About as much as I believe that there are only a dozen types of people astrologically, I have faith that conservatives are strict Republicans and liberals are strict Democrats and that aside from a few Libertarians, Centrists, Greenies or other Independents, there are only two main bodies of majority thought that rule the American public.
However, come election time, political challenges force people to take sides and I find it amusing to watch how far folks will go to rationalize their decisions to corral themselves into one group or the other instead of looking at things rationally and admitting the other guy may have some real fine points. There’s no bad or good here; there’s one that more closely aligns with your own thinking or has convinced you to think more in that vein as the better path to follow.
This post yesterday at Megan McArdle’s site says it a lot better: Media Matters She focuses on media bias, but the study of Reps and Dems and their fishtailing around statements made by both candidates all comes down to something dear to my heart: perspective. Perspective rules.