Originally Posted by Honus

Well, no kidding.That's true, but is woefully incomplete. I don't vote for Democrats because they support more government programs. I vote for them because they usually are much better stewards than the clowns put up for election by the GOP. Take Virginia as an example. Since at least as far back as the early 1900s, Virginia always was (and is again) at the top of the list of well managed states. We have a strong pay-as-you go tradition. Our bond ratings never used to come up for discussion. Everyone just assumed that we got the highest ratings there are. Then, the GOP abandoned any pretense of conservative governance, deciding instead to go for right-wing bomb throwing and gimmicks. In the 1990s, we elected two of this new type of Republican to be our governor - George Allen (1994-1997) and Jim "No Car Tax" Gilmore (1998-2001). Allen went on a spending spree but failed to raise revenue to match his spending. Gilmore, probably the worst governor in Virginia's history, was the ultimate gimmick governor. He was so bad on fiscal matters that even his own party opposed him. He left to his successor, Democrat Mark Warner, the largest budget shortfall in the history of Virginia. Thankfully, Mark Warner was one of the best governors we ever had. He worked with the GOP-dominated General Assembly to get things back on track. He was followed in the Governorship by an even more conservative fiscal manager, Democrat Tim Kaine. Compare Allen/Gilmore to Warner/Kaine and you will see an example of why people prefer Democrats on fiscal matters.

I don't why the GOP is bad at running the government, but it probably has something to do with their hatred for it.