Political philosophy:
Social liberal, opposed to government intervention in people’s lives but also a “classical liberal,” opposed to government intervention in the economy and supporting free markets and experimentation instead of centrally-driven planning.
Party:
No affiliation. My beliefs should qualify me as a libertarian, but the party’s a joke. Since I believe the economy is more important than pot smoking, I generally vote Republican. But Clinton wasn’t so bad.
On a side note, my conservative friends think I’m a staunch liberal, my liberal friends think I’m staunchly conservative, and my moderate friends think I’m just really contrary.
Mostly I feel that one way’s a good as the other as long as we’re all treated the same. I would, however, like the government to quit picking my pocket.
Wow interesting read. I guess I’ll give you the deal on both of my lives…I’ve lived exactly half of my life in Canada and exactly half in the USA with two years being lost to India.
Canadian Half
*Northern Quebec
*Liberal Party
*Socially Liberal/Fiscally Conservative
American
*Massachusetts
*now a Republican
*moderate Libertarian
I have to state for the record that it wasn’t until I worked for the Democrats in a professional capacity during the last election that I really started to despise them and what they stood for. I would probably register as Republican just so I wouldn’t get freaking harassed by the Dems around election time if I listed myself as Independent but I vote for the person not the party.
what i mean is that if ever a candidate were to come along in the democrats that wasn’t just jonesin’ and expectin’ my vote because i’m one of their token minorities but was actually in my mind a seriously committed candidate which i could personally manage to affirm…then i would vote democratic. until that happens, i’m just going to take try to hoard as much of my own money as i can by votin’ republican. guess what i’m trying to say is that i’ve seen the rather rotten interior, it made me heartsick and i’ve retired from it all to try and just try to get as much of my tax dollars back as i can. reformed left-leaner…you know how the story goes…
Very liberal socially, including legalizing (but regulating) drugs and prostitution.
Economically, mostly liberal with some notable apostasies:
-anti rent control,
-anti campaign finance reform (I think the ACLU agrees with me on this though),
-believe that taxation should be progressive but only to a limited extent, the 1986 U.S. tax code being the ideal: 15/28 brackets, no special treatment for capital gains, and as few deductions as possible,
-and that repealing the tax exemption for medical insurance and outlawing it as a benefit from work would be the quickest route to affordable health care, absent actual socialized medicine (my preferred solution, but it’ll never happen in the U.S.).
Generally Republican but have been known to vote Democrats and Independents in state races just to keep the Reps on their toes.
Libertarian / Fiscal Conservative with a streak of strict constitutionalism and a feeling that the states should be more pre-eminent in domestic issues then the feds.
Usual guiding social principle can be summed up with “Do whatever the heck you want to yourself (drugs, sex with prostitutes, ride your bicycle without a helmet), just don’t ask me to pay for the consequences.”
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