Issues Where You are Totally Out of the Mainstream in America

[Donerail]

I didn't like the Lincoln Administration (habeas corpus/military tribunals). Apparently that is frowned upon.

[Donerail]

Well, because I am pretty far from centre by American standards I’ll stick to those things that would most unambiguously make me seem like a nut.

I oppose retributive justice, would legalize prostitution and all recreational drugs, think we should have a greater volume of immigrants coming into the United States, and all denizens aged sixteen or above should be able to vote (felons and folks living in the country illegally included). The state should be taken out of the business of regulating or even incentivizing marriage. We are bestowed with no natural rights because natural law is a construct of the mind and so, too - more likely than not - is God; and those rights we do claim for ourselves cannot be inalienable without abandoning representative democracy... which is not something I am willing to do. References and monuments of a religious nature or content have no rightful place either in the symbols or on property of state, respectively. No taxpayer money should be directed to religious organizations by the state, and no church or organization should enjoy exemption from taxation on account of their religious nature. I reject populism and deeply distrust direct democracy. To take on a Kucinich’esque vibe here for a moment, I further reckon there are many thousands of alien civilizations out there in the cosmos.

Nationalism is overrated. I’d like to do away with the Pledge of Allegiance and Selective Service, favor the establishment of a North American Union and then, someday, a global government with some form of federalism, and think captured terrorists should be treated like prisoners of war. We should work to abolish all weapons of mass destruction and be willing to dismantle our arsenal of them unilaterally regardless of whether other countries mirror our actions. I feel that ABM tech is something we should proliferate among nuclear powers for a nominal cost, am uncomfortable with the United States being a superpower, feel we should leave the Chinese people be to decide how to settle the ongoing tensions betwixt the PRC and Taiwan, and believe the U.S. should align itself noticeably closer with Palestine than Israel in pursuing a resolution to their longstanding conflict. Also, I reckon regimes should be treated according to the extent to which they provide those rights to their respective peoples that we do to ours instead of cozying up to whichever of them are of the greatest strategic importance to us in pursuing national self-interest. Incidentally, I support cutting defense spending in half, and at least quadrupling what we give out in foreign aid today.

Did I mention that I’m okay with Iran having nukes if other world powers continue to have them?

On the home front I’d like to see a system of proportional representation implemented, a multi-party system established, a greater public broadcasting presence in the media, tax hikes for all income brackets - including the middle class, and an increase to the retirement age. I’m against “buy American” and “buy local” campaigns, want to extend animals more rights than they have today, think the United States should have a cradle-to-grave, social democratic welfare regime, and a guaranteed minimum income. Furthermore, I support greatly increased funding for NASA and investments in building state-run nuclear power stations - the latter as part of a much larger, incremental transition away from using coal and oil as fuels. I think ideas should be drawn from the Pirate Party in reforming property rights, and favor a mixed but nonetheless socialist, market economy in which worker cooperatives compete with a modest regulatory burden from the state but workers’ incomes within these co-ops are linked so that within any given cooperative the de-facto maximum level of compensation one can legally receive is capped at being ten times greater than what the least-handsomely compensated worker there is awarded for their labors.

In regards to the balances of federalism by the way, I'd consider myself somewhat regionalist.

Given enough time more positions would likely come to mind, but this is all I’ve got for now!

The Redalgo Test.

[Donerail]

I support sensible gun laws, like those in the United Kingdom.

I'm sorry, I literally laughed out loud at that. UK gun laws are literally an inside joke in my family.

yeah, us silly brits with our extremely low gun crime rates. we're so stupid.

Silly Britain, mistaking 1984 for an instruction manual.

[Donerail]

I support sensible gun laws, like those in the United Kingdom.

I'm sorry, I literally laughed out loud at that. UK gun laws are literally an inside joke in my family.

yeah, us silly brits with our extremely low gun crime rates. we're so stupid.

Silly Britain, mistaking 1984 for an instruction manual.

on other issues yeah. on this, no. private gun ownership is utterly pointless and ludicrous.

Without private gun ownership, how are the citizens to place a check on tyranny?

[Donerail]

I support sensible gun laws, like those in the United Kingdom.

I'm sorry, I literally laughed out loud at that. UK gun laws are literally an inside joke in my family.

yeah, us silly brits with our extremely low gun crime rates. we're so stupid.

Silly Britain, mistaking 1984 for an instruction manual.

on other issues yeah. on this, no. private gun ownership is utterly pointless and ludicrous.

Without private gun ownership, how are the citizens to place a check on tyranny?

that question doesn't make any sense. guns didn't prevent the patriot act, or the ndaa, or anything else like that. and guns don't provide any check against a government which has the most powerful military in the world.

It's a lot easier to have a revolution when you have guns.

[Donerail]

I can think of lots of reasons less guns would be better. But oh wait...we need them for the pending revolution... I'm sorry, carry on.

" Laws that forbid the carrying of arms . . . disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes . . . Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man."--Thomas Jefferson

[Donerail]

Is that fascism? More government control, less democracy, an Emperor, much more federal control, and a police state. Isn't it?