Conservative: Gun ownership.
Liberal: Everything else.
Most conservative : the Constitution
Most liberal : freedom
OK, how do you feel about burning the flag?
Anti-evil.
Keynesian, pro-freedom, pro-justice (which I think is a prerequisite for true freedom). In the U.S. today I pretty consistently come down on the left of most questions, but I don’t identify with the left at the expense of examining what the specific positions are.
I’m a UHC/legalize weed lib but my evil conservative side comes out in a preference for school vouchers. I think parents should have the most say in how their kids are educated, even if said education is paid for publically. And even if the kids are taught the wrong stuff.
Cite? And not to some NRA talking points, a 18th century source.
Liberal:
- Homosexuality:
o Marriage: Let them have all the joy the straights have, including alimony.
o Serve in the military (I knew a few gay people when I was in the Army and couldn’t care less).
o Adoption: They can’t do worse than most straight couples. - Drugs: decriminalize recreational pot usage
- Environment: Clean air, water, land. But let’s be sensible. If building a factory that will employ hundreds of people will displace the green-assed snipe then I guess it’s tough tiddly-winks for the snipe. People are more important than animals.
Conservative:
- Defense: Keep us strong and well-defended but spend the money sensibly. Don’t waste billions on outdated or unneeded weapons systems (I’m looking at you, Abrams and F35). This includes our intelligence agencies. Lack of humint and an over-reliance on elint was a key failing prior to 9/11. This does not mean we should just let Big Brother (or Sister) listen in to all our phone calls and snoop through our underwear drawers.
- Budget:
o Balance the freaking thing already!
o Don’t spend more than you make.
o If you need to spend more on a project, do not automatically assume that raising taxes to pay for it is the solution. Sometimes it is necessary to cut one project to pay for another.
o Cut the pork! I know you want to be a hero to the folks back home, Congressperson, but do we really need $50 million federal dollars for a museum in Bug Tussle, Montana glorifying the history of navel lint? - Guns: Any citizen can own a gun, up to and including the dreaded “assault weapons”. However, the owner must:
o Pass a background check clearing them of any convictions
o Take and pass a state organized firearms safety course that teaches proper handling, maintenance, usage and storage of the weapon. The owner must retake and pass the certification every 2 years.
o Any conviction immediately nullifies your eligibility - Loonies need not apply. You pay a visit to the head shrinker and you lose your license. No questions asked. I don’t care if it is to treat your eating disorder or because you are concerned about your romantic feelings for your hamster.
- Voting: If you need an ID to write or cash a check then why the hell don’t you need an ID to vote? Don’t give me that crap about how it will “disenfranchise” the poor. If you are getting paid through a job or welfare your pay check will be put in your hand or direct deposited. If it is direct deposited you had to have some kind of ID to open the account. If you are handed the check then you have to cash it somehow and will need an ID for that. If you are an illegal alien being paid cash then you have no freaking right to vote anyway so shut up. Which leads to…
- Immigration: Come here legally, follow the process and we’re OK. Hop a border, swim a river, get smuggled in disguised as a sack of potatoes? Your butt gets sent back to Pottsylvania or wherever the hell you came from. Snuck in and then give birth here? Too bad. No more "anchor babies”. The idea of a kid being born in the US automatically making them a US citizen was all well and good when we still had the Oklahoma Territory but has long outlived its usefulness. I don’t care if you have been here 20 years or 20 minutes. You are called an “illegal alien” because you broke the law! You are not an “undocumented migrant”. That was Tom Joad.
- Energy: all energy sources are to be used and explored
o Nuclear: The US Navy has had a fantastic safety record. There are great new thorium designs. Why not build new plants?
o Coal: Keep digging, keep processing, keep burning. But also keep cleaning it up and find cleaner ways to burn it.
o Solar: All well and good but not efficient enough yet. Let businesses work on it (without government subsidies)
o Wind: see solar
o Oil: Ah, the biggie. I hate to quote Palin (WTH was McCain thinking?) but “Drill, baby, drill”. There are reserves available in US territories so it should be used. That includes oil shale. Get oil from Canada through Keystone. But also make cars more efficient. Maybe someday we’ll have an electric car that can travel over 100 miles without recharging and can recharge in less than 8 hours from a standard outlet but it ain’t happening now. - Abortion: legal through first trimester for cases of rape or incest, after if the mothers life is in danger. I held my 20 week son when he was born prematurely. Too early to be saved as a premie, he died in my arms gasping for breath. The law says he could have been aborted at will. If you don’t want to get pregnant, use birth control or don’t have sex. If you do have sex, be responsible and accept the consequences. Partial birth abortions are illegal, period. That is called murder. Speaking of which…
- Death penalty: Yes. Premeditated murder = death. Insane when he committed the crime? Gee, I’ll feel so safe when he is “cured”.:rolleyes: No, let him ride Ol’ Sparky. Notice that I said “premeditated”, though. Heat of the moment doesn’t count. Neither does negligence. However if your negligence kills lots of people (you drunk drive through a parade) then you’re next up on the gallows.
- Affirmative action: You want to get a job or go to a school? Show me you are qualified. I don’t care if you are black, white, straight, gay, walk with a limp or have three nipples and tail. If you can do the job I’ll hire you. If I think you are better qualified than another person, you get the job. I will not hire a woman as firefighter just because we don’t have enough women on the fire department. If my fat ass has to be carried down the ladder from burning building, that person better not drop me. If you can pass the tests for a school, congratulations, you’re in. You don’t move ahead of the line just because you are 1/16th Inuit. No more than you get in because your great-granddaddy blew Ulysses S Grant and you are now a “legacy”.
I know I probably sound like some knuckle-dragging Tea Party loon. I’m as disgusted by Glenn Beck as I am by Rachel Maddow. Ed Schultz should be put in a cage match with Sean Hannity. And someone needs to give Rush Limbaugh a habanero high colonic.
I just think too many people are expecting things to be given to them. Remember the old Smith Barney slogan, “We make our money the old fashioned way. We earned it.” I’ll help you up but I won’t carry you. I’ll give you the shirt off my back, but I would like it back someday. I’ll treat you with respect as my equal but you must do the same for me.
Hmmmmm. I’m sure a liberal’s deep desire for gun control will only last till their home is invaded, their children murdered and their partner is being sodomised.
I have no desire to shoot animals or paper targets, but if someone breaks into my property and threatens my, and my family’s life, I will put a 12 gauge load of lead through their body without a second thought and no regrets.
BTW, are you saying I shouldn’t own that baseball bat I have in my bedroom? What about all those kitchen knives? Boxers hands ( amputation??? )?
It’s like people that see no reason for a military till the enemy invades, and then they just luuuuuuve the troops.
Most liberal: pro abortion rights all the way through the third trimester (but willing to negotiate).
Most conservative: benefits relating to old age should be means tested and the age requirements should be advancing because modern average health is better at age than it was when the standards were created.
Liberal: LGBT issues, immigration
Conservative: Guns. Though I am a pacifist, I hold very highly the right of an individual to own a gun and if we are going to further regulate them, we must have a very compelling argument and have exhausted all other approaches.
I couldn’t even explain to you why I’m so conservative about guns. I grew up in a gun culture with guns in the house, etc. but I was never truly comfortable with them. I sort of hate them. It just feels wrong to me to arbitrarily take away someone’s right to have one. I guess it’s just the recognition that freedom is freedom and you can’t pick and choose which ways someone should be free and which ways they shouldn’t based on how ‘‘comfortable’’ you feel.
What does this even mean?
Most Conservative: I’m a strong Second Amendment supporter.
Most Liberal: Environment
Are you saying that until we eliminate all possible implements for committing murder, that we cannot lift a finger to control the most efficient instrument of death? Sure, you can kill me with a knife. But I like my chances against your knife as opposed to dodging your gunshots.
If someone breaks into my home, I shall call the police. If they commit other crimes, I trust the law enforcement and legal system to deal with it. I don’t fantasize about turning into Dirty Harry when the sun goes down.
I’m extremely liberal on economic issues in the sense that I think we should use the power of the state and individuals (via unions and whatnot) to have a more egalitarian distribution of wealth both domestically and internationally. I don’t know if thinking gov. regulation in the market is considered liberal (sadly the overton window has moved so far to the right on economic issues that I think it does almost), but we need gov intervention to prevent abuses, boom/bust cycles and plutocracy.
I’m pretty liberal on social issues, but economic issues are my main motivator. Also I’m pretty liberal in the sense that I respect science as an objective method of discovery (whereas in today’s US conservative circles, science is considered suspect and subjective).
I would say I’m most conservative on school vouchers, being pro-Israel, wanting a hard line over negotiations with North Korea, etc.
Also when it comes to international development aid, the amount of money that goes through remittances far exceeds the amount donated by wealthy countries. So that is a real life example of the concept of charity begins with the family. Not that I think that is true in the largest sense (most people can’t/shouldn’t quit their jobs to fund their parents retirement, that is what SS and medicare are for) but it is an example of the conservative principal of families taking care of each other financially.
Also I’ve heard the argument that foreign aid, at least when given improperly, can stymie economic growth by undercutting local businesses, removing incentives to work, etc.
I’m a libertarian, so…
I suppose I’m most “conservative” on guns; I think everybody who wants one should be allowed to get one, and carry it whenever and wherever they want. I also believe that private property owners are free to forbid guns on their property.
I’m most “liberal”* on drugs; I believe the money we’ve spent, and the lives we’ve ruined, on this phony Drug War amounts to an appalling waste. Legalize everything. Get armed criminal gangs out of the drug manufacture and distribution business. Let addicts get their fixes at clinics.
*I say “liberal” here in the philosophical sense, rather than the strictly political sense. There are more than enough “liberals” in power in this country who are more than happy to continue this stupid Drug War.
Most conservative: baseball
Most liberal: football
I’m a little confused why it’s “conservative” to favor people’s rights to own firearms (subject to certain minimal restrictions) and “liberal” to favor people’s rights to purchase intoxicants (subject to etc…) and marry the gender they please. Don’t those positions all spring from the same ideology: that a hallmark of a free society is that it largely allows people to do what they will, as long as they do not interfere with the rights of others?
**Most conservative: **
I think abortion should be illegal without exception.
I support hereditary monarchy and aristocracy, with more than nominal power.
Most liberal:
I think prostitution, incest, and polygamy should all be legal, provided they are done among consenting adults. And people who possess (as opposed to create) child pornography should be treated, not punished.
I think private car ownership should be massively reduced, and we should develop an effective nationwide passenger train system.
I think healthcare should be provided by the government, free of charge.
The U.S. is a strange country, in which certain positions tend to group together. And purely for the same of convenience, we call one of these groupings “liberal” and the other grouping “conservative”. Don’t read too deeply into the names.
I’m progressive/liberal on every single issue you can name. I’m pretty sure that I’m conservative on nothing at all, except for the way I personally prefer to dress (which I don’t apply to anyone but myself).
OK, I admit to being moderately conservative on American English grammar, spelling, and punctuation. But that’s pretty much it.
According to Jonathan Haidt, as you move from left to right values like fairness and protecting people from harm lose value while values like authority, ingroup/outgroup dynamics and purity grow in value.
http://www.tcdailyplanet.net/sites/tcdailyplanet.net/files/2011/October/ted5ethicsliberalconser.jpg
Drugs and gay marriage are impure in this culture (would people promote them at a formal dinner?) and they go against traditional values which frown on them. But they cause a lot of harm and are unfair. So liberals support them, as you move to the right support declines. Supposedly people on the right are more aware of how fragile the social fabric is and are more willing to support unfairness towards those at the bottom rather than undergo social revolution to promote egalitarianism (but to be fair conservatives are virtually never in an abused group, they are usually at the pinnacle of the sociopolitical tower as heterosexual male WASPs so the incentive isn’t there. But do anything to take away any of their rights and there is always hell to pay, even if it is just a fraction of what they’ve called to be done to others). Of course, gay marriage is not the same thing as France under Robespierre, but most of the time whenever a liberal supports a policy that increases fairness and decreases harm (environmental laws, labor laws, economic regulations, civil rights, political rights, human rights) some vocal conservatives start to claim it will cause society to collapse, the moral fabric to fall apart, the economy to collapse, etc. because people’s values are not the same. Conservatives are more aware of (generically) the fragility of society and have less interest in egalitarianism, liberals support egalitarianism even if it causes massive social and economic unrest.
I have no idea how guns fit into that scenario.