"I Don't Vote for Parties - I Vote for the Best Person For the Job!" Oh, Yeah?

[UPDATE: The links in this story are old and out of date and they just plain don’t work. To see recent stats, go HERE!]

I wish I had a nickel for every time some smug, self-styled "independent thinker" threw this line at me as some sort of declaration of superiority over those who profess a party preference.

Yes! I have LIBERATED myself from party politics and am now above it all! I'm free to choose character over convention now, while you, you little party shill, are still constrained by things like platforms, planks and promises!

Oh, really? Well, oh wise one, perhaps this little page from the Washington Post [no longer linked - ed.] will show you what a shill you have been. The politicos know who you are, and they know you're more likely to vote for:

• The person who paid more taxes
• The person who never swore
• The person who never hired an illegal alien, knowingly or not
• The person who never did crazy crap in high school

And that is the origin of the politics of personal destruction. They get you thinking you're voting for someone's character, and the one who slings the most crap wins.

So, before you vote for character, consider this:

Political Partisanship: A look at the data

Members voting with their parties

These scores represent the percentage of votes on which a lawmaker agrees with the position taken by a majority of his or her party members. The scores do not include missed votes. All lawmakers who served during this congress are included.

[These numbers are from 2011. The numbers in the link above are calculated differently.]

Party Voting Averages

• 92.2%
  Democratic
  (263 members)
• 88.3%
  Republican
  (181 members)
• 90.6%
  All Members
  (444 members)

So, now do you want to tell me about that character issue again? Time to wake up, America! Learn who you're voting for, but more importantly, learn what you're voting for. Your liberty depends on it, as does the character of our nation.