What makes you Dem/Repub/Indep?

[tik 🪀✨]

I find the contempt for independents a bit ridiculous. The most irrelevant people, in my opinion, are the staunch, unwavering members of parties and nothing more. They're the ultra-partisan idiots who aren't well informed but spout off the party line simply as opposition to the other side. In my opinion, the two party system in America is a massive travesty for real democracy. It's hard to find good, critical debate of the issues in the public sphere. In its place you get partisan attacks and blind support by people completely convinced that they're right and the other side is foolish. They're both foolish and they're fooling themselves.

I agree with Democrats more often than not with social issues, and I defend some government regulation so that businesses do not become too powerful. I have some conservative views such as small government and generally letting people live as they want. The Republican party's pandering to the religious right in support of social restrictions is the complete opposite from real conservatism, which ideally I believe would allow people to do as they please without the government sticking in its nose.

As for foreign policy, I'm completely opposed to our current preemptive offensive military strategy. Nation building is a terrible stain on our nation's history. Invading other countries and killing hundreds of thousands of people just so we can set up a government that will partner with our businesses makes me want to vomit. Often the governments we institute go on to commit genocide against an opposition within the country. The only intervention that I think is worthwhile is to stop atrocities or help fix problems or keep the peace. We might have an economic interest in changing the way other countries' society functions, but it's still not our place.

I also hate all of the wars we have against abstract nouns. Terrorism is a tactic, and so is fear of terrorism. The war on drugs is ludicrous and is another stupid distraction from solving real problems. The only acception I make to this are hard, extremely addictive drugs, which through addiction can have a very negative impact on society. Poverty is a problem that could be more easily solved through better funded education which gives people opportunities to move up. Welfare is necessary, but should not be as easy to abuse.

I know I've rambled on enough and no one's probably read any of this, but censorship is another thing that I am passionate about. This is especially true for nudity and language. I don't think we should have hardcore pornography on network television, but I don't think a little kid seeing breasts or hearing the word 'sh**t' in public is going to harm them. In fact, if that were the norm, they would lose their power. Besides, it is not the government's place to do parenting in place of actual parents. Our current system is basically punishing everyone for a tiny minority holding on desperately to old fashioned and baseless (besides meaningless tradition) ideals.

Neither side fully embraces any ideas I align myself with, and I think supporting either side blindly is doing too much to keep the system the way it is rather than transform it into something worthwhile. All that I can see to do is collect as much information on both sides as I can and vote the way I think is best.