Summary of political beliefs

[Randy Bobandy]

Social Policy:
Abortion: If contraception and comprehensive sex education were freely available, abortion wouldn't even be such a huge issue. Until we correct these problems, we should keep all abortions, for women of all ages, safe and legal.
Gay Marriage: There is literally no reason not to legalize gay marriage.
Drugs: Legalize, tax, and regulate all currently scheduled drugs.
Stem Cell Research: Stem cells save lives. Fund the heck out of research.
Death Penalty: The state shouldn't endorse murder.
Gun control: I support background checks, nothing more.
Church and State: "In God We Trust", "E Pluribus Unum", etc. need to go.
Affirmative Action: I support class-based affirmative action.
Prostitution: Legalize!
Education: See: Finland. Also, school vouchers aren't such a bad idea.
Immigration: Bush II's immigration proposals were pretty nice. Also, the DREAM Act is great.
Euthanasia: Suicide is a right

Economic Issues:
Minimum Wage: Increase, increase, increase.
Welfare: We need to take care of those who can't work or can't find work.
Right-to-Work: Do you mean, right-to-be-subjugated?
Taxation: We're grossly under-taxed--especially our corporate overlords.
Healthcare: Obamacare doesn't go far enough. Start a public option.
Social Security: Raise the retirement age and payroll taxes.
Trade: I'm a tentative supporter of free trade. Overall, free trade should benefit the worker and not faceless corporations.
Deficit Spending: Deficits are not uniquely bad.
Debt Ceiling: Why is this even an issue?

Foreign Policy and National Security
Afghanistan: Pull out.
Iran: They're not a threat.
Syria: Doesn't matter.
Cuba: Greatest country in the world. End the travel ban and the trade embargo. Take some lessons from Fidel.
Military Spending: Abolish the military.
PATRIOT Act: Repeal.
NSA Spying: Totally ridiculous.
Palestine: The U.S. needs to stop being Israel's little lapdog. Palestine deserves statehood.

Environment
Climate Change: Climate change is an issue, and people who don't think so are blind.
Green Energy: Ramp up investment.
Keystone XL Pipeline: Tentative supporter.

Elector Reform
Electoral College: Why is it even still around?
Gerrymandering: All districts should be drawn by the voters themselves.
Term limits: I support term limits for members of Congress and federal judges.
Campaign Finance Reform: Corporates are so not people.
Voter ID: Might as well support it. After all, we don't want voter fraud.
Compulsory Voting: No.
Voting Rights Act Preclearance: All fifty states should be required to gain preclearance under the VRA.
Statehood: If a majority of citizens in a territory support statehood for that territory, then that territory should be a state.

[Randy Bobandy]

99% of what you believe makes me cry tears of joy, but I'm not sure if the Voter ID thing is sarcasm or not. Also, why the E Pluribus Unum hate?

The Voter ID thing is not sarcasm. If you're 18 years of age and want to take part in the political process, I don't necessarily see the wrong in having to provide a photo ID at the polls.

E pluribus unum, when it became our motto, essentially meant "out of many rich white slaveowners, one elitist society composed of rich white slaveowners". That is still basically true (switch out African-Americans with the average laborer, and you still have slaveowners in corporate boardrooms), and the connotations of the motto just bother the hell out of me.

[Randy Bobandy]

99% of what you believe makes me cry tears of joy, but I'm not sure if the Voter ID thing is sarcasm or not. Also, why the E Pluribus Unum hate?

The Voter ID thing is not sarcasm. If you're 18 years of age and want to take part in the political process, I don't necessarily see the wrong in having to provide a photo ID at the polls.

E pluribus unum, when it became our motto, essentially meant "out of many rich white slaveowners, one elitist society composed of rich white slaveowners". That is still basically true (switch out African-Americans with the average laborer, and you still have slaveowners in corporate boardrooms), and the connotations of the motto just bother the hell out of me.

On the voter ID thing, you seem to be assuming that everyone has a photo ID, which is simply not true. Those sorts of laws have been shown again and again to disenfranchise legitimate voters at basically no benefit to the integrity of the system - the number of voter impersonation cases in every election is negligible.

Of course, it's rather obvious that old-timey America was a terrible place with slavery and all those things, but (and here I go being all idealistic with my head in the clouds) the whole point of America is, as I see it, the place where anyone can come and forge a new life, get ahead, raise a family if they want, yada yada yada. The reality of that vision is, sadly, basically not true at all in today's society, but mottoes are about ideals. If national mottoes reflected a country's history, most of them would be depressing as .

Also, you can have your beliefs, but I'm not a fan of comparing the current conditions of the non-wealthy to slavery, no matter how bad they are.

I don't see America that way, but we're all entitled to our beliefs. Probably my problem with the motto is that I'm a solid non-patriot and think that the Founders were sort of circle-jerking when they came up with these mottoes etc. etc. about liberty and equality, but that's just me.

[Randy Bobandy]

99% of what you believe makes me cry tears of joy, but I'm not sure if the Voter ID thing is sarcasm or not. Also, why the E Pluribus Unum hate?

The Voter ID thing is not sarcasm. If you're 18 years of age and want to take part in the political process, I don't necessarily see the wrong in having to provide a photo ID at the polls.

E pluribus unum, when it became our motto, essentially meant "out of many rich white slaveowners, one elitist society composed of rich white slaveowners". That is still basically true (switch out African-Americans with the average laborer, and you still have slaveowners in corporate boardrooms), and the connotations of the motto just bother the hell out of me.

On the voter ID thing, you seem to be assuming that everyone has a photo ID, which is simply not true. Those sorts of laws have been shown again and again to disenfranchise legitimate voters at basically no benefit to the integrity of the system - the number of voter impersonation cases in every election is negligible.

Of course, it's rather obvious that old-timey America was a terrible place with slavery and all those things, but (and here I go being all idealistic with my head in the clouds) the whole point of America is, as I see it, the place where anyone can come and forge a new life, get ahead, raise a family if they want, yada yada yada. The reality of that vision is, sadly, basically not true at all in today's society, but mottoes are about ideals. If national mottoes reflected a country's history, most of them would be depressing as .

Also, you can have your beliefs, but I'm not a fan of comparing the current conditions of the non-wealthy to slavery, no matter how bad they are.

I don't see America that way, but we're all entitled to our beliefs. Probably my problem with the motto is that I'm a solid non-patriot and think that the Founders were sort of circle-jerking when they came up with these mottoes etc. etc. about liberty and equality, but that's just me.

Well, they were (except Thomas Paine, the underrated bro that he is), but I believe we can make America better. I mean, yeah, deep down we're just constrained by random lines drawn on maps and I could easily drive over to Toronto right now, but I think change is possible, even though it may seem hard.

Let's have an everyone's-entitled-to-their-beliefs party! We can bring Ken Ham and everyone on Conservative Political Forum.

Thomas Paine was, admittedly, kinda cool.

That everyone's-entitled-to-their-beliefs party idea seems like it would be interesting...

[Randy Bobandy]

I'm updating this since my last post here

Social Policy:

Abortion: Promote abortion as a reasonable alternative to childbirth
The Drug War: Legalize any and all drugs
Stem Cell Research: Encourage
Death Penalty: Ban
Gun control: Confiscate and destroy all firearms
Affirmative Action: Created by our capitalist overlords as yet another way of distracting minorities from institutionalized discrimination. In a free and equal society we wouldn't even be discussing this--minorities would have the same opportunities to begin with.
Prostitution, Euthanasia, same sex marriage:

Economic Issues:

Minimum Wage: Raise to $22
Welfare: Provide everyone with a basic income regardless of their working status
Right-to-Work: Dumbest thing I've ever heard of
Taxation: Increase tax rates to the 99% range, redistribute property evenly
Healthcare: A basic human right and should be treated as such--provide everyone with free access to quality healthcare
Social Security: See my stance on welfare
Trade: One of many ways that the richer classes control the poorer classes, by having dominion over natural resources. Ideally our natural resources would belong to everyone, and everyone would have equal access regardless of their socioeconomic status
Education: See my stance on healthcare
Balanced Budget Amendment: lol

Foreign Policy and National Security

Afghanistan: Not our problem
ISIS: Funded and armed by the U.S., much like al-Qaeda. Stop sticking our nose where it doesn't belong and maybe things like ISIS wouldn't be so much of a problem.
Iran: Again, if we didn't stick our nose where it didn't belong Iran wouldn't be so offended by the U.S.
Syria: Who cares?
Cuba: The greatest country in the world
Military Spending: Abolish the military
PATRIOT Act: Repeal
Palestine: Support 100%
Israel: Has no right to exist
Immigration: As someone who wants desperately to leave the U.S., I don't really get why people want to come here, but it's whatever. Let them
Guantanamo Bay: Close it up

Environment

Climate Change: Will literally kills us all unless we abolish capitalism
Green Energy: Invest in this
Keystone XL Pipeline: Oppose wholeheartedly

Electoral Reform

Do away with elections. Replace the current system with a dictatorship of the proletariat.