Summary of political beliefs

[Kahane's Grave Is A Gender-Neutral Bathroom]

SOCIAL ISSUES

Environment
I strongly support environmental measures. Impose a carbon tax, keep America in the Paris Climate Agreement, put a tax on cars emmitting high carbon emmissions, force companies that cut trees to grow twice the number of trees they cut, create a special tax on plastic, pay people money to remove trash/plastic from the ocean, ban any drilling in ANWR, and stop the Keystone Pipeline now. Ban offshore drilling and hydraulic fracking. Invest/subsidize in solar/wind energy.

Abortion
I support the Hyde Amendment - excluding cases involving rape, incest, or where the mother's life is in danger, no federal funding for abortion whatsoever. Furthermore (again, excluding cases involving rape, incest, or when the mother's life is in danger), abortion should be restricted after the first trimester. If a teenager has an abortion her parents should be notified. If someone has religious qualms with performing an abortion, that is within their constitutional rights.

The First Amendment
Unless threatening violence, there should be no penalty for hate speech or racist language. This speech is protected by the First Amendment.

The Second Amendment
The Second Amendment was never meant to apply to individuals. It was written at a time in which there was no established military. Now, we have a huge military. The Second Amendment is outdated and has been for centuries. Therefore, all gun control measures are constitutional. They are also good, and necessary for public safety. I support any bill that will reduce the number of shootings in this country - whether that means an assault weapon ban; background checks; whatever. The number of shootings in the US is higher than most (and possibly all) other countries.

LGBTA+ Rights
Support homosexual rights to marry, adopt, and serve in the military openly. Generally oppose transgender rights, except to serve in the military. No one should be denied the right to serve in their nation's military. If someone has religious objections to performing sex reassignment surgery or catering to LGBTA customers, that is within their constitutional rights.

Death Penalty
The death penalty should not be abolished. It costs taxpayers money to give room and board to criminals. But it should be reduced. Once guilt is established beyond any argument (like multiple witnesses or a camera recording), and the crime involves murder, terrorism or rape, only then should the death penalty be enforced.

Life Support / Assisted Suicide
Once someone has all the appropriate information, and have an incurable disease, they should be allowed to decide if they want to die or not. It is a personal decision. It is not the government's place to intervene. It is ironic that the GOP favours small government otherwise but big government to regulate personal decisions someone may make. Similarly, for removal of life support, if someone has a living will stating that they do not want to be on life support, respect their decision, and again, the government should never intervene (as they did in the case of Terri Shiavo). Removal of life support, and assisted suicide, should not be politicized or dealt with by the government.

Affirmative Action
Affirmative action is counterintuitive. The solution to righting past wrongs and ending racism is not to continue it. Affirmative action is unfair to high-achieving Asians/whites who are being discriminated against for simply being Asian/white. That A wronged B does not justify B's descendants being favoured at the expense of C. C is being treated unfairly in this case. Colorblindness (not including race as a factor in considering college/job applications) is fair.

Drugs
Decriminalize all drugs, but impose a high sales tax (35%) on all drugs. Addicts will be forced to pay extra money to the government or (if not addicted yet) break the habit of having drugs - so the deficit, number of drug users, and number of people in jail, all fall simultaneously. To ensure that no one is having drugs from illegal sources and evading the drug tax, crack down on all cartels.

Immigration
Those who are already in the US should not be deported. A border wall, as well as the family separation policy, is inhumane and ineffective. Increase the border patrol (unsubstantially), and tax employers who employ illegal immigrants. Racial profiling is bad. The 2017 executive order banning immigration from 7 Muslim-majority countries was counterintuitive, racist and ineffective. Make the immigration and citizenship process easier as well, so illegal immigration is necessary for less families.

Policing
Do not defund (and definitely do not abolish) the police. If a school is failing, the solution isn't to shut it down. First, try to fix it. However, the police should have to wear body cameras, and the likes of Derek Chauvin should be fired and imprisoned. Increase racial sensitivity programs in the police.

Education
The No Child Left Behind Act was good in theory, but overly ambitious. Instead of AYP, it should be that the school does not get worse scores. Expecting yearly improvement is unrealistic. School vouchers are a good idea after efforts to fix a particular school have been made. College education costs are too high. Establish a very basic free community college program at the state/local level - the government gives some money to each state (the states themselves can supplement the cost) to do so.

Surveillance
Tracking terrorists is necessary. The PATRIOT Act may be too expanisve, but it is a good idea, once surveillance is reduced. Of course, it is uncomfortable to know your phone calls may be being monitered by the government (making it surprising that this bill was supported mainly by the GOP), but it is a good way to crack down on terrorism, faulty as the method may be. After all, the government may be listening to your calls, but is not doing so for the sake of doing so. They may listen, but as long as you are not a terrorist, they will not do anything (for example if they discover you are having an extramarital affair, they aren't going to contact your spouse to tell them). It is faulty, of course.

ECONOMIC ISSUES

Tarrifs
I am for free trade and for low-to-medium tarrifs (unless the country against which a particular tarrif is being levied has high tarrifs on the US, in which case keep tarrifs high).

National Debt
Take all necessary action to reduce the national debt - increase taxes overall, and cut federal programs where appropriate and where spending is wasteful and/or extravagent.

Taxes
Increase taxes marginally on both the rich and the middle-class; increase taxes greatly on the poor (increase by about 2% for the middle-class and rich; double the taxes paid by the poor). A 'fair-tax' is unrealistic. But the rich should not be punished for their success; increasing taxes on the rich to ridiculous amounts just because of their wealth is unfair. Billionaires shouldn't be illegal. The idea that people making over a billion dollars should pay 100% of their income more than a billion dollars (effectively abolishing billionaires) is terrible. Not only is it unfair it will kill the economy by sending every billionaire in America overseas.

Minimum wage
The minimum wage doesn't kill that many jobs, and while the minimum wage should not be abolished, a higher minimum wage is unfair to business. The minimum wage should currently be reduced slightly. Perhaps this will save some jobs.

Welfare reform
Some people on the government payroll abuse this by spending the money on alcohol/drugs and do not bother finding a job. So the rich and middle-class pay for a poor person to have whatever drugs and alcohol they want. There is a need for welfare reform. Reduce the welfare paycheque (except for the disabled) to so little that they have to choose between food and alcohol/drugs, or even better, overhaul the system. This can be done by firstly reducing the paycheque, and also forcing all recepients to state their address so that random (mandatory) checks can be conducted to ensure the government's money isn't being wasted on alcohol, drugs or anything of the sort.

Healthcare
I support Obamacare, and while socialized medicine is a good idea in theory, it cannot be implemented - it is too costly. Medicare and Medicaid are good.

FOREIGN POLICY

Middle East
Reduce American military presence in the Middle East. Stop supporting Israel over Palestine. The Iraq War was unncessary. When assassinating terrorists, ensure that no one innocent is killed as much as possible.

Veterans Affairs Department
Merge the Veterans Affairs Department with the Defense Department BUT keep funding for the Department of Defense the same - its budget is too high.

ELECTIONS

Electoral College
Abolish the electoral college and replace it with ranked-choice voting.

Gerrymandering
Give complete control of redistricting to a nonpartisan, federal committee (the Federal Congressional Redistricting Committee) to end gerrymandering. The members can be appointed as follows - 3 from the president, 3 from the Senate, 3 from the House, and 8 from the Supreme Court. Members on the committee can serve for life.

Presidential Requirements
Abolish the presidential term limit, reduce the minimum age to 18, and end the US-born requirement. Require presidential candidates to release criminal records and 5 years of tax records. Voters should be allowed to make informed decisions and should not have limits on whom they can vote for. If in 1988 America wanted to reelect Ron Reagan, it should have been allowed to (not that it should have).

Voting Requirements
Voting should be optional. Voters should have two days to vote. 13 to 18 year olds should be allowed to vote so long as they can pass a moderately difficult civic knowledge examination. Formerly incarcerated people should be allowed to vote after the completion of their full sentence, unless their crime included murder or terrorism and they were arrested only once (not multiple times).

This is absolute PERFECTION.

[Kahane's Grave Is A Gender-Neutral Bathroom]

Religion: Full ban on proselytizing. Period. I don't care about your religion, and I don't want to hear your stupid ing protests at military funerals for no reason. And for all you southern baptists- your church was founded for the sole purpose of justifying slavery. Also increase hate crime enforcement to protect Jews and Muslims (lol ER be like 'Growing hostility towards Christians in this country).

Wow, edgy!  How exactly would you go about banning evangelism without stopping free speech and free exercise of religion (since following Jesus's command before ascending into Heaven requires evangelism)?

Also, no serious Christian protests military funerals.  The Westboro Baptist "Church" isn't authentic Biblical Christianity.

I suppose I should change that, and I've moderated my position on hot-button social issues since Confederategate. I suppose I'd instead say anyone who works in as a governmental employee or a company that gets most of its business from the government should be prohibited from spending money on religious causes. I'm actually fine with private citizens doing whatever they please with regards to religion- but if your salary is paid by the government, it's paid for by the tax dollars of non-religious/other religion folks, who make up 40% of the country. And because of disproportionate income and earnings among groups like Jews and Hindus, we could well be looking at 50% of revenue. It's a simple thing of 'taxpayers should not have to pay for something they disagree with). I'd be fine with an Italian system, where taxpayers are required to donate to a religious charity, but they can choose which one (so Jews could pay into a Jewish organization, but Protestants could pay into some organization that reflects their faith).

Then again I also favor shrinking the government so this wouldn't be much of a problem, ideally.

And, in hindsight, I should not have called you out specifically.