Am I a liberal Republican or a conservative Democrat?

[MATTROSE94]

Your views are somewhat similar to mine actually, with the exception of your position on the balanced budget amendment. On a side note, while I would have started to vote increasingly Democratic on the Presidential level in the 1930s, I probably would have supported mostly Republican candidates for Senate and House races until the late 1990s or early 2000s.

[MATTROSE94]

Conservative Democrat, obviously. You could have fit into the GOP 15-20 years ago, but nowadays they shun people that are even to your right. Welcome to the tent.

In IL his views would fit in fine with the GOP today, particularly in suburban Chicago.

There are hardly any of those Republicans left in suburban Chicago.  They've been joining the Dems in droves since Clinton's election.

I would strongly disagree overall, though I agree many of them voted for Clinton and Obama, they didn't like Kerry in 2004 and Bush got their vote. Even today there are still lots of those Pubs in my area. They are in local offices and they make up a lot of voters. Mark Kirk tapped into them in 2010 and so far it looks like Rauner intends to use them in this year's election for Gov.

Then why did Kerry take Illinois by such a wide margin?  And, for that matter, why did Gore as well?

Due to the Cook County Democratic Party machine.