequately represent the masses. That 2% is extremely partisian while the remaining 98% have (or don’t have) opinions on issues and while they may align themselves with a party, they do not agree 100% with that party.
I am a registered Republican and have voted as such all my life except for Clintons 2nd term. But I do not completely agree with the republican party on the Right to Life issue. On a personal basis I am against abortion but that said, I do not believe that I have the right to tell someone else how they should deal with this topic. So I am in support of Roe v. Wade as are approximately 2/3′s of US Citizens as shown by any number of polls. So I am a Republican who is not Pro Life as a law.
But if you are a registered Republican running for office, you better be Pro Life of you lose your party support. I am for a strong military, small government and lower taxes but on this issue, and a few others, I am not reciting the party line. But then again, I am not running for office.
I think that there is a much larger group of people who are for a mix of the two party lines. In the political Tags on this blog, I will discuss my opinions and ideas for a better, stronger and more unified government.
