Yup. Not answering as the poll itself with only those two options.
That said I find more evil by far in the Far Right than the Far Left. Hate is more often contained on the extreme Right than on the extreme Left. The extreme Left is more often just misguided and mistaken (IMHO.) But hate resides there too, as in all extremist positions.
Middle of the road more one way or the other I agree more with the left than the right but “better”? Too odd of a word for a poll answer.
That’s my US point of view as well.
That’s it. When you account for the results instead of just looking at the intentions the choice is much harder, even though I agree the far right is more evil than the far left. The left is ineffective and often stupidly driving voters to the right as a result.
Liberals are better.
But Radicals are every bit as bad as Reactionaries. The extremes are equally bad.
Until recent events I would have agreed that there is bad in both camps, although I certainly lean left. Now that the right has genuflected before agent orange, I cannot see anything so evil on the left. Yes, there are left wing kooks, but minor and not nearly as self-serving.
I am reading a wonderful book, “Democracy and Dictatorship” by Sheri Berman. Essentially European (and eventually American) history from the 18th century on. Over and over, the democratizing forces have shot themselves in the foot by a failure to reach a reasonable compromise (cf. the 2016 election, where too many Bernie supporters sat it out), leaving the right in charge.
Pretty much. Our political spectrum runs from far right (republicans) to center left (progressives). We don’t have a far left (communists).
The polling data seems quite different here pre-Trump and post-Trump.
I find the democratic party, at least their leadership, to be stupid, pig-headed and arrogant, but, by their own admission, the republicans want me to die*, so i consider myself an anti-republican.
Next up in polls that totally won’t cause angry shouting: “Name your five favorite human races - in order.”
I have to pick the left because (generalizing) that platform seems more people/society-centric.
The right seems more individual person-centric or at best tribal-centric.
I think that had its place when European people were first settling the US.
But as a society grows, it has to be more co-operative in order to survive; it has to care about all its constituents, not just the “strong”.
You prefer being a “nomad”? I guess it would be a smart thing to move to a relatively empty western state and get a big property and claim you need nothing from no one.
Looking at American politics today, the politics of left vs right appears to have largely consolidated into good vs evil.
“Better”? That’s a weird way of asking which way people lean. Now if you’d have been specific I might have bothered voting, but this is just weird.
I don’t think even the right believes that its own policies will make a better America. But if someone wants to write a few graphs explaining otherwise, I’ll read them.
Harvested from Usenet many, many years ago (i.e. I am not the author and don’t know who was):
How To Tell Conservatives From Liberals:
Liberals buy most of the books that have been banned somewhere.
Conservatives form censorship committees and read them as a group.
Liberals give their worn out clothes to those less fortunate.
Conservatives wear theirs.
Liberals name their children after currently popular sports figures, politicians, and entertainers.
Conservative children are named after their parents or grandparents, according to where the money is.
Conservatives tend to keep their shades drawn, although there is seldom any reason why they should.
Liberals ought to, but don’t.
Conservative boys date Liberal girls. They plan to marry Conservative girls, but feel that they’re entitled to a little fun first.
Liberals make plans and then do something else.
Conservatives follow the plans their grandfathers made.
Conservatives sleep in twin beds–some even in separate rooms.
That is why there are more Liberals.
==========
Politics: It all really just boils down to this:
Criminals:
Liberals: Give them a second chance.
Conservatives: Give them the swift sword of death.
The poor:
Liberals: Give them some food.
Conservatives: Give them the swift sword of death.
Endangered species:
Liberals: Give them protection.
Conservatives: Give them the swift sword of death.
Dictators:
Liberals: Give them a way out.
Conservatives: Give them the swift sword of death.
The uninsured:
Liberals: Give them health care.
Conservatives: Give them the swift sword of death.
*The cost:
Liberals: $9,000,000,000,000,000,000
Conservatives: $29.95 (cost of one sword)
From the Trump supporters I talk to on FB, they most definitely ***do ***believe the political right’s policies will make a better America. They adamantly hold, with true sincerity, that things like deporting illegal immigrants, cutting taxes, traditional marriage, religious freedom, supporting 2nd-Amend rights, appointing conservative Supreme Court justices, opposing abortion, etc. will make for a stronger economy, lower crime, and better moral fabric.
This Gallup poll is now a couple of years old, but it lists some issues that the American public thinks Republicans (and presumably this includes their policies) “would do a better job of dealing with”:
[ul]
[li]National defense and the military[/li][li]Federal government debt[/li][li]Terrorism[/li][li]Illegal immigration[/li][li]Gun policy[/li][li]The size and power of the federal government[/li][li]The economy (very slight edge)[/li][/ul]
I’m mostly conservative but I voted Liberal. What the conservative politicians actually do doesn’t align with most of my beliefs. The Liberals are somewhat better in adhering to their principals at least.
Interesting list. Obviously what party one trusts to make the best policies concerning illegal immigration, gun policy, or the size and power of the federal government depends on what one sees as the problem in each case.
But on the other four, they’re simply wrong, though it’s hardly their fault. The MSM bought into the notion of the GOP being the ‘daddy party’ an age ago, the one that knew how to deal with budgets at home, and threats in the world.
That of course is bullshit. The Dems have been the true party of fiscal responsibility ever since freakin’ Jimmy Carter, while the Republicans cut taxes for the rich every chance they get. The economy consistently does better under Democrats, and of course Democrats are at least going to try to make sure that working people get some of the benefits of that.
National defense and the military? Let’s compare: Clinton was responsible for a largely successful intervention in the Balkans, and negotiated the Agreed Framework with North Korea that kept them from developing nuclear weapons. Bush got us into one war in Afghanistan where we should have been in and out, but we’re still there nearly 2 decades later - and another war in Iraq that was a fucking disaster. He also abandoned the Agreed Framework (appeasement, you know?) so NK got nukes. Obama got Iran to give up their nuclear weapons program and agree to rigorous inspections. Trump ditched that agreement, and kissed up to Kim Jong Un.
You’ve got to go back to Desert Storm - 28 years ago! - to get back to the time when the Republicans were better at this defense/military stuff. Ever since, the Dems have known what they were doing, and the GOP has been the party of fuckups.
Terrorism? Ha! How many of those PDBs did Dubya ignore? The infamous August 6, 2001 PDB was, IIRC, the sixth in a series of increasingly hair-on-fire warnings from the intelligence community to Dubya, and he ignored them all. And so the towers fell.
And afterwards, he only briefly let the hunt for bin Laden be a priority, because he had other fish to fry in Iraq. So this guy who killed 3000 Americans got away for the rest of Bush’s Presidency. And of course the mess he made of Iraq basically destabilized that part of the Middle East, paving the way for ISIS.
It’s thanks to Obama that bin Laden sleeps with the fishes, and it’s also under Obama that ISIS had its ‘caliphate’ taken away.
Quite simply, the GOP is the party of fuckups. They fuck up fiscal responsibility and the economy, and they fuck up defense and our response to terrorism. They didn’t used to be that way, but that’s what they’ve become. They elect fuckup Presidents, and then stand foursquare behind them, no matter how much they fuck up in office.
The public is wrong about all of that. Republicans have clearly demonstrated that they don’t know what the fuck they’re doing when they try to govern (or lead) and don’t really care about doing so anyway.
You’re both obviously entitled to your opinions about the matter. I was simply providing an answer to the earlier question about whether “the right believes that its own policies will make a better America.” The country as a whole believes that, at least in certain policy arenas, and obviously the right does as well.