Good idea for a pick, skipper19. I really liked the "Grand Old Penguin" and "The King Which Is Me" choices. I wonder how many of my other fans here have read my Election Day story.

As for me, I'm a Republican (which should be no surprise if you've been following me for a while). My three main obsessions all begin with the letter P: politics, penguins, and Pittsburgh.

Ha! The addition of the two penguin and lemur parties was quite clever.

Thank you all. :)

OBAMA!!!!! :D

Are they choices of Government? If so, I'd probably go for King Julien, which I'm assuming is 'The King that is Me Party'. XD

I don't know anything about American Government, because I don't live in America (unfortunately for me).

For fanfics and smaller government! XD

@ImAnEasel: Yes. The Republican Party and the Democratic Party are the two major political parties in the United States. The two PoM-related choices are the names of two political parties of sorts in my 2009 fanfic Election Day. Skipper's party, the Grand Old Penguin Party, is a play on the fact that the real Republican Party's nickname is the Grand Old Party. Julien's party he just sort of invented on the spot without really knowing what he was doing.

^ Ahh, I see! Thanks for giving me the details!

RL me: Well I am smart and I want humans to not go extinct so I guess I am a democrat. LOL

Had to choose this. XD But seriously, I'm a Republican. :D

@peacebaby7: Glad to hear that! And the Grand Old Penguin Party is the penguin affiliate of the Republican Party, so they are pretty much the same on this poll. This also explains my choice of pen name on FanFiction.net.

Wow, my views have changed a lot in the past couple of years. I think I'm more of a moderate now. I'm not really fully Republican nor am I fully Democrat. I kind of have views from both sides.

@PB7: For those who find their views a mix of the views of the two parties, I think each voter has to consider which of his or her views are most important to them, and prioritize those issues. For example, one voter in the middle might consider abortion his or her most important issue. Most Republican candidates are pro-life; very few Democratic candidates are. Another voter in the middle might be an environmental advocate. Democrats are more likely to increase the number of regulations on carbon emission than Republicans.

You can take what I say with a grain of salt, though. I'm not a moderate; I'm more likely to eat a penguin than ever vote for a Democrat.

@SJF: Well, I'm not really sure what I can consider the most important to me. I mean, I strongly support the LGBT community, welfare, the increase in minimum wage, and socialized healthcare; but I also strongly support the right to gun ownership, being pro-life, the death penalty, and personal responsibility. I just feel like it's easier for me to just say I'm a moderate so it's clear that I have many views from both sides. For example, I wouldn't want to say I'm a Republican and people think I don't support LGBT, but I also wouldn't want to say I'm a Democrat and people think I'm pro-choice. Know what I mean?

And when it comes to voting, I can see myself voting for the person, not the party. For the upcoming election, I'm caught between Ted Cruz and Bernie Sanders. I haven't made up my mind just yet. I know for definite that I don't to vote for Clinton or Trump. Trump is WAY too radical for my taste and I think Clinton is completely untrustworthy. I've seen that you support Cruz. Can I ask what led you to come to that decision?

@PB7: (I don't know how not to write things so long. Forgive me.)

Ideologically, there probably aren't two candidates farther apart than Bernie Sanders and Ted Cruz. Even Donald Trump is closer to him than Cruz is. Though I don't have a horse in the Democratic race, Sanders has surprised me by winning many more states than I would have predicted months ago. However, it is unlikely that he will actually become the Democratic nominee. Hillary Clinton's lead in convention delegates and strong support from Democratic leaders will be too great for him to overcome. (Unless Clinton gets indicted for her email server scandal before the convention.) So unless you're in a state that hasn't had its primary yet, it probably won't ever come to really having to choose between Cruz and Sanders. Election Day will most likely see a contest of Clinton vs. Trump, Clinton vs. Cruz, or Clinton vs. a "mystery Republican" who gets nominated at the July convention because neither Trump nor Cruz could amass a majority of delegate votes.

Those who are most attracted to Sanders tend to be either younger people (who like his policies of "free" college, student loan forgiveness, $15[!] minimum wage, and sticking it to corporations and the rich) or committed liberals of any age who think that Obama hasn't gone far enough as president (and who believe that Clinton is too much a part of the political establishment to accomplish the kinds of radical changes they seek). I am not in favor of Sanders's utopia; I will let blogger Matt Walsh explain why free college (link) and $15 an hour for flipping burgers and similar low-skill jobs (link) are not good policies.

Moving on to your actual question. Different people have different reasons for supporting a candidate in an election or a primary. Some vote because of a candidate's position on a single issue. Some support the candidate who is willing to "reach across the aisle" to work with members of the other party. Some, in a primary, prefer the candidate who they believe would have the best chance to defeat the other party's candidate in the general November election. My biggest consideration in a primary is ideology. I'm strongly conservative. The candidate I believe is the most conservative of my available options is the one I will support in a primary. Now, that candidate doesn't always win the Republican nomination (for example, I voted for Mitt Romney in the 2008 presidential primary but John McCain won the nomination; I voted for Rick Santorum in the 2012 primary but Mitt Romney won), but I've always voted for whoever does win the nomination in the main election because, in my view, even the least desirable Republican is always preferable to the "best" Democrat. At least I'd have something in common with whoever the Republican is, while it would be unlikely that the Democrat would share my views on anything that matters. A President McCain or a President Romney would certainly have been better than That Guy Who Currently Occupies the White House, even though I had liked other candidates more in those primaries.

That's a rather longwinded way of saying that I like Cruz because he's the best conservative in the 2016 race. I've liked him for years because he's also one of the best modern conservative politicians. He's not afraid to be critical of even fellow Republicans who have been insufficiently opposed to fighting Obama's agenda (such as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell) and those who have failed to live up to their campaign promises (such as former presidential candidate Marco Rubio, who ran for Senate in 2010 against amnesty/legalization for illegal aliens but then supported it after being elected). It's true that many politicians change positions or over-promise when running for office, but Cruz has been pretty consistent over the years.

Understandably, though, to a moderate who's neither purely conservative nor purely liberal, just saying that Cruz is the "best conservative" probably isn't a clear enough (or a good enough) explanation of why I support him. So I'll mention a few specifics too. Cruz believes in the Constitution, not imposing the law on a whim by executive order like the current president. Cruz even memorized the Constitution in high school. Cruz supports smaller government with more individual freedom and individual responsibility—government should provide only the services and functions the people themselves cannot, and nothing more. He supports a low flat tax rate on personal income, rather than the current complicated system we have now (details here: link). (Rates would have to go up under Sanders [or Clinton or any Democrat really] to pay for all the things he wants to give away for "free" and for his expansion of government.) Cruz is strongly pro-life and will cut off the government money currently flowing to Planned Parenthood, the country's top abortion provider (in contrast, Sanders is a pro-abortion radical; see, for example, link). Cruz opposes Obamacare, which forces people to either have health insurance (that they may or may not be able to afford if it isn't provided by their employer) or pay a penalty. Cruz will appoint justices to the Supreme Court who will interpret the law, not make the law (the February death of Justice Antonin Scalia makes this an especially important issue—a bad justice could negatively affect the country for decades, or permanently). Cruz believes in securing the U.S. border and not rewarding those who have illegally entered (while at the same time supporting legal immigration; his father was himself an immigrant from Cuba who came here legally). I have confidence that he will do all he can to protect America and pursue our enemies, and he isn't afraid to call terrorism "terrorism" because of fecklessness or fear of not being politically correct. He supports the Second Amendment. He supports the death penalty. He supports a balanced budget. And he's just a good person.

You mentioned that the LGBT community is important to you. You probably won't agree with much of Cruz's position on marriage. But he's not a "hater" like many liberals say conservatives who oppose same-sex marriage are. Watch here as he answers a reporter's question about gay rights and talks about how the terror group ISIS is executing homosexuals (link). In other interviews, he's talked about how Iran does the same thing. There is quite a difference between a view that believes that true marriage is between a man and a woman and the extremism of terror groups and sharia law. And yet, Iran is a country that Obama made a terrible and dangerous nuclear agreement with (link). As a senator, Sanders voted for the Iran deal.

Since I have been pretty critical of Sanders in my comment, I'll be fair and be critical of one of the other Republicans running as well. Donald Trump, I think, was fine as an entertainer—I even watched some of the early seasons of The Apprentice myself—but as a politician he leaves much to be desired. Though some of the things he says now sound good, he has seemingly been on all sides of every issue at one time or another, and if he has any core principles at all, they are very few. He's not conservative, he's not liberal—he's just Trump. He has changed his political party many times: Democrat (before 1987), Republican (1987–1999), Reform (1999–2001), Democrat (2001–2009), Republican (2009–2011), Independent (2011–2012), Republican (2012–present). If elected president, I wouldn't be surprised if he changes back to Independent or creates his own Trump Party. Besides not having real, consistent, predictable beliefs, he's also confused about or unknowledgeable about many issues of the day.

But would I vote for him if he gets the nomination? Well, I would at least be open to considering a third-party candidate if he or she were more conservative than Trump and had a shot at actually winning, but if my only choices are Trump or Clinton (or Trump or Sanders), I'd hold my nose and vote for Trump, and then pray for him. A confused, non-ideological "Republican" in the White House is still preferable to a committed liberal Democrat who knows exactly what she's doing (or what he's doing). But hopefully the Trump Train derails (link) and the Cruz Ship sails so it doesn't ever come to that.

TL;DR summary: I like Cruz because he's the best conservative.

@SJF: It's all right. It was very informative.

Well, I was looking at it as my favorite Republican nominee is Cruz, and Democratic nominee Sanders. It wasn't necessarily that I thought they were even remotely like each other.

As far as Walsh's argument on free college, I completely understand all of his points, but I'm afraid I still find flaws in his argument and I don't really agree with it. And for the minimum wage argument, again I see his points, but I still don't fully agree with it. Maybe I can see not raising it all the way to $15/hour, but I still think it should be raised.

I see your views. I liked what I read about Cruz's flat tax plan. It may even address some issues with the minimum wage thing. As far as abortion, while I strongly disagree with it, I don't necessarily think that it should be made illegal or just harder for a woman to get an abortion. That would just increase the number of women who force miscarriages in unsanitary conditions, as was mentioned in the article. Although I do think if a woman wants an abortion, it should still only be allowed in the early stages.

On your points regarding LGBT and Iran, yes, I've read about all of that, actually. I knew that Cruz didn't really agree with same-sex marriage, which I didn't particularly like, but it is his opinion, which he is entitled to. As long as I don't hear anything about him wanting to fight for making it illegal again, I think that'll be all right. I doubt he would, though. The ship has kind of already sailed, so it'd probably be futile to even try. I couldn't believe Obama's agreement with Iran. I strongly disagree with the misconception that all middle-easterners are terrorists, but I still felt pretty uncomfortable with the agreement.

I agree with your views on Trump and Clinton. Even if it comes down to them, though, I personally refuse to vote for either of them regardless of any third party's chances of winning.

Thanks for taking the time to share your views! It actually gave me a lot to think about in considering my final decision. Again, don't worry about the length. I was very interested in what you had to say. (And I can't say I haven't been victim to writing long responses!)

@PB7: You're welcome! Glad I could be informative. If you have any questions in the future, feel free to ask.