Guns are a non-issue, I don’t really understand why that is partisan in the first place. For example, my mother is ultra conservative, but absolutely hates guns, so much so that she wouldn’t even let my father keep his father’s WWII rifle in the house. I also know many liberals who are fairly supportive of gun rights. It would be better if we could find a way to work together to decrease the damage that guns do in our society, but that is something both parties need to work together on. Terry Goodin answers b) Maintain and strengthen the enforcement of existing state restrictions on the purchase and possession of guns. on gun control, and did not commit to easing or removing restrictions. He is a supporter of CCW (which I am as well, for well trained and vetted individuals). The only difference I see between myself and him on this issue is that I would have selected g) Require background checks on gun sales between private citizens at gun shows. And of course, The last prepositional phrase there is unnecessary, and only adds to the confusion. You want to make exceptions for family, I can see them being carved out, you should know if your family member is prohibited from possessing a firearm. If you want to consider a current valid CCW to be used in place of a background check, I can get behind that too. If you (a complete stranger) walk up to me, and say , “Hey, nice gun, can I buy it from you?”, I should be required to do some level of due diligence before I transfer it to your possession.
Abortion is a bigger deal, but there isn’t much support for elective abortions after 20 weeks on either side of the aisle, the liberal you pointed out isn’t really an anti-abortion figure, as he did not say that abortion should always be illegal, or that it should only be in the first trimester. He affirmatively said that they should be legal in cases of rape, incest, or health of the mother. I don’t think that I would have filled out that section any differently, other than maybe a g) Other or expanded principles, and then describing my position with more nuance than a multiple choice can allow.
Those are what we tend to fight about, but that is only a small part of the platform.
What is really core to the progressive platform is progress. (It’s in the name!) Are things getting better? Are people treated more fairly than they were in the past? Are people being treated equally by society and government? Are there those who need assistance that are not getting it? What other improvements can we do?
If you check out the rest of Goodin’s “bio”, you see that he is also very strong on increasing funding for education, healthcare and infrastructure. He is for decreasing funding on welfare, and so on that we would disagree. He supports limiting the campaign contributions that can go into not only his direct campaign, but also on PACs and from corporations.
He is against SSM, which is probably my only really big sticking point there, but that’s still not really a core progressive value.
Anyway, I could go on, point by point through his positions and what we agree and disagree upon, but really, the fundamentals are similar, for the most part. Overall, his most of his positions are those that would benefit those who are the most marginalized in our society, as well as to benefit society as a whole.
My final analysis, I may not vote for him in a primary, but I wouldn’t have to hold my nose to vote for him if he were nominated.