I think marriage is important for raising families so I think it’s good for gays to get married. But don’t think single parenting should be encouraged.
Abortion is probably killing some life but unwanted babies arent gonna have a good life so I’m ok with abortion. Death penalty is fine with me too. Some people just cant be fixed.
I believe the USA is a force for good in the world and that we are mostly right. I’m not a multicultiralist. Theres a right way to do things and we should be encouraging people to do it that way and discouraging wrong ways.
Bad things happen to people that are beyond their control and so we need to help people but giving people things makes them weak and dependent so I believe in strict controls on social programs.
I’ve been more or less a social libertarian for years, with the fiscally liberal views coming around more recently.
I strongly believe that something needs to be done about healthcare but I think both sides are chasing a red herring. UHC would be addressing symptoms while ignoring root causes which is a very very Bad Thing IMO. And any system we get under this dominant Republican minority (figure that one out :rolleyes:) is going to be so crippled that it might be worthwhile for a couple dozen people anyway. It’s not going to change lives in significant numbers.
I personally cannot stand guns but as a practical matter I don’t think that gun legislation should go any farther. It’s a losing issue for the left and they should STFU about it.
I think gays and immigrants (no matter how they got here) should have every single right and privilege that everyone else has. And these are pretty much inevitable, btw; people who think otherwise, while legion now, will deny their current stances within a couple decades.
I’m leftist by U.S. standards, but I think I’d probably be considered right wing in most European countries. I don’t agree with the DNC on every issue, but I feel that of the two parties with a realistic chance of actually doing something, they represent me better. I used to look down on people who voted a straight party ticket and would spend a lot of time trying to decide who was the best candidate. The Clinton years taught me that the other party couldn’t play nice with even a moderate Democratic president, and we’re seeing it again now. I haven’t voted for a Republican for any office since and probably won’t ever again.
No it simply means that younger voters are likely to lead the way to the popular candidate. Ronald Reagan was very popular in 1980 and 1984 while Barack Obama is similarly popular to-day. Also pro-government intervention is a tendency of the Civic generations such as the Millenials or our grandfathers the Greatest Generation.
Republic. But not George Bush Republican. There’s the possibility that my party no longer exists.
Conservative
When it comes to social issues, I’m ambivalent. Government shouldn’t even get involved on the federal level. It’s why we’re a republic. When it comes to fiscal responsibility, I truly believe that you only have the right to that which you earn, despite the circumstances. There’s no inherent right to anything but your own life, and you forfeit that if you commit a capital crime. I’m not religious, but I also believe in life at conception. There’s too much education now to have convenience abortions. The fetus hasn’t committed a capital crime.
I’m a registered Republican, although that’s mostly for local reasons. I feel that the Conservative wing, which I do not agree with, has taken over the party on a national level. As a result, I vote for Democrats as often as Republicans.
Moderate with a sense of realism. Which includes the belief that you have to work with the system that exists in order to make any changes. Nothing was ever changed by somebody not doing something.
In the US? Progressive Democrats, or maybe Greens. I could be snide & say “Bolshevik,” but whatever.
Conservationist first, with Egalitarian hopes.
I’m an economic leftist, a former Malthusian who decided social democracy was a better path to building a sustainable society. I believe that central planning is better than the economic chaos of the free market. I’m not really that exercised over “social conservative/liberal” issues like abortion, gay marriage, lap dancing, public nudity, & obscenity laws. But I am strongly pro-contraception, & very leery of xenophobia & violent nationalism. I am also a Consequentialist.
ETA: Yeah, I don’t even care enough about gun policy to remember it. I understand the arguments on both sides, see it as an urban-rural split, & personally am in favor of multi-level licensing & exhaustive registration: Control, sort of, without total confiscation.
Liberal Democrat (fancy that). Extremely liberal on all social issues. I don’t care if you have hunting weapons or if you’re a paranoid douchebag, go ahead and keep a revolver in your nightstand. Other than that, I don’t see the need for citizens owning heavy firepower.
I think the Libertarian Party is a collection of loons, the Republicans are spineless wussies as they stand right now, and the Pelosi-Reid-Obama led Democrats are evil incarnate. When I vote, I generally hold my nose and pull Republican, but I’ll absolutely vote for the candidate that most stands for smaller gubmint and greater personal freedom.
I still identify as Republican, but decreasingly so at the national level as the party has become harder and harder to take seriously. But the Democratic party machine never impressed me much, either. I voted for Obama, but I may well have voted for McCain/Anyone Serious over HRC/Anyone. In my (somewhat conservative) state, I tend to vote Republican because the Democrats are just as conservative on social issues.
Increasingly liberal the older I get. Pro-market, but not dogmatically so. I’ve always been a staunch civil libertarian; in fact, I used to identify as Libertarian and that’s my default vote if I don’t like either of the major-party candidates.
I like to think of my politics as pragmatic. I was a late adopter on UHC and climate change (the latter not technically a political issue, but who are we kidding?), but the evidence finally convinced me. I think a lot of conservative policies are running more on ideology than evidence at the moment, but that’s subject to change at any time. Ideas that work > party affiliation.
I’m probably a bit to the right of Obama on economics but much more liberal on social issues. Don’t care about guns either way, so I’d rather see the Dems stay away from gun control.
Against the nationalistic fervor that enveloped America for a few years after 9/11, which was pretty creepy/frightening. Pro-immigration, pro-gay rights, pro-choice. Not thrilled with Obama so far, but will vote for him again in 2012.
I’m in the US, but frankly neither party tickles my fancy. My ideal party is the UK Liberal Democrats, but obviously they’re not an option. I’m certainly closer to the Democrats than the Republicans. I’m more of a Clinton Democrat than an Obama Democrat in many ways.
Liberal, with occasional libertarian leanings.
In the absence of compelling evidence against, I tend to adopt liberal viewpoints on issues naturally. I hold conservative views on a few very specific issues- bilingual education (except inasmuch as Spanish or other foreign languages are required to be utilized in ESOL classes), free trade and right-to-work laws. I’m philosophical pro-gun control, but against it in practice in the US because I don’t believe it’s consistent with the 2nd Amendment.
1. Which political group do you most identify with? Republican, Democrat, Independent, or Other?
I vote Democrat, but that’s only because I can’t in good conscience vote Republican. If only there were a viable alternative that actually had a snowball’s chance in hell of getting elected.
2. Would you describe your political ideals as: Mostly Conservative, Mostly Liberal, or Other?
Mostly liberal.
3. Any comment to clarify your responses above?
I’d consider voting for a Republican if he/she could keep their religious affiliation from coloring their policies, but I don’t think that’s possible. I think handguns should only be in the hands of police or military, but I’m realistic enough to know that the current ‘right’ to gun ownership has been around for soooo long that’s it’s too late in the game to change it.
Although I have been living in Canada for over 40 years, I still vote in presidential and senatorial elections.
Registered Democrat
Liberal (almost libertarian) on social matters, fairly conservative economically. Keynesian, really, but I subscribe to both halves: deficit spending during bad times, surpluses during the good ones. I think I might call that Josephian. Canada has done very well by that in the last 15 years, paying down a good portion of the national debt and now in deficit. And has sufferred much less from the “recession”. Although that may have been because there are just about a dozen national banks and they are closely regulated.
I have never voted for a Republican president and consider Reagan to have been a national disaster. Lucky that he spectated the Soviet Union’s implosion and doing his best to ramp up the national debt. Of Nixon, my mother said he should not have been allowed to walk the streets without ringing a bell and crying, “Unclean, unclean”. And I think many of the US foreign policy disasters over the past 50 years can be traced back directly to McCarthy’s destruction of the State Department.