I’m a free trade liberal, which, fortunately, still means I disagree with Trump on almost everything.
At the moment there seems to be a real clamour on the left about cancelling all student debt but I’m not so sure about such a blanket move. Make it easier to file bankruptcy, eliminate the interest, even if cancelling is targeted for certain individuals who meet a certain criteria (say health issue which affected employability) I would probably get behind but the idea that someone who went to Harvard and has their loans covered by the public purse is not right for me.
I’m very lefty (by US standards).
I don’t think there’s any legislative way out of the gun violence cycle in the US. Banning guns is not only not politically feasible, but it would do very little about the hundreds of millions of guns already in society. And like drugs, banning something that’s both plentiful and with high demand is a recipe for lots of people in jail, but not much good.
The problem is US culture. We love guns and worship violence, especially gun violence. I don’t know how to change that, but until that changes I think we’re stuck with lots and lots of gun violence.
Also, the best solution for high housing costs is less restrictive zoning - property owners should be allowed to sell to multi family developers (or tear down and rebuild multi family themselves), and the reason so many big coastal cities in the US have sky high home costs is because so much of those cities’ residential land is single family only. Rent control or other far left proposals will not solve this, since it won’t create more housing. The free market is the best solution for most housing issues.
One more - nuclear power can be done safely and should be seen as a very valuable tool in the fight against climate change.
I agree with this. I’m baffled as to why the left hasn’t gotten on board with nuclear power.
Right wing
Pro choice
Pro Lgbt (though i have my limits)
Dont really care for Bible thumpers
I forgot drugs.
legalize all drugs. but the right winger in me says, it is your problem when you screw your life up shooting heroin.
Leftwing, but I’m generally against the whole non-GMO, organic, vegan artisan chia blend advocacy. There are some 7 billion people in the world and they need food. Not everyone one of them is going to be able to afford to feed themselves at the prices charged by your co-op. Sustainability is an issue, but fear of GMO toxins is a white persons problem.
Left of Center:
Affirmative action hasn’t been mentioned. I hate it. Especially the nonsense of denying that colleges have racial quotas and different standards for different races.
Birthright citizenship was added by the 14th amendment in 1868, basically to give black people citizenship and override Dredd Scott. No frontier was harmed or created in the passing of this amendment.
I’m moderate, socially liberal and economic Conservative. Accordingly, I like balanced budgets and favour social spending (but wish it was more needs-targeted, and better managed to improve accountability and reduce fraud). I am pleased with equitable Canuck access to education and health - but think Internet access should be a right all enjoy, which shouldn’t be left purely to market forces in a big country like Canada.
Couldn’t agree more.
Leftist. I’m not sold on welfare being a good idea. I support universal health care, but I think we need to find a way for capitalism to work for people rather than giving them a pittance to live off of. It does nothing to solve the poverty problem.
I don’t think universal student debt forgiveness is a great idea, even though it would help me very much. Very weird position to be in, hoping something happens that you don’t really agree with.
Nuclear power? In a heartbeat. I didn’t know that was a left/right thing. Isn’t it vastly more efficient? Better for the environment? What’s not to love?
Nuclear energy is like flying; it’s great if done right, catastrophic if not.
What are those limits?
I think this is the liberal position. The only time in living memory we’ve (the US) had a balanced budget was under a Democratic POTUS. Obama would have probably supported one, but the Republicans were against raising taxes to the level which would have been required to balance the budget.
ETA: At least it’s my position as a liberal, and unlike my views on criminal enforcement, I didn’t realize this view was out of step with my fellow liberals.
In Canada, there are three viable political parties. By international standards all of them are moderate. All favour universal education and health care. They differ slightly in tax policy and environmental concern, but by less than you might think. They differ less in foreign policy and love of quangos. Even the most Conservative party discusses issues like abortion and Sunday shopping in private because challenging a settled consensus would lose elections.
Never has the tyranny of little differences meant so much as in Hoser Politics.
I see balanced budgets as more conservative but, let’s face it, these words have been getting much more meaningless. Maybe it’s time to hold another Estates-General?
Out of curiosity - in Canada, when it came to earth-shatteringly large issues, such as the potential secession of Quebec - was it considered a conservative or liberal thing to support Quebec secession? (by Quebecois themselves, and non-Quebecer Canadians)
(not trying to derail the thread, just asking, since you mentioned that all three viable parties are moderate and don’t want to challenge settled consensus)
I only understood AA when I imagined myself to be a CEO. I’d want diversity by any means possible, because it is a good in itself, but I wouldn’t be so committed to social justice that I would care how I achieved diversity, If I were a CEO, the potential unfairness to people who the rebalance is not in favor of, and the fact that AA doesn’t do anything much for historically underrepresented people who still cannot get the bare minimum of a decent education wouldn’t matter to my bottom line. What would matter is that diversity itself is a strength for a company, and also looks good when people try to find companies to scapegoat, and is an easy way to help reduce egregious low-level racism and sexism that the CEO wouldn’t be aware of but nonetheless would be held responsible for in the public eye.
I don’t recall there being much of a general trend one way or the other based solely on political persuasions. The divide was more “Sick of Quebec’s shit” and “My Canada includes Quebec”, which was largely a personal decision, not political.
I think officially, all the (major*) parties supported keeping Quebec in Canada, but just about everyone realized that was because they really couldn’t say anything else. But no one I knew felt constrained by party loyalty to support or oppose Quebec independence.
*Of course the Quebec parties like the Bloq Quebecois didn’t, that being their whole point of existence, but then the BQ themselves aren’t really clearly right or left wing in the minds of most people outside of Quebec.
I’m left-wing. “To the left of the Communist Party” left wing.
Guns, I guess. I think they should have similar licencing and training requirements to driving, but other than that, should be issued at will.
I don’t think this is a RW thing anywhere but the US. Hell, in a lot of places, having some form of ID is compulsory overall, never mind just to vote with. And hardly anyone thinks it’s wrong.