Wow Gawain, I love you man That's the nicest thing anyone's said to me in a long time...

I voted Democratic in the CA recall a while back, but that was because I think the idea of a recall is horrible... direct democracy is just not cool for anything larger than a city, in my opinion. Also, I knew if Ahhhnold was elected we'd be a laughingstock.

I am not a Democrat, though, because I live in the Bay Area (San Francisco area, for those of you from far away) where I am swimming in a sea of liberals. Not bad people, overall, but they want government to do *way* too much. I am liberal in the cultural sense... let people do what they want (abortions, gay marriages, heroin... just tax it a little)
I guess you could say I am conservative economically--I believe in a free market with minimal (though some *is* important) government intervention. Especially when it comes to globalization/free trade/subsidies. Grrr...
Somewhere between libertarian (the libertarian party around here is just awful) and Free Trade Democrat, I guess.