This time around, will you be a "single issue" voter?

[Fridays Child]

I never thought I would be a single issue voter but the candidates' demonstrated positions on either the war or impeachment WILL determine who gets my money and my primary vote.

In the meanwhile, they're soliciting campaign donations and here's how I'm responding:

Dear ___________________:

In the upcoming election cycle, I will be contributing to the races of those candidates who stand firmly for an Iraq withdrawal timeline and who support the impeachment of George Bush and Dick Cheney. Your vote on funding the war will be significantly determinative.

Sincerely,
________________________

[Warpy]

1. I won't cross the choice line

any more than I could have crossed the abolitionist line a century and a half ago.

Not allowing religious lunatics to push half the human population into reproductive slavery is just as important and far more long lasting a proposition than even the most disastrous war is.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

2. Single issue voting is moronic, at best.

There is a lot more wrong with this country than Iraq.

[Tom Joad]

3. I won't mention Hillary by name, but on so many issues she and i

just see differently.
She supported Bush's war on the Iraqi people. I do not.
She supports unfair trade deals. I do not.
She favored, like her husband, the Telecommunications Act, which gave great power to media monopolies. I do not.

So if you see us badgering Hillary, don't think its just about the war. It's her whole outlook. Goes for some of her other compatriots too.

Wait, did i mention Hillary?

[ToeBot]

4. No Free Traders! (traitors?) n/t

[LisaM]

5. No, and I'll also consider party.

Do you know how many men I've encountered recently who think it's okay to back burner choice as an issue?

[Forkboy]

6. Doesn't surprise me.

After the '04 election there were a handful of threads here blaming gays and/or unions for the reason we lost.It doesn't surprise me to see choice getting tossed overboard in search of that magical center vote.

[LEW]

7. I have consistantly degraded repubs for thinking one issue

and this is the first time in my life, that one issue will be my deciding vote for president. Nothing else is being done to address other issues because of Iraq and now the hot drum beat for Iran. So if you want to degrade me for thinking one issue go ahead.

[LisaM]

9. Really? So if you have, e.g., Hillary and Mitt Romney to vote for

and you don't like the stance either has on Iraq, you wouldn't factor in choice, or the environment, as a second issue?

[Fridays Child]

10. As far as the primary is concerned...

...this is my view, as well.

[BlooInBloo]

8. Few single issue voters classify themselves as such.

[Fridays Child]

13. Do you think that's because they don't wish to be ridiculed or...

...because, dissonance reduction being what it is, they don't always view themselves as single issue voters?

[BlooInBloo]

20. 2/3 the latter would be my guess.

[Horse with no Name]

11. Not single issue

But definitely I have some issues that are near and dear that I will use as a litmus test.
One thing I won't do is support more of the same--from either party.

[H2O Man]

12. Other.

The war in Iraq influences everything else.

[Fridays Child]

14. So, are you saying that your choices will be based on a...

...comprehensive assessment but that the war is the controlling issue?

[H2O Man]

19. Back in the

mid-1960s, LBJ had a beautiful domestic plan he called The Great Society. But he couldn't afford it, because of the war in Vietnam. Now, I'm not saying that George W. Bush ranks with a pimple on Johnson's ass. He has no plans for a Great Society. His domestic agenda is closer to feudalism than to LBJ's Great Society. But, in the context of people running for president, Senate, and House, the same general situation that destroyed LBJ will be a reality. If the Bush-Cheney violence in Iraq continues on the course it is on -- and there is no evidence that congress will make any serious challenge to that course on their own -- then issues such as the economy, health care, student loans, and our ability to deal with serious environmental problems, will be as compromised as LBJ's Great Society.

[Fridays Child]

23. I see what you're saying...

...and I think it's a good model for figuring out how to vote.

[Carolina]

15. Nothing else matters besides the war

because the war is sapping the treasury. Therefore, so called positions on other issues mean ZIP. Without the revenue, pols can talk the talk but, as we see continually with some of our Dems, talk is all they friggin' do.

Positions mean nothing without actions, and other actions cannot take place with the war consuming so much time, energy, spirit, goodwill, debate and above all $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

[More Than A Feeling]

16. I like public financing a lot.

A candidate who opposed it or didn't think it was important would find me far less enthusiastic about them. But I would probably still vote for them even if the Republican was pro-public financing, because Republicans will never lead on that issue, whereas the Democratic Party as a whole might.

[magellan]

17. No, totality of positions

Which is why I'll be voting for Kucinich in the primaries, and no one if (as expected) he doesn't get the go ahead in '08.

[Fridays Child]

24. It's been said that to stay home is to vote for the opposition.

But, given the current Republick field of candidates, there may be many on that side who stay at home, as well.

[ThomWV]

18. Yes - Impeachment. No one who does not sound off in favor of it is getting my vote for anything

Any office what so ever.

[mmonk]

21. Yes.

The other positions won't matter much if the madness doesn't stop. The commonwealth is getting sucked dry and the constitution still has smoke.

[auburngrad82]

22. No, but judging from the number of "the dems just lost my vote" posts

I suspect that a lot of people here are.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

25. The "war" is not a "single issue".

It is a multitude of issues from the economy, to integrity, to foreign policy, to domestic surveillance, to morality, to the use of the military, to "preemptive" war, to nationalism, to the "difference" between the major parties, etc, etc, etc.

I will take all of those multitude of issues into account when deciding who I'll vote for..in the primary and general election.