I've Been Accused of being Liberal. Okay I'm laying my cards on the table (1 Viewer)

[City Champ]

Issues:

*Gun Control: no one needs to own an assault rifle. handguns and hunting rifles are fine by me.

*Gay marriage: I could care less if gay folks want to get married, as long as it isnt in the catholic church. personally i think the solution is to strip any tax benefits from married couples and treat us all as equal individuals.

*abortion: im pro life.

*Church and STate: keep them separated. faith based initiatives are bad bad news. as soon as the gubment funds a faith based initiative, that initiative is tied to that funding and easily manipulated by said gubment.

*Taxes: i hate taxes, but i hate corporate tax breaks even more. lets all play on an even playing field and initiate the flat tax, or a sales tax on non consumables for personal use. i have no problem tying in sin taxes to that as well (and i smoke like a chimney and enjoy the occasional beverage). if a corporation is entitled to every right as a citizen, save voting in public elections, they should be taxed in the same damn manner.

*Foreign Policy: this one is tough. i dont think we should have ever came to iraq, but now that we are here, we must finish the job.

*Education: give cash to the states and let them run education.

*Trade: tarrifs on countries that place tarrifs on our exports, and free trade with those that dont.

*Welfare: complete reform with additional funding. we must ween people off of welfare, and create a payment system, via cash or volunteer efforts in the community, to repay what was given. education goals should be tied to every welfare recipient, either through themselves and or their children.

*Campaign Finance--demand the broadcast companies give free and equal airtime to every candidate. limit campaign contributions to 100 per citizen and corporation.

*Death Penalty--im against the death penalty. it isnt a deterrant.

*Social Security--i will probably never see it but...forgive me, but i just dont trust american companies with that much money. i have no solution...

*Energy--get off of oil, or start uncapping the wells we have in our own back yard.

*Environment--we need a common sense balance with a plan to replenish natural resources.

*Immigration--stop worrying about mexico and concentrate on the canadian borders. thats where the terrorists cross.

*Civil Liberties--gubment, leave me alone please...patriot act is bad news.

i consider myself a constitutional conservative. if it were up to me, i would strip the majority of the powers from the feds and ask them to concentrate on a few simple things. gubment, keep the infrastructure sound. that includes highways, digital and traditional, as well as power grids. gubment, protect me from enemies foreign and domestic. gubment, use the FDA to keep bad stuff out of the medicine cabinet...

give all the power to the states. we pride ourselves on capitalism right? why dont we apply the same principles to our governing system? dispurse tax dollars according to population and land mass. if a state is doing a great job with health care, business development, and education, chances are businesses and people will flock there...
let the market work...

 

[Lurkaholic]

Liberal sinner.

 

[JRTexas55]

We live in a great Country allows us to be what we Want to be!

You know who you are. Ante up. Let's see who the real "conservatives" are.

Issues:

Gun Control: See 2nd Amendment.
*Gay marriage/abortion: See 10th Amendment; and For limiting Gay marriage, perhaps see 14th amendment.
*Church and STate: See founding fathers--keep them separated.
*Taxes: When High, tax cuts are good, when low, keep them low. Tax subsidies to large corporations has to go. No more corporate welfare.
*Foreign Policy: Get out of Iraq--it's too expensive, and it's a guerrilla war. Let the Iraqis handle their business. I certainly don't support Pax Americana
*Education: Abolish Federal intervention; some funding is good, but abolish oversite.
Trade: I'm for free trade
Welfare: I think some social welfare is good and necessary; we need a social safety net, but not a hammock.
*Campaign Finance--Here I might be considered a bit liberal. Corporations and lobbyists are way too powerful; reign them in somehow.
Death Penalty--I think death is far too merciful a fate.
Social Security--I was actually for the Bush plan--making it more privatized would net a better return for workers' money.
*Energy--I might be construed as a liberal on this issue; nobody can sit here and tell me this country can't invest in some Manhattan project to get this country off the dependency of fossil fuels. It would have miraculous effects vis a vis middle east policy and making this country more entrepreneurial.
*Environment--I don't agree with the extremists, but I believe in common sense government protection of this nation's natural resources.
*Immigration--No more laws limiting immigration. Enforce the ones on the books. Building a fence won't help and would be a big waste of money.
*Civil Liberties--Sorry, giving carte blanche powers vis a vis the Patriot Act violates my true, conservative Lockean sensibilities. Giving an executive branch of government the power to snoop with no oversight is asking for trouble. I don't care if it's in the name of terrorism.

The (*) next to the issue is where I differ from the Republican Party. Notice on many issues it's where HE, and his party as strayed from real (tm) conservative values. There should be no "Child Left Behind," and inviting more government into religion just invites government where it shouldn't be--in people's bedrooms and churches. There should be no federal definition of marriage; it's a state issue.

The one time which I do think massive federal intervention was necessary his administration fell woefully short was Katrina. The only government which was able to respond adequetely was the feds. Things only got better when Bush finally, FINALLY sent in federal troops.

Ante up.

Anybody think I'm a liberal now?

However, watch your step you may fall off by going too far left.

 

[Severum]

Gun Control: handguns/rifles yes, assault weapons/RPGs/SAMs no, mandatory licensing, background checks, and education.

Gay Marriage: let everyone marry/civilly unionize or get the government out of the business.

Abortion: morning after yes, first trimester yes, any time for mother's health, mandatory sex-ed and free birth control.

Church and State: remove it and keep it out.

Taxes: support more progressive taxation and inheritance taxes (~25 million+ adjusted with inflation), fair corporate tax policy.

Foreign Policy: stop being the world's police, withdraw from Iraq ASAP.

Education: federal funding and research, revamp public education methods, don't treat kids like criminal sardines, offer free higher education.

Trade: free but fair (human rights, environmental standards) trade.

Welfare: some of the population will always need it, WIC and unemployment good, unlimited welfare bad, focus on job training and placement.

Campaign Finance: fully public campaign finance, restrict 527s/PACs.

Death Penalty: against, costs too much, doesn't serve a purpose beyond vengeance, don't trust our justice system.

Social Security: open to limited privatization, stop the government from raiding it.

Energy: do everything possible to reduce oil consumption. Strict pollution controls on coal, large push for solar, wind, geothermal and other alternative energy adoption/research. Open to new nuclear technology. Raise natural gas prices.

Environment: a top 3 issue, we have an ethical obligation to protect the environment. Natural resources should be used in a responsible and renewable manner.

Immigration: overhaul the management of the current system, encourage immigration of those with advanced degrees, seal the border then offer amnesty and documentation for all current residents.

Civil Liberties: another top 3 issue, government should expand our freedoms not restrict them.

Health Care: universal health care to control rising costs and remain competitive with other industrialized nations, focus on prevention rather than treatment, revamp the FDA.

Drug Policy: legalize it, tax it, offer treatment for addicts.

 

[Pasty]

Gun Control: handguns/rifles yes, assault weapons/RPGs/SAMs no, mandatory licensing, background checks, and education.

Gay Marriage: let everyone marry/civilly unionize or get the government out of the business.

Abortion: morning after yes, first trimester yes, any time for mother's health, mandatory sex-ed and free birth control.

Church and State: remove it and keep it out.

Taxes: support more progressive taxation and inheritance taxes (~25 million+ adjusted with inflation), fair corporate tax policy.

Foreign Policy: stop being the world's police, withdraw from Iraq ASAP.

Education: federal funding and research, revamp public education methods, don't treat kids like criminal sardines, offer free higher education.

Trade: free but fair (human rights, environmental standards) trade.

Welfare: some of the population will always need it, WIC and unemployment good, unlimited welfare bad, focus on job training and placement.

Campaign Finance: fully public campaign finance, restrict 527s/PACs.

Death Penalty: against, costs too much, doesn't serve a purpose beyond vengeance, don't trust our justice system.

Social Security: open to limited privatization, stop the government from raiding it.

Energy: do everything possible to reduce oil consumption. Strict pollution controls on coal, large push for solar, wind, geothermal and other alternative energy adoption/research. Open to new nuclear technology. Raise natural gas prices.

Environment: a top 3 issue, we have an ethical obligation to protect the environment. Natural resources should be used in a responsible and renewable manner.

Immigration: overhaul the management of the current system, encourage immigration of those with advanced degrees, seal the border then offer amnesty and documentation for all current residents.

Civil Liberties: another top 3 issue, government should expand our freedoms not restrict them.

Health Care: universal health care to control rising costs and remain competitive with other industrialized nations, focus on prevention rather than treatment, revamp the FDA.

Drug Policy: legalize it, tax it, offer treatment for addicts.

Severum made it easy for me...

lus-un2:

 

[ra]

Liberal sinner.

I'm extremely liberal with my sinning as well.


I'm a liberal hedonistic apathetic nazi.
With gluttonous undertones.
And sour cream.

 

[Saint77]

Copy and paste rules. Sorry Sev, im stealing your formatting. ..and some of your answers too.

Gun Control: handguns/rifles yes, assault weapons/RPGs/SAMs no, mandatory licensing, background checks, and education.

Gay Marriage: I think this is down to a state issue. On a personal level I oppose it, on a level of outside of what I think, I cant justify fully opposing it, but not fully accepting all aspects of it. Yeah, im sorta riding the fence on this one.

Abortion: morning after yes, first trimester yes, any time for mother's health, mandatory sex-ed and free birth control.

Stealing Sev's opinion here, but I will add, I'm loath to screw with free will. The thing is, I may not like someones choices, but that doesn't mean I have the right to impose my beliefs on another because I think its wrong. I inherently oppose abortion. What cracks me up is the religious folk, who are so concerned for the lives of the unborn. So am I to gather from this concern(or what could easily be construed as lack of faith in said God's plan), that God(or insert any chosen deity here, or modality of God) doesn't have a plan for the unborn? hasn't forseen(and subsequently planned for) this? I'm not worried about the unborn, its the living I fear/fear for.

Church and State: remove it and keep it out.

Taxes: support more progressive taxation and inheritance taxes (~25 million+ adjusted with inflation), fair corporate tax policy.

Foreign Policy: stop being the world's police, withdraw from Iraq ASAP.

Education: federal funding and research, revamp public education methods, don't treat kids like criminal sardines, offer free higher education.

Trade: free but fair (human rights, environmental standards) trade.

Welfare: some of the population will always need it, WIC and unemployment good, unlimited welfare bad, focus on job training and placement.

Campaign Finance: This is a tough one of me. I am not fully educated in the matter, so if I some ignorant in this matter, so be it. I think one of the things that irritates me the most is watching an elected official take time out of his work schedule, for a $xxx a plate dinner or whatever to raise monies for party or whatever. seeing one party have x millions of dollars more then the other also bothers me. Id like to see these people draw equally from a fund in which all participants get equal amounts of monies. what they do with it is their business form that point on, as long as its spent for their campaigns of course. I do not want to see Individual and companies loading huge sums of monies into a party or individual.

Death Penalty: I'm all for it. and i'm all for enforcing the legal system to be more judicious in handing it out, and enforcing DNA checking policies accross the country. I think this country has been really lacking in strong punishments for crimes, and therefore using it as a deterant will often fail.

Social Security: Strongly against privatizing any part of it. I am strongly for locking it up so that no one can dip into the monies for any reason whatsoever. Workers Comp is privatized here, i've seen whats been done to it, and I want no part of it.

Energy: do everything possible to reduce oil consumption. Strict pollution controls on coal, large push for solar, wind, geothermal and other alternative energy adoption/research. Open to new nuclear technology. Raise natural gas prices.

Environment: a top 3 issue, we have an ethical obligation to protect the environment. Natural resources should be used in a responsible and renewable manner.

Immigration: overhaul the management of the current system, encourage immigration of those with advanced degrees, seal the border then offer amnesty and documentation for all current residents.

The only part I disagree with is the last part of the above statement. We need to correct our errors first, and at the same time overhaul and reform our immigration policies. I'm all about building a fence(and not some half assed job of it either, and forget video survailance and unmanned drones for patrolling porposes) and kicking most of those here illegally out. Im also all about encouraging Mexico strongly, to get their collective ____ together to make their country a little more appealing for their own residents to stay there and become a better country. I am insulted by our elected officials who think its ok to absorb a huge chunk of another countries poor population, when we already have enough problems to deal with within our own.

Health Care: universal health care to control rising costs and remain competitive with other industrialized nations, focus on prevention rather than treatment, revamp the FDA.

Ill add this, I think it should be law, or, something to that effect, that physicians and providers are not allowed to charge patients without insurance the same rates or higher that they do insruance companies. Anyone who has lived without medical for a number of years knows exactly what i'm talking about.

 

[iron error]

Sorry for straying off format here, but

For the pro-universal health care Americans...

do you all agree with this statement?

"universal health care to control rising costs"

cause that just makes no economic sense to me.

does anyone realize how terribly abused the Medicaid system is, and to make it bigger? yipes.

I wish there was a way to get everyone covered in some manner, but if the government is involved I would guess we all would pay another 2% a year in extra taxes. We need some kind of free preventative coverage I think.

 

[Jacob]

-Gun Control: I agree with OnePeat here in that I'm okay with handguns and various hunting equipment, but assault riflles and the like should be kept off of the street.

-Gay marriage/abortion: I have no problems at all with homosexual marriages and feel they have every right to enjoy the same benefits as a heterosexual couple. Abortion is a murky topic and one I'm not really sure of. It isn't necessarily one of the hot-button topcs I look for in one's policies as long as they are not blindly pro-life or pro-choice. It is a situational thing, IMO.

-Church and State: Separate. Completely.

-Taxes: Agree with SaintRebel in that the corporate tax breaks are suck. I would so much rather have several Langenstein's than one Wal-Mart.

-Foreign Policy: Ugh. We should stop being world police. I supported going into Afghanistan...not Iraq.

-Education: Completely agree with Richard here.

-Trade: Free Trade

-Welfare: Focus should be more on work programs than hand-outs. The generational sense of entitlement and the use of welfare as a crutch is sickening to me for the most part. Again, I agree with OnePeat about education goals.

-Campaign Finance: Fair and equal time to each candidate. There are some with great ideas that just don't have the clout.

-Death Penalty: We should have more gruesome killings.

-Social Security: I agree with LSSpam.

-Energy: Agree with most of the above. It's a no-brainer we should have an independent source.

-Environment: Don't agree with the hairly legged women who live in trees or anything, but I do believe we should tread lightly and install better cleanup policies. I don't have a solution, but I hope that we are able to take better advangtage of renewables.

-Immigration: You can't really stop illegals crossing over; I don't really see the point in spending more money to try and prevent it. Send them back; keep those who are a bonus to our society.

-Civil Liberties: Patriot Act = Worst document ever.

 

[RebSaint]

Forgot some issues.

*Drugs--I'm for legalization of marijauna, and going from there on decriminilization on other drugs. The "War" on drugs is like the war in Iraq. It hasn't worked.

Healthcare--I'm not for universal healthcare. I'd support a universal program which would cover just the basics, but I'd be happier with just reforming the insurance industry.

By the way, there's a point to all the (*). For many Republican voters, I'll have you notice that:
A. On many issues I'm to THE RIGHT of the Republican Party.

Another observation: There's some stark differences on particular issues, but most posters are what I thought they were. Some suprised me. I didn't know Jacob and Severum were that conservative, and Richard I assumed was more conservative. But on the whole, most are to the right or left of center.

Thanks for all who chimed in. I like this line: "Don't agree with the hairly legged women who live in trees or anything"

 

[TulsaSaint]

2 As a conservative I agree with banning same sex marriages. Mainly because if children are involved I see it as child abuse.
C

Could you please clarify this statment? Not sure I understand the logic here.

So if gay couples can't legally get married (but can still live together and raise kids), it's not child abuse? How does a marriage license make a gay relationship more or less abusive of children?

It never ceases to amaze me how people who do not think things through can manage to connect gay people or gay marriage to virtually any evil in the world. Over the last few months on this board, we have seen gay marriage linked to child abuse, beastiality, polygamy, and incest, and we've seen gay people accused of being more prone to molesting children. Not to mention the constant rants about gay people not being able to be Christians and being damned to hell.

It's really starting to get repetitive and annoying. One person rants on here for a while with a string of unfounded, unprovable, uneducated, uninformed rants about gay people. Those of us who are a little bit more tolerant (or ourselves gay) shoot them down. A few weeks later, another one shows up with the exact same tired arguments, and we shoot them down again. If we merged all the gay argument threads and posts, we would have eclipsed the dinosaur thread about two years ago

 

[RebSaint]

Could you please clarify this statment? Not sure I understand the logic here.

So if gay couples can't legally get married (but can still live together and raise kids), it's not child abuse? How does a marriage license make a gay relationship more or less abusive of children?

It never ceases to amaze me how people who do not think things through can manage to connect gay people or gay marriage to virtually any evil in the world. Over the last few months on this board, we have seen gay marriage linked to child abuse, beastiality, polygamy, and incest, and we've seen gay people accused of being more prone to molesting children. Not to mention the constant rants about gay people not being able to be Christians and being damned to hell.

It's really starting to get repetitive and annoying. One person rants on here for a while with a string of unfounded, unprovable, uneducated, uninformed rants about gay people. Those of us who are a little bit more tolerant (or ourselves gay) shoot them down. A few weeks later, another one shows up with the exact same tired arguments, and we shoot them down again. If we merged all the gay argument threads and posts, we would have eclipsed the dinosaur thread about two years ago

And the so-called conservatives want to EXPAND the power of the federal government to apply their own personal/moral views on arguably something (gay marriage), which everybody has right to--because at the political level, marriage is a civil contract.

See, the "small government" mantra ends when it comes to advancing agendas.

 

[RebSaint]

I think you'r about a 25% lib. Unfortunately your rhetoric comes off a bit strong.

And the president/Republican Party comes off as probably 50-60% liberal.

The defense rests.

 

[City Champ]

drugs--legalize mary jane but tax the hell out of it. i have yet to see a pot head start a bar room brawl or go on a robbing spree to score. same goes for X and maybe LSD, but i dont think its a good idea to legalize heroin, crack, coke, meth, pcp, etc...
these drugs tend to breed crime and we have more than enough of that already...

universal health care--nah. how about govern the insurance companies with rules that make sense and are standardized across the board. if we just did that, and cracked down on 90 dollar aspirin, we could significantly reduce the costs right now.

and on to the gay thing...
personally, i think homosexuality is against nature and for the most part morally corrupt. i think this becuase i am a catholic, and it just seems right. that certainly doesnt mean gay folks are more apt to commit sex crimes. matter of fact, i cant even see the link between the two, but hey, thats just me...
NOW, that in no way gives me the right to force those views on a gay person, or anyone else in society. i have a couple of gay friends, and we get along really well. they know how i stand on the subject, but that stance is a PERSONAL choice. just as they have chosen/or were born gay. they respect my boundries, as i respect theirs. to me, that sorta what our country is about. having beliefs, and it being ok if they dont jive with everyone else. but with that comes some serious responsibility, like not pushing your beliefs on to others. if you dont want to be gay, or dont want gay marriage, i suggest you dont become gay, or marry someone of the same sex...

seems kinda simple to me...

 

[mrFuggles]

Sorry for straying off format here, but

For the pro-universal health care Americans...

do you all agree with this statement?

"universal health care to control rising costs"

cause that just makes no economic sense to me.

does anyone realize how terribly abused the Medicaid system is, and to make it bigger? yipes.

I wish there was a way to get everyone covered in some manner, but if the government is involved I would guess we all would pay another 2% a year in extra taxes. We need some kind of free preventative coverage I think.

Countries with universal health care pay about half per capita for healthcare than we do under our current system. I fit would only raise taxes about 2% and you wouldn't have to buy private insurance, my guess would be that you would save a lot of money.