What is left, what is right?

I got to thinking on the way to work this morning on the differences between the dems and the GOP. The impetus for this crazy thought process was the lost congressional seat in upstate New York. Apparently, the "party?" appointed a moderate-to-liberal woman as the candidate for the republican side. The right wing of the party didn't like that, so they put up some "carpet-bagger" from a neighboring district who had more of the "right values" (I'm using a lot of quotes here because I am only loosely aware of this situation, and the specifics aren't particularly essential to my thought process.) In a primarily Republican district, after the stooge dropped out, the republican got trounced. And the big talkers are, supposedly shocked.

So, I'm thinking - why are they so surprised? I don't know a non-contrary republican. I think, in fact, that being opposed to being told what to do is the ONLY thing that republicans have in common. We are, in essence, true rebels. How strange that we have this image of lockstep automatons.

On the other hand, the Democratic party has the image of a bunch of bad-boy fight-the-system cool cats - protesting every cause. But their actions belie this. Whatever the party says, that seems to be what goes. If it means stomping on the bill of rights, eh, so what. They'll look out for us. Whoever they are. Whoever we are.

Is it just my skewed vision of the world, or do you see some kind of kernel of truth to this? Please discuss this theme in a 5 paragraph essay... oops, wait, this isn't school... never mind. Comments?

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