Have you *ever* voted for a GOP candidate? If so, why?

[RoccoR5955]

21. Never a Conservative Republican, or Conservative Democrat.

On your point, in NY there were people who ran on the Dem, and Rep party line, and also ran on the Lib or Con line. NY always had a good mix. there were Lib Reps, Con Dems, Lib Dems, and Con Reps. There were just plain Libs and Cons, as there were Dems and Reps.

That all seemed to dry up after Raygun and his keepers decided to make "Liberal" a dirty word. The NY Liberal Party was once a huge party. It's now barely a shadow of what it once was.

I would wish I knew how I could resurrect it. I would do it in a minute. We need a Liberal party. A plain old Liberal Party.

As Kennedy stated in his 1960 speech, "What do our opponents mean when they apply to us the label "Liberal?" If by "Liberal" they mean, as they want people to believe, someone who is soft in his policies abroad, who is against local government, and who is unconcerned with the taxpayer's dollar, then the record of this party and its members demonstrate that we are not that kind of "Liberal." But if by a "Liberal" they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people -- their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, and their civil liberties -- someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a "Liberal," then I'm proud to say I'm a "Liberal.""

We need a strong Liberal Party like never before.

You can read the entire speech here: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/primary-resources/jfk-nyliberal/