(Without Mentioning Pol. Party) Has/Is Anyone Changing Parties Due To Current Issues?

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elsker

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Hello

I made the decision to change political parties. I have been a member of one party since I turned 18 but now I can no longer ignore what my former political party is promoting. Seems anymore that only one party is concerned with morality and preservation of marriage and family while the other party is concerned with making certain people happy at the expense of morals and so on.

I lived in San Francisco for 2 years and was a part of an awesome parish and I attended a FYI type meeting that advised church members as to what it means to vote as a catholic according to well formed conscience. This was years ago before all the issues we are facing today but I remember one of the speakers warning us that we may not be able to stick with a particular political party and vote for certain candidates because this person could already see the way things were headed. I kind of waved it off thinking this was just hysterics. As I was filling out the registration form this weekend those words sadly came back to me.

Sadly it has come to pass!

I feel good about what I’ve had to do but I’m still shocked that it had to come to this. I will make no apologies for being Catholic first and American second.

Has anyone else had to jump ship? What can we say to other catholics who are thinking of doing the same?
 
elsker said:
Hello

I made the decision to change political parties. I have been a member of one party since I turned 18 but now I can no longer ignore what my former political party is promoting. Seems anymore that only one party is concerned with morality and preservation of marriage and family while the other party is concerned with making certain people happy at the expense of morals and so on.

I lived in San Francisco for 2 years and was a part of an awesome parish and I attended a FYI type meeting that advised church members as to what it means to vote as a catholic according to well formed conscience. This was years ago before all the issues we are facing today but I remember one of the speakers warning us that we may not be able to stick with a particular political party and vote for certain candidates because this person could already see the way things were headed. I kind of waved it off thinking this was just hysterics. As I was filling out the registration form this weekend those words sadly came back to me.

Sadly it has come to pass!

I feel good about what I’ve had to do but I’m still shocked that it had to come to this. I will make no apologies for being Catholic first and American second.

Has anyone else had to jump ship? What can we say to other catholics who are thinking of doing the same?
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I left my lifelong party a long time ago, when they became pro-abortion!! If you can’t trust them with a tiny baby, then I don’t trust them at ALL. God Bless, Memaw
 
I went further…I have quit voting. I grew tired if people saying I was less patriotic or less Catholic for supprting one candidate or the other.

I have replaced voting with prayer.
 
Neofight said:
I went further…I have quit voting. I grew tired if people saying I was less patriotic or less Catholic for supprting one candidate or the other.

I have replaced voting with prayer.
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I wonder if I should do that. Where I am the one big political party so overpowers the other in elections, I sometimes wonder what’s the point. Right now both of them are so disappointing too.
 
I ended my party affiliation in 2012, but did not register with another party.

I do still vote, especially for local elections which can be a lot more important than many people realize (and your vote actually counts!). For most elections on the federal level I end up voting third party or writing in, though.
 
No, I changed my party affiliation in order to vote in the primary for the party which controls the district/state via gerrymandering etc. The real selection of who the representative will be occurs in the primary. I still have the option to vote for whoever is the best candidate in the general election— but, that really isn’t where the choice is made, it happens in the primary.
 
When I turned 18, I registered with one of the two major parties. Within a year or two, I became fed up with the entire party system, not so much the party I registered with. To me, it seems like too many people vote along party lines without ever researching candidates or issues. No two people are exactly alike when it comes to politics, so I feel like the party system is an oversimplification. That being said, most of my votes still fall in line with that original party.
 
styrgwillidar said:
No, I changed my party affiliation in order to vote in the primary for the party which controls the district/state via gerrymandering etc. The real selection of who the representative will be occurs in the primary. I still have the option to vote for whoever is the best candidate in the general election— but, that really isn’t where the choice is made, it happens in the primary.
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I haven’t changed my party affiliation for the same reason, even though it has been several years since I’ve been able to identify with that party.
 
I quit voting for my lifelong party affiliation when that party began taking intransigent positions in favor of moral evils. It’s true that not every politician adheres to his party platform but it was becoming more and more apparent that my positions–moral positions–were not welcome in the party.
 
I was told at the FYI I mentioned that we have an obligation as catholics to vote and that it was a “sin” to not vote. I would stop voting all together if I didn’t think it was a sin not to. If anyone can straighten me out on this I would be grateful. Also there is that saying:

“If you don’t vote ; you can’t complain!”

What is the felling in regards to the above? I have always voted and would feel weird if I stopped voting in middle age but believe me I am getting fed up and discouraged.

Thanks for your (name removed by moderator)ut.
 
I haven’t officially changed (too lazy) but I don’t identify with mine anymore. I just can’t reconcile their policies with my faith anymore. I can’t reconcile it with the other side either.

I’m politically homeless, but that’s the way it should be I think.
 
Also gave up voting. The lesser of 2 or 3 evils still equals evil to me. So my conscience has me praying that God take the helm and who He sees fit gets the job. Much less stress now during the elections.

I started thinking this way many years ago, if you remember the phrase, hanging chads. I now laugh at myself thinking that my vote ever mattered in this corrupt system.
 
👍 Was beginning to think I was the only one that got it right from the start! 😉
 
elsker said:
I was told at the FYI I mentioned that we have an obligation as catholics to vote and that it was a “sin” to not vote. I would stop voting all together if I didn’t think it was a sin not to. If anyone can straighten me out on this I would be grateful. Also there is that saying:

“If you don’t vote ; you can’t complain!”

What is the felling in regards to the above? I have always voted and would feel weird if I stopped voting in middle age but believe me I am getting fed up and discouraged.

Thanks for your (name removed by moderator)ut.
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There’s nothing in Church teaching that requires us to vote. Sometimes there really is no moral option available.

We are required as Christians to work to make society just, but voting is only one way we can do that. There are also other, more effective ways. Living the works of mercy and the beatitudes will do more for our country than voting ever could.

Vote only if you really feel that a certain candidate is the right one for the job. Don’t vote because you feel you have to. You don’t.
 
elsker said:
I was told at the FYI I mentioned that we have an obligation as catholics to vote and that it was a “sin” to not vote. I would stop voting all together if I didn’t think it was a sin not to. If anyone can straighten me out on this I would be grateful. Also there is that saying:

“If you don’t vote ; you can’t complain!”

What is the felling in regards to the above? I have always voted and would feel weird if I stopped voting in middle age but believe me I am getting fed up and discouraged.

Thanks for your (name removed by moderator)ut.
Click to expand...
I would say whoever said its a sin not to vote probably shouldn’t be voting either.
 
pensmama87 said:
I ended my party affiliation in 2012, but did not register with another party.

I do still vote, especially for local elections which can be a lot more important than many people realize (and your vote actually counts!). For most elections on the federal level I end up voting third party or writing in, though.
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This is great to see. I think that many people overlook local elections as small-time or insignificant but they are the best way to have an immediate impact on your local community.

Federal-level elections are important but they are less likely to have immediate consequences. Usually it’s a slow burn for federal policies to impact the whole nation.

Usually.

Vote local!
 
CitizenCain said:
This is great to see. I think that many people overlook local elections as small-time or insignificant but they are the best way to have an immediate impact on your local community.

Federal-level elections are important but they are less likely to have immediate consequences. Usually it’s a slow burn for federal policies to impact the whole nation.

Usually.

Vote local!
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Yup.

City councilpeople, for example, have a LOT of power to affect our daily lives and around here, at least, they frequently run unopposed. When they are opposed, they can win because they remind their Facebook friends list to show up at the polls (I tend to be nerdy and look up election results and margins of victory for those elections is frequently 50 votes or fewer).

Also, party affiliation matters a lot less in local politics because the big national issues frequently don’t apply with the daily business of running a municipality, county, etc.
 
I am still nominally affiliated with mine, but I am starting to have libertarian sympathies.
My former party may be pro-life and pro-traditional marriage, but they often appear to me as contradictory and not very smart (hint: they can’t decide whether they worship Jesus Christ or Ayn Rand).

One pundit named Thomas Frank, in his book What’s the Matter with Kansas?, pointed out that this party’s obsession with the Culture Wars has been detrimental to its ethos and the best interests of its supporters. Kathleen Sebelius became governor of Kansas by not focusing on social issues, and later created this HHS fiasco. Meanwhile, in the next state over, Claire McCaskill won the Missouri senatorial race in 2012 thanks to the suave debate tactics of Todd “legitimate rape” Akin.

At the moment, Rand Paul is looking like he deserves my vote the most.
 
Robyn_p said:
There’s nothing in Church teaching that requires us to vote. Sometimes there really is no moral option available.

We are required as Christians to work to make society just, but voting is only one way we can do that. There are also other, more effective ways. Living the works of mercy and the beatitudes will do more for our country than voting ever could.

Vote only if you really feel that a certain candidate is the right one for the job. Don’t vote because you feel you have to. You don’t.
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Thank you very much. Now I feel that I was being manipulated by that parish community but that doesn’t surprise me. Just glad I no longer live in S.F. (but that’s another story).

Glad I’m able to make the choice that’s right for me and my conscience. Don’t want to disobey church teaching.
 
I have never registered with either party, because I don’t see either party as advocating what Jesus wants. I still vote (I consider it my obligation as a Catholic and an American), but, often times, my ballot looks like I played “eenie-meenie-miny-moe” with the candidates (though, that’s not what actually happens - it’s just that I end up splitting my ballot so much that it looks that way).
 
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