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I find it amazing how many people identify themselves as "Independents" or "Libertarians" and refuse to identify themselves as "Democrat" or "Republican". I find it so amazing because the last time I checked, out of the hundreds of representatives in Washington in the House and Senate only one person is listed as an Independent. That Independent is in fact Sen. Joe Lieberman, a life time Democrat and one time Democratic vice-presidential hopeful. He only became an Independent because the Democrats turned on him in his home state, therefore to consider him a true independent with his long history as a Democrat would make little sense. If everyone I knew, and everyone who has written on this subject here, who claimed to be an independent truly was one, the Congress would look much different.

That aside, I am a Republican. Some of the basic reasons is that I agree with a lot of their platform, especially in moral issues (which, I will admit, are endorsed but not practiced by many GOP leaders). I also go by what modern history shows us. In 1979, with a Democratic congress and Democrat Jimmy Carter in the White House, America was arguably at its lowest point in our history. The loss in Vietnam was still fresh, the Soviet Union loomed and remained aggressive in invading Afghanistan, Iran had taken our citizens hostage, gas lines formed as the economy plummeted, and the overall feel of the nation was one of defeat. However Reagan took over in the Oval Office and in just eight years changed all of that. The hostages were immediately released, the economic situation improved greatly, and by 1988 the Soviet Union stood in disarray as America stood strong. Eight years before that all seemed very improbable, but a Republican made it happen.

Another reason I stand as a Republican is because of the lack of decent Democratic leadership. Even though I am a Republican I have always promised myself to never vot a straight party ticket but to always vote for the best candidate. Recent Democrats have been practically laughable. President Gore? Kerry? There was not one shred of leadership in either of these candidates. And now I am supposed to vote for either an inexperienced freshman senator, a celebrity riding her husbands name, or the greatest hypocrite in America?

Now things could always change. Fifty years ago the entire south was Democrat, and now the entire south is Republican. Party ideologies change, and those who agree with those changes, change with them. However I don't see any changes in the near future, so I stick with the Grand Ole' Party.

Learn more about this author, Peter Wiggin.
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