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There is a difference between someone identifying themself with a party and a party choosing a person with which to identify itself.

As a former Democrat who became a Republican during the Carter administration I have reflected on what causes a person to choose a particular political affiliation. In my case I had to clearly define what I personally believed in. What were my own values and priorities. Then I took a close look at the viable political parties to see what their values and priorities were. Not just those expressed in platforms and speeches, but what did they actually pursue. It doesn’t mean much to express a position or claim a value when everything you do is contrary to that expression or claim. I then compared my positions to the two major parties and discovered that I agreed with the Republicans on about 90% of the issues where there was a difference between the two parties.

The dumbest thing I hear daily is “I vote for the person not the party.” While this may be useful in electing local officials and have some very limited validity in electing governors and presidents, it is profoundly wrong headed in legislative and congressional races. A vote for a purportedly conservative Democrat congressional candidate is a vote for Nancy Pelosi for Speaker and John Conyers for Judiciary Chairman. A vote for James Webb for US Senate is a vote for Harry Reid for Majority leader and Ted Kennedy for chair of whatever. If having Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, John Conyers, and Ted Kennedy run things in Congress is a good idea then vote for their party’s candidate. The reverse is also true. The liberal Republicans presence in Congress empowers the conservatives to the extent that it causes them to be the majority.

We all like to think of ourselves as rugged individualists. But when push comes to shove most of us are sheep who do what we are told. Worst of all, a lot of us become unpaid agents of whoever is controlling the agenda by enforcing the current dogma on the few rugged individualists who actually exist.