Skald, I kinda like the way you think. And FWIW, the views expressed in the OP reflect mine own pretty closely. Certainly not tea-party-conservative. Only someone from the far right might consider them liberal. Sounds pretty much like a sensible centrist to me. Or a labor or blue-dog democrat. Or a modern whig.
I still have a basic faith that the great silent majority of Americans feel much the same, it’s just that we mostly hear from the noisy ones at either extreme.
You’re almost exactly what I am, although I feel more conflicted about the morality of the death penalty in theory, not just in practice. I call myself a liberal.
Just because the Great Mouth finds Canadians so repellent that he will not allow them in hell does not mean that I hate Canadians. And I’m not sure how how Canadians are injured or discriminated against by now being eligible for an eternity of flame and torment and being eaten by worms.
:: demonic bureaucrat hat off ::
I’m not sure what you mean when you say that you’re more conflicted about the morality of capital punishment. It could be that you think that it’s more likely to be theoretically justified than I do, or less. Can you expand?
Or a current Montana democrat, for that matter. Guns really aren’t a political issue around here, for the simple reason that everyone is pro-gun. As our current governor Brian Schweitzer (D) said, “Gun control means that you control your gun and I control mine”.
In so far as I hate anything, I hate the tribal nature of politics. I think if people tried their hardest to make up their mind about individual issues without ever even worrying about how it places them on a utterly nonsensical political axis the world would be a much better place.
To be fair, I suspect that I am mostly preaching to the converted here.
If I tried to pick out a theme to all the points you posted, it seems that broadly you think people should be able to do what they want, even to their own detriment (helmets/seatbelts/drugs), but not if it’s going to fuck it up for others (vaccines/creationism), and that the government should be involved only when there’s a good reason (marriage), but that sometimes there are good reasons (health/schooling). It’s hard to get a read on the gun control position because it could either be “guns are awesome” or “we shouldn’t deliberately misread the constitution” - perhaps you could tell us how you’d feel about gun control if you lived in a country without the (equivalent of) the second amendment? That notwithstanding, you seem pretty centrist to me, with perhaps a slightly higher than average standard deviation.
A tragically underrepresented position, presumably on account of an unwillingness to form a political party around it. (just kidding, I completely agree with you)
I agree with Skald the Rhymer on almost all his points and would call him centrist (or left-of-center in American diction) like myself.
The issue I disagree with most strongly is the one he considers most important: gun control. Guns kill people. America would be a safer, happier place with more control. (However, opposite to Skald, the issue is very low-priority for me.)
I’m curious about his reason for opposing gun control: the simple existence of The Second Amendment. More often that not, gun advocates cite this as their reason. It almost seems some people think The Amendments have some special supernatural truth, like The Ten Commandmants.
I’m gonna vote Liberal who likes guns and dislikes so-called nanny-stateism. I don’t really think you’re a Libertarian, since most of that lot aren’t hung up on practical reality, and you don’t strike me as an ideologue. In fact, I’d rather you didn’t strike me at all.
As for the franchise thing, I attribute that to reading too much Heinlein.
I would say that you have moved away from Republicans because you don’t favor moral legislation and people getting into your shorts. I mean, private life.
(just kidding, I completely agree with you)
