Cyclists are liberals?! (Retry)

[kfergos]

I originally posted this poll with democrats & republicans as options. Terribly insensitive of me to all those who don't live in the US and also as was pointed out, liberal/conservative and democrat/republican don't correspond exactly. So let's try this again, more accurately.
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I just heard a story about a couple guys out for a ride. The cyclists passed a fellow stopped in his SUV, getting his mail. As the cyclists went by, the driver shouted, "Get off the road, you f****** liberals!"

What?! What about cycling screams "LIBERAL!" to this guy? I assumed cyclists had a normal split of liberals & conservatives. This made me wonder, though, if we do lean one way or another politically. Hence the poll, which is purely for information and NOT to start any heated political discussions. I would be curious to hear any hypotheses on what makes a person think cyclists are all liberals, though.

[Skierchickie]

Hmmm - not actually information I share. Okay - I don't share information about who I'm voting for (although it becomes obvious sometimes), and I have no party affiliation. I don't vote in the primary because I refuse to choose a side and label myself one party or the other. I try to stay in the middle ground, but I've been finding myself leaning farther and farther left over the past few years. Am I a liberal? I'm sure there are people who would say that I am (my boss and most of my coworkers).

Question: why do people use the word "liberal" as a derogatory term? That really gets under my skin. Must mean I am one?

Okay, I just marked "neither", at least in the hope that I can be objective and make decisions / form my views on a case by case basis. But I probably could have marked the "L" word and not been a liar.

[Crankin]

Kfergos I find it interesting you got that comment. I've heard it, too, although it was a couple of years ago. Maybe it's particular to this area?
I'm a Democrat, a liberal who is on the moderate side, and I don't care who knows my political preferences!

[VeloVT]

I don't vote in the primary because I refuse to choose a side and label myself one party or the other.

But... but... This argument doesn't really make sense, if you do ultimately care who you vote for in the general election... if you don't vote in the primary, then you may potentially have to live with the non-preferred candidate winning the nomination. Do you really want to be choosing between, say, Dennis Kucinich and Mitt Romney?

Now, of course, your ONE vote probably won't affect the primary, but your ONE vote won't turn the general election either -- so if you believe you should vote in one, then you should vote in both.

I also don't think they mark down which ballot you take in the primary -- they just cross your name off as having voted. You just have to be able to stomach saying it outloud once (though crossover voting in primaries is not unheard of either, so just becaue someone TAKES a Republican ballot doesn't necessarily mean he or she is a Republican...).

Interestingly, I voted last Tuesday in the state primary, and I wasn't asked which ballot I wanted -- I was handed a stack of four ballots: one with a city ballot measure that wasn't partisan, and three primary ballots (one democratic, one republican, and one progressive). You were supposed to fill out the top ballot and only one primary ballot -- there were two boxes at the poll exit, one optical scanner for the ballots you filled out, and one box for the ballots you didn't fill out. The primary ballots were marked with the message "complete one ballot only. if you complete more than one ballot, your vote will be invalid." I did wonder if they actually have a mechanism to check this.

[Tri Girl]

Here's my thoughts, for what they're worth (not much).

I think cyclists may get deemed liberal because we ride, which is environmentally friendly, and people associate that with hippies and liberals. I don't know why. I say this as experience of what I know where I live (Oklahoma). I live in a VERY conservative place. I get called "hippie" a lot by my DH's family and by co-workers (who are very conservative- it's meant to be deroggatory). I embrace my hippiness, because it means I care about others and the environment and want the world to be a more accepting, loving, happy, place (not that conservatives don't want those things, too).

Why liberal is a negative term, I don't know. I take it as a compliment. My friend and I call each other "hip" and "lib" as nicknames because we're called that by others who mean it to be negative. We think it's a good thing.
I don't know... interesting topic, tho.

[Flur]

We have caucuses here. I can say with confidence that since we vote on slips of paper and put them in a hat, no one would know if you voted twice!

I'm a libertarian, which, for those who don't know, means that I want to limit government involvement in my life. This means that I tend to agree with the "conservatives" in economic spending, but the "liberals" in social issues. For example, government should not decide how to spend my money or what I'm allowed to do with my body. I guess that makes me a liberal 50% of the time! It also makes it really hard to vote...

[BabyBlueNTulsa]

Interesting topic indeed.


Just as a note... just as often as "liberal" may be deemed derogatory..I think "conservative" is used that way also.

I try to steer clear of political discussions since usually there is no ground to be successfully agreed upon. People have their opinions and that's not for anyone else to say is wrong (though they do - ha).

[newfsmith]

I don't vote in the primary because I refuse to choose a side and label myself one party or the other.

I understand completely your position. In the general election your affiliation is not recorded. I find it very offensive that anyone other than the political party should be able to find my political affiliation. It should not be a public record, available to anyone who wants to inspect the voter registration records. To me, that is an invasion of the privacy of the voting booth.

[VeloVT]

I understand completely your position. In the general election your affiliation is not recorded. I find it very offensive that anyone other than the political party should be able to find my political affiliation. It should not be a public record, available to anyone who wants to inspect the voter registration records. To me, that is an invasion of the privacy of the voting booth.

I guess I should clarify what I said earlier. How this works varies from state to state. In Vermont, you are not asked to declare an affiliation when you register to vote, but you typically are asked to choose a ballot in primary elections (although maybe that is changing, if my experience last week is becoming typical). As noted, your ballot choice is not recorded, but many people still object to having to say it out loud, potentially in front of their neighbors (though I don't object to it greatly myself).

I guess I might object to having to declare my affiliation at registration, if for no other reason than it makes it difficult to make candidate-by-candidate choices (which I don't really do, but I believe in principle that one should be able to do, as long as you vote in only one primary of course).

I think we would be well served to standardize voting procedures and voter registration across the country, taking such concerns into account as well as all of the other important voting issues.

That said, voting is really important and voting in the primary is as important as voting in the general -- the outputs can only be as good as the inputs.

[salsabike]

I don't like it either but am not going to deprive myself of any opportunity to vote because of it. I still think voting is most important.

[shootingstar]

I think we would be well served to standardize voting procedures and voter registration across the country, taking such concerns into account as well as all of the other important voting issues.

That said, voting is really important and voting in the primary is as important as voting in the general -- the outputs can only be as good as the inputs.

In Canada it's just 1 voting standard across all the provinces and territories for federal elections. And no one is required to declare their party affiliation in advance..before going to the polls to vote.

For the past few decades we've had 3 major federal political parties to choose from. Occasionally there has been a 4th...though I must admit I haven't paid attention to the 4th.

[kelownagirl]

In Canada (Federally) we have Liberals, Conservatives, New Democrats, the Green Party, and few others (different in Quebec tho). And Provincially, we have Liberals who aren't liberal at all but are very conservative and New Dems who are more or less Liberal. Weird.

Although on this poll I said I am liberal, you couldn't pay me to vote Liberal Provincially, although I do vote Liberal strategically in Federal elections because my party will never get in there so it's simply a matter of trying to keep the Conservatives out.

As one friend pointed out to me, it depends on the issue. I am a radical liberal on all social issues, that's for sure. My leaning on other issues vary.

[andtckrtoo]

I'd like to see a "moderate" option in the poll, as I think most of us consider ourselves moderate while leaning in one direction or another. I like some of the traditional things each party stands for, but I think neither one is standing up to those traditions lately.

As for voting... I vote, whenever I'm given the option to vote (I even voted on this poll. ). I feel it's a civic duty and I do believe my vote counts. I also believe that I do not have the right to complain about the government if I do not vote.

[tulip]

I voted. I don't put bumper stickers on my car lest people I don't know rush to some sort of judgment about me without even knowing me. Not just political bumper stickers, but ANY bumper stickers (even college ones).

[Crankin]

I guess I'm in the minority here, since I'm the only one who said she didn't care who knows what my party affiliation is. It's part of who I am and I tend to be pretty out there with all such things.
But, back to the original question. Why are cyclists perceived as liberals?
This reminds me of something that happened in 1990, right after we moved back here. The schools were in bad shape, we lived in a small town on the NH border that had a reputation for being more blue collar than white. Many kids in town went to the Catholic school, and the public schools were notoriously underfunded. Here come my 2 little Jewish boys from Arizona... we got highly involved in an override vote for the schools and I wrote a letter to the regional newspaper saying something like "I would work 3 jobs to pay the extra tax money, so my kids could get a good education." Well, the next week I came home from work with my kids and put on the answering machine (back when you heard the message on a tape) and some woman was saying, "I have lived on your street for 30 years and we don't need you RICH LIBERAL snobs, so why don't you get the hell out of town?"
That was really nice for my 5 and 8 year old to hear.
My older son still has the tape and we play it every so often to laugh.