As I mentioned before, I registered as a Republican after I had turned 18 in 1982. I was rather naive at the time and I thought it was a good thing to be a Republican. After my college education, I decided that being a Republican wasn't really the best thing, but I also didn't care much for Democrats. I felt like I couldn't belong to either party.
So, when I decided to change my registration so I could vote in the 1988 Presidential election in Denver, I selected "No Party Affiliation." I did seriously contemplate registering as a Libertarian. On the surface, I liked some of their ideas about government and how it relates to citizens. However, when I got a look at their complete platform, I thought, "Okay, these people are just plain crazy!"
Prior to my registration in Denver, I discussed what party I should choose with my friend Rid. I laughingly said I should register as Communist to see what would happen. He said he did that and afterward, he would see a black car driving past his house on occasion. (I don't think he really did that.).
Choosing to go the "No Party" route turned out to be one of the best decisions of my life. Why? Because it kept me from getting into a lot of combative conversations when meeting new people. You're probably familiar with some people who meet you for the first time and ask "What's your sign?" Well, there are those who like to ask what your party affiliation is. Sometimes, they can be scarier than the astrology people. However, not belonging to a party does make you seem apathetic and someone who is likely not to vote. I can guarantee that is not the case with me. With the exception of the 1984 Presidential Primary, I have voted in every election since my registration became valid in 1982.
A few years later after moving to San Diego, I registered as a member of the Peace and Freedom Party (which was practically the Communist Party). I did that so that a friend of mine could get her name on the ballot in her run for US Representative from my Congressional District. She succeeded in doing that, but did not win the election, which was expected. She then asked me to participate in a meeting with a few local P&F members at her house. I came, and the main topic of discussion was trying to get more people to register with the party. (P&F was in danger of losing its official political party status in California in 1997 because it wasn't getting enough votes to support it. The reason for this happening was that higher ups in the organization kept running for office every time and didn't allow anyone else to run in 1996. When other party members tried to run in the primary, it split the party. People who didn't vote for the nominees in the primary didn't vote for them in the general election either.) One of the things that got suggested at the meeting was that everyone seemed to know a lot of Democrats who seemed to show support for P&F and they thought they could get them to register with us. At the meeting, I said we shouldn't bother with people who are already registered as Democrats because they weren't going to switch no matter how persuasive we were. I suggested that we go after those who have no party affiliation because that's how I got involved. My suggestion fell on completely deaf ears as everyone was still discussing getting their Democrat friends to join us. I never went back to another P&F meeting after that.
Sure enough, the Peace and Freedom Party faded away in California the next year (although it did make a return a few years later). Because I wanted to have some voice in primary elections, I registered with the Natural Law Party. That one also soon dissolved after I joined. (I know, it's too bad that didn't happen to the Republican Party when I was a member.) Since then, I have not registered as a member of any party.
That was all before 2000. Since then, it seems like the Republicans and Democrats have become so much more diametrically opposed to each other. And it became worse with the onslaught of social media. Now, it seems like there are thousands of pages that are dedicated to undermining the opposing parties (and a few that want them done away with altogether). Reading all the memes, one would get the idea that Republicans are all racist, sexist elitists who don't care about the poor or the environment and that while Democrats do not appear to be racist, sexist, greedy or deniers of climate change, they sure don't have a problem discriminating against people they believe to be that way.
And that's not even the worst part about the memes. Many of them contain half-truths and flat out lies just to make the other party look bad. (In some cases, meme creators have realized that making blanket statements about specific groups of people is not the way to go, so they use the terms "liberal" and "conservative" in place of "Democrat" and "Republican." It doesn't really make a difference.) I have one friend on Facebook who will share anything (and I mean ANYTHING) that denigrates the Republicans and conservatives. But as usual, the things he posts don't always contain the truth. I and his other friends will quickly point out the flaws in what he shares, but he never takes anything down. It was really funny when he posted something about how liberals are all independent thinkers, but he'll just blindly post everything without even considering what is being expressed.
What's even funnier is when I post responses on those pages, depending on which side I'm taking, I get accused of being a Republican or a Democrat. I've even gotten accused of lying when I try to explain that I have no party affiliation. (This actually happened on a video I posted in the Comments section.)
And I have to go on record to say that while I support efforts to vote out the entirety of Congress and have it filled with individuals with no party affiliation, I have to admit that the Legislative branch of the US government needs the two-party system. If you think Congress isn't getting anything done now, just imagine what would happen if someone had to try to go see 434 other individuals to see if he or she could get support for proposed legislation. When you're a member of a party, you can pretty much count on the majority of the people on your side of the aisle to get behind your efforts. That would result in a new two-party system emerging and I'm afraid it will be worse than what we have now.
One thing is for certain: I'm glad I'm not going to be voting in the Republican primary in 2016.
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