Why all the conservative followers?

I just realized today that I picked up three new followers on Twitter that are self-described conservatives. I'm fine with that. If you follow me, I tend to follow you unless you're an obvious spambot or someone whose name is Herb, is following 2,349 people, has 14 followers, has never posted anything, and your avatar is a woman in a bikini who is clearly not you. Even I have limits.

Back to my conservative followers. I actually have dozens of conservative followers, and if you know me, you know I'm not a conservative. But what you may not notice is that I don't describe myself as anything politically. The fact that I'm on a computer at all proves I'm not even remotely a Luddite.

I have such a distrust of the labels people apply to themselves that I feel disbelief as soon as I'm confronted with them. You have to prove to me that all you are is a conservative, or a liberal, or a socialist. We're all a lot more complicated than any easily applied, overly simple ideological label allows. For example, I believe that...

• ...the free market has the power to do immense good in developing nations worldwide as tool to lift people up from poverty and create healthier and safer conditions for people. I believe this because I've seen it work, and I've seen the failure of the alternative: long terms aid programs. Obviously, I'm pro-business.
• ...businesses that create products or services that impact people's health and safety need to have good government oversight and strong regulation. Witness the incredible food safety failures of the FDA over the past 8 years, in which an average of 5,000 Americans have perished annually as a direct result of Bush Administration funding cuts to this vital agency. How could I be anything other than pro-government?
• ...our society needs to take care of our weakest and most vulnerable citizens, not only with relief and welfare funds, but with the creation of jobs and agencies devoted to keeping our poorest working. I'm a Socialist.
• ...you should be able to own a gun if you want one; they're very useful if you live in wilderness and rural areas. I'm a conservative.
• ...any municipality or county should be able to limit or ban the use of firearms within city or county limits to prevent gun violence or to stem it. It seems I'm a liberal.
• ...a woman should always have the right to a safe and legal abortion. I'm a feminist.
• ...repeat offender rapists, child molesters, and other similar violent criminals should not be rehabilitated, and should be put down. I'm a violent reactionary.
  
• ...Homosexuals should be granted equal rights under the law and should have the freedom to marry if they so choose. I'm perahaps a Libertarian.
• ...the environment should not only be protected, but that working with it instead of against it provides the basis for a new economy. On this issue in the 70's, I was a conservative Republican; now I'm an Obama Democrat, and my views haven't changed *at all* since.
  

How do you make sense of those contradictions? Where do you even start to try to untangle these few beliefs, which I know some agree with and some don't. Think of all of us out there who similarly hold seemingly contradictory beliefs.

There's nothing to be gained in trying to pigeonhole people into little categories, so why do we even do it to ourselves? Is it so that others who ostensibly believe as we do can gather with us and feel some sense of community?

If that's why you self identify as a liberal or a conservative, I invite you to stop. Go find out about the people you don't agree with. Spend time with them. I'm an atheist and two of my best friends are Christians - we agree on more than we disagree on. In understanding each other on our common turf, we find that we have more to work on together than you could ever imagine when you approach social interaction as only "conservative" or "liberal" who will not be moved off those issues.

I applaud my conservative followers for taking a look at what I have to say and being open to a person who shares some of their beliefs, but not all. These contradictions are healthy and good - and it's plurality of opinion and debate that makes us Americans. If we were all marching in the same direction to the same drumbeat, that would be a fascist nightmare, and we've all seen how that plays out in the end.