I think most non-Taiwanese people looking into Taiwan's political scene would find themselves being more sympathetic towards the current ruling party - the KMT. For the simple reason, they appear to speak better/sound more intelligent, have better accents (at least not heavily accented Hokkien sounding peasants).
My colleague had a friend who's a DPP activist and well educated. She helped me setup a lunch with him and he explained the DPP's cause and a little of their history. Mostly he explained why Taiwanese are so emotional about the DPP and it's always said that the DPP loves Taiwan more.
For one hour, Harry spoke non-stop, with such intensity I didn't dare argue with him. He presented to me, in that 1 hour, a whole lot more intelligence and compelling reason why the DPP is such a popular party, especially in the south. The KMT's biggest supporters are in the city, and most Taipei.
Most of it is historical baggage I feel. From the KMT's earlier discrimatory preference for the Nationalist army and their family, whom the KMT rulers felt gave up everything they had for the ROC's cause (Republic of China) - the same party founded by Sun Yat Sen. Who is viewed as the founding father of Taiwan.
The DPP however, views Taiwan as home, unlike the KMT who up until recently, viewed Taiwan as its temporary home, all things China are cool, all things Taiwanese are well, temporary and of a lower importance.
And for this reason, most in Taiwan feel that the DPP genuinely loves Taiwan (爱台湾), a very common refrain.
While I think Harry's an idealist and that in reality the KMT no longer harbours any notions of reuniting with China, there's a lot of emotions still. Worse, these emotions are borne of war, up to as recently as the 1950s, communist China was still lobbing bombs towards Taiwan, and people remember, all too vividly.
So now I know why Taiwanese politics is so melodramatic.
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