That would be about the last term I’d apply. Skald’s beliefs need a fairly hefty government with a lot of power.
I consider you a liberal. Your views on gun rights don’t really contradict this for me. The required government service is unusual for that profile in the US, but many European countries (and Israel) still have required public service and I see nothing wrong with that as long as there’s some choice in what service one can perform, not just military.
Well, I’m an anarchist, so my most important political position is the abolition of the hierarchical State.
BUT
I’m also a realist, so for practical purposes, I skew strongly liberal.
These are things I find most important:
No Death Penalty. Pretty much a dealbreaker. As an adult, I wouldn’t live in a country that had the DP. I have a hard time even justifying visiting one, as a tourist. I won’t be going to Japan, for instance, as fascinated as I am by the place.
Abortion on demand for at least the first 6 months.
Equal rights for women
Equal rights for LGTB folks
I’d have thought equal rights for all races went without saying, but with the state of the Dope lately, I’m not sure about that. I’m not a huge fan of affirmative action as currently practiced, personally, but then there needs to be some other system to break wrongfully-established entrenched privilege, and I haven’t seen any viable alternatives offered.
I can take or leave guns, but I don’t have a problem if others want them.
Public ownership of the airwaves, that’s a biggy.
Firmer environmental legislation, with more teeth.
I’m not sure where everyone is getting “libertarian” from. Skald’s stated positions seem to be pretty by-the-book liberal/Democrat with the single exception of gun control, and he’s certainly not alone among Democrats with that one. The only way I could see someone with that list of preferences voting for a Republican is if they were a single-issue voter on Second Amendment rights.
No politics there, since you don’t say how government should respond to them, if at all.
So a small libertarian impulse, but an incomplete position; what should be done with these people when they wreck? Should public resources be used to try to save their lives?
Evidently so. How much is covered? Does it not matter whether people have taken any steps to take care of themselves?
He also mentioned libertarian-inflected positions on abortion, marriage, seat belts, marijuana and prostitution.
Same here. I’ll say “leaning liberal”.
I’ll add one more thing. You are absolutely not like a contemporary Republican.
You are always creating poll threads and generally soliciting opinions. Considering other people’s opinions is not a Republican trait. 
I’m not going to go through Skald’s list exhaustively but the thread illustrates something; most people who actually THINK about the issues simply don’t fall neatly onto a one-dimensional spectrum like liberal-conservative, Democrat-Republican, or in Canada, the range from Tory-Liberal-NDP.
There is no party here in Canada I agree with, and if there was it’d basically be the Rick Party, with me as leader and the only member. A person’s opinions do not have to fall on the same place on the right-left scale, or be on the scale at all in some cases.
Furthermore, your approach to a given problem can quite reasonably change over time even while your philosophical position remains the same, simply because the practicaliities of the matter change.
You’re a liberal.
Regards,
Another liberal
I pretty much agree with you on everything, Skald. I like to consider myself a left leaning moderate, but in practice, I’m probably more of a Liberal than I realize.
You left out your thoughts on the military. Increase or decrease? More or less money spent? Should we police the world or get out of other countries? Etc?
Personally, I like living in the country that is the big brother instead of gets big brothered. That being said, I’d like the US to maintain our strength, but use our military funds more wisely. I just don’t know how to do that…
I suppose I should qualify this a bit.
Everything you’re into is associated with liberal ideology, except that you don’t want to ban guns or wear a seatbelt.
I do think the results might come up a bit differently if you talked about your fiscal positions, which Daddypants kind of alludes to.
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He also mentioned libertarian-inflected positions on abortion, marriage, seat belts, marijuana and prostitution.
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No, he mentioned liberal positions on those issues, which also happen to be the libertarian issues on those positions.
Creationists and their dishonest cousins in ID are trying to establish a state religion, and so should be smacked down.
You’re left-of-center with a libertarian streak on some issues. The only major departure from the Democratic Party’s positions is gun control, and there are certainly Democrats who agree with your values on gun control. However, a lot of your ideas involve relatively powerful government with lots of regulatory control; single-payer healthcare, an EPA with real teeth, and considerable public funding for schools, including great care with standards and testing, so you don’t fit a classical libertarian viewpoint. You really split yourself between a Blue Dog Democrat (minimal government control about guns, seat belts) and a very left-wing view (single-payer healthcare, a strong EPA).
What does this mean: To what “franchise” do you refer?
From Merriam-Webster:
franchise
1 : freedom or immunity from some burden or restriction vested in a person or group
2 a : a special privilege granted to an individual or group; especially : the right to be and exercise the powers of a corporation b : a constitutional or statutory right or privilege; especially : the right to vote
My back hurts, so I don’t feel up to mocking you right now. Please assume that I said something cruel and the hamsters ate it.
Yes, Skald, you are a progressive/liberal on most issues. But I noted a big hole in your list of beliefs: economic issues. Where do you stand on capitalism? Regulation of the stock market, etc.? Trickle-down? Taxes, progressive, flat tax, or nonexistent? Bandit bankers: should they be tortured to death to reveal where they are hiding the loot, or just shot?
Goddamn libertarian.
Scratch that. Libertarian, short of “goddamn.”
Yup, libertarian.
Self-righteous atheist libertarian.
But sane.
Scratch that.
Has a brain, avoids hardline TEA Party Reaganism.
Civil libertarian.
Shows respect for science.
Anti-establishmentarian.
Silly fascist, but we get to throw one idea out.
Old-fashioned non-movement conservative?
You’re a (goshdarn) civil libertarian, with a respect for science and a contractarian respect for authority. In this country, you’re probably called an idiosyncratic centrist, but that’s meaningless.
Since you said almost nothing about economics, I assume you are useless to me, merely another creature to be overcome.
I’m not clear how you tell the difference between a liberal position which also happens to be a libertarian position, and the reverse.
Also it is news to me if the Democratic Party has endorsed the legalization of prostitution and non-medical marijuana.
Me? Righteous?
You’ll pay for that. You and all your friends.
My thoughts on economics don’t fit into sound-bites. Any politician who claims that economic matters are simple is lying or stupid.
The Democratic Party isn’t liberal.
I’ve not read the thread, but I’ll bet that if you were to meet a Republican in the street she’d call you a Republican, and that if you were to meet a Democrat in the street, she’d call you a Democrat. Both would then ask you for a donation. 