I am currently registered as an independent.  Ideologically I am a fiscal conservative and a social moderate.  For most of my life I have been a registered Republican and have almost always voted Republican in national elections.  But most of my friends are Democrats and I often agree with them on specific issues.  So why do I identify more closely with the Republican point of view overall?  I may have finally figured it out!
I have just come across and read the provocative book, “Still the Best Hope.  Why the world needs American values to triumph” by the public intellectual, Dennis Prager.  Here is his message:

• There are three ideologies competing for the allegiance of humankind. They are Islamist, Leftist and American. “Islamist” refers not to Muslims in general but those within the Muslim world who want to see the world governed by Sharia, or Islamic law. “Left” refers to the values associated with the western welfare state, secularism, and to contemporary socialist democratic parties. Americanism refers to the American Trinity of values: ‘Liberty,’ ‘In God We Trust,’ and ‘E Pluribus Unum’ which appear on all American coins.

• The three ideologies are incompatible. Any one of them succeeds at the expense of the other two. All Islamists know this, many Leftists know this, but most Americanists do not know this.

• Of the three, only Americanists do not proselytize.

• One of the three is being promoted violently.

• Leftism is a religion.

• Americanism is the major impediment to Leftist success.

• The impediments to the spreading of American ideals. Islamism and Leftism each dominate many countries. Americanism only dominates one country: America. Neither religious values, individual liberty nor market values are secure in America. Few are teaching the next generation of Americans what constitutes the American value system. The most important battle for American values is the ideological one within America.

• Is there a fourth – Chinese – alternative? Either China will become a freer society or it will fail. It will have to affirm values beyond material success in order to succeed, as America has.

Such a stark framework as this hasn’t occurred to me before.  But it makes sense and I totally identify with Americanism as opposed to Islamism or Leftism.  This is not going to change the way I do things but it helps me understand why I am the way I am!