Summary of political beliefs

[RINO Tom]

I haven't done this in a while (I think, I can't remember, LOL), so here we go:

Ideology
Social: Liberal, with a few conservative positions
Economic: Pro-business, generally in favor of free-market capitalism
Foreign: Mixed, usually more interventionist than most
Political Registration: Republican


Social Policy
Abortion: Pro-choice until the third trimester.  Is that somewhat "arbitrary"?  Sure.  However, there reaches a point where there is clearly a viable living being that (unfortunately for the woman, sure, but also unfortunately for the fetus) happens to be helplessly inside another living thing.  At that point, I believe we must start weighing the needs of both living beings, and so I only support abortions for special circumstances (rape, incest, health of the mother, etc.).
Same Sex Marriage: Completely support, and I view it as a civil right.  Also, it is a moronic issue for the Republican Party to continue to debate about.  GIVE IT UP.
Drugs / Narcotics: Support legalization of marijuana and decriminalization of all drugs, with the exception of large-scale drug dealers.  No one should spend time in jail for getting caught doing a bump of cocaine in his or her own home, and we should treat drug addiction as something we need to treat, not something we need to punish.
Death Penalty: Very conflicted - I do not "oppose the death penalty," but I think it should only be used in the rarest of circumstances ... unfortunately, you can't make laws on a case-by-case basis, and I'm not sure what "policy" I'd have for it.
Gun Control: Support universal background checks, non-public gun registration, waiting periods and an assault rifle ban, but I find the idea of banning all guns (for everyone except for the government and the cops that haven't exactly proven they're the most trustworthy with them) very troublesome in principle.  I admit that after things like the disturbing murder the other day, I call these views into question ... but I don't think innocent individuals somewhere else - who have a gun for self-defense against home invasions or random attacks, just in case - should be punished because there are psychos out there.  I'll admit I question these views every time the debate comes up, as I think everyone should do about all of their views.
Affirmative Action: Support, but only for socioeconomic status.  Race-based affirmative action was necessary in this country for decades, but it's simply not anymore.  Not to mention, it's patronizing to minorities, and a poor, disadvantaged White person should not be shunned aside for a Black or Hispanic person who grew up with every financial advantage.
Prostitution: I used to support legalizing it, but my dad has kind of changed my view on it.  I think human trafficking is too much of a concern, so I prefer we keep it illegal, but there shouldn't be punishments too severe for women who feel they have nowhere else to turn; the brunt of the punishment should be on those who are running the schemes.
Right to Die: Also very conflicted on this one ... I have deep emotional objections to ending human life, but I find it somewhat absurd in a sense to tell someone who's ready to die peacefully - especially when they're terminally ill or something - that they just can't.
PATRIOT Act/NSA Spying: Oppose.  Individual liberty should trump security, in general.  However, that doesn't equate to scaling back all intelligence that is vital to government providing security; there's always a middle ground with a fine line.
Immigration: Grant legal amnesty to all those who are here now.  Let me be clear, this is SO unfair to those waiting in line (which describes someone I know personally who is literally a doctor and pregnant with her husband's child and yet can't get here), but it's not feasible to deport millions of people.  Once amnesty is granted, CRACK DOWN on the border to stop true, illegal immigration.  After that, make it much easier to become a citizen and take away the incentive to come here illegally.


Economic Policy
Minimum Wage: Index it to inflation and have that be our policy going forward.  A $15 minimum wage is just ridiculous.
Welfare/Social Security: Make it what it should have always been: a temporary helping hand to help people get on their feet and rise up.  It shouldn't be handed out like candy, and it shouldn't be cushy enough that it should in any way be an enviable position.
Right-to-Work: Support.  Period.
Taxation: Keep tax rates where they are, and do not raise them.  Reduce corporate taxes; corporations aren't big scary monsters, they're job creators made up of people.
Obamacare: For God's sake, either make it liberal enough to work (single payer) or conservative enough to work (more privatized), but Obamacare is a moderate hero option that is just stalling things until there's demand for government funded healthcare insurance; I gotta say, it's a brilliant move by Democrats.  Of course, my personal objection to single payer is that our government is going to need to find a way to pay for it, and that's going to be by taxing "rich" people out the a*s.
Trade: Completely support free trade.  Protectionism had its time and place (the frickin' 1800s), but now it's simply a small-minded policy to "keep wages up" ... a temporary measure.
Climate Change: Address it ASAP.  Battling climate change must be a government priority that crafts most of our policies and laws.  It's pathetic that the United States - the de facto world leader and role model - isn't taking the lead on fighting it.  This is one issue I'm "anti-business" and "pro-tax" on, as I would completely support penalty taxes on businesses that don't meet carbon emission standards.
Alternative Energy Subsidies: Support, for reasons above.
Keystone XL Pipeline: Indifferent, to be honest ... I've heard so many conflicting things on it, and I don't care enough to learn more.


Foreign Policy
Afghanistan: It's frankly naive and "principled" for the sake of being "principled" to oppose having a significant presence there.  It was barely a decade ago that this nation was harboring a terrorist group responsible for murdering 3,000 of our innocent citizens.
Iraq: I supported the war at the tender age of 11 (LOL), but I now see that it was probably a mistake.  At the very least, its post-war execution was a total disaster.  However, I'm an optimist, and I think George W. Bush at the very least should be somewhat remembered for removing a murderous dictator from power.
Iran: Totally undecided ... don't know enough about the Iran deal yet to say I support or oppose it, but in general I don't support the type of anti-Israel rhetoric that's just as retarded and knee-jerk as blindly pro-Israel rhetoric.  Iran is a nation that shouldn't be trusted, and you're derranged if you don't think keeping them from getting nuclear weapons in the future is imperative to world safety.
ISIS: Take them out with every measure short of troops on the ground.  This group has been denounced by al Queda ... let that sink in.
Cuba: Normalization of relations was long overdue, and I'm glad it's been done.
Military Spending: We could definitely use a reduction.  I feel people support increased spending because they think it says something about "who they are," when we frankly just don't need to, and we could afford to cut spending wherever possible in our federal budget.  This is an obvious starting point.
Israel/Palestine: Generally pro-Israel, as I support a (semi-secular) democracy being protected in the Middle East, especially when it's surrounded by nations and regimes that hate it, but that doesn't mean they get a blank check and unconditional support.
Terror War Detainees: The United States is above torture.  Period.

Summed up in a general sense:  Oh boy, this is NOT going to score me points on Atlas, LOL!  I'm a pro-business Republican who believes in upward mobility, individual responsibility and strong governmental intervention when civil rights are under attack.  I believe that to be what Abraham Lincoln would have wanted his party to be in the Twenty-First Century, and it's what I'll strive to make the Republican Party again.  I realize that this will get me called a "Moderate Hero" and get me mocked as a stereotypical "socially liberal, fiscally conservative" moron, but there's a world outside Atlas, and that's just a way to describe a set of views - a description that happens to describe my views semi-accurately.

[RINO Tom]

Political Registration: Republican

Isn't Illinois open primary?

Well, I actually live and vote in Iowa City, IA, but I think Illinois has a weird system (maybe Mr. Illini  or someone else can answer?); I believe it's open primary, but you are required to vote in whatever primary you did the last time or something funky?  I don't know.

In Iowa, there's partisan registration, but you can actually change your party at the polling place.

[RINO Tom]

Haven't done this for a while, and I feel like my views have shifted a tad.

SUMMARY
Social: Center left
Economic: Center right
Foreign: Rather interventionist
Party Affiliation: Republican

SOCIAL POLICY
Abortion: I support Roe v. Wade and generally fall under the umbrella of "pro-choice."  However, I have serious moral qualms with abortion, and I am incredibly turned off by a lot of "liberal" rhetoric on the issue (this issue brings out some of the worst of tribalism).  I absolutely support some type of third trimester ban (except for the big three exceptions), though I would defer to someone with some more medical knowledge than I have to determine the cutoff (which will, of course, inevitably be somewhat arbitrary).
Same-Sex Marriage: I support it, no exceptions.
Drug Laws: I think states should be able to decide RE: marijuana, but I think drug use in general should be decriminalized, with the punishment falling on the large scale dealers.  No kid should face jail time or have their job prospects shattered for being one of the many college kids who comes across drugs and trying it/being that unlucky that they get caught.
Death Penalty: In general, I support its existence ... I have a hard time articulating this view, as there is no perfect "rule" of when to use it that I can land on.  However, I do strongly believe that it is an appropriate punishment for certain cases.
Gun Control: I am generally quite skeptical.  I am sympathetic to the Second Amendment and to the arguments that defend not altering it too much.  I would support common sense measures like background checks and waiting periods, but anything else is Constitutionally dubious and won't help the problem much.
Religious Freedom: Follow the precedent of past civil rights legislation and the Interstate Commerce Clause.
Affirmative Action: I support it for SES, but I am quite skeptical of affirmative action on the basis of race, specifically for minority groups with higher-than-average SES (like Asian-Americans).
Political Correctness: Try not to offend people ... there isn't a "law" that can make a meaningful impact here, IMO.  Rational people can see where the line of common sense is.
Euthanasia: Though I have some real reservations about this morally, I have not arrived at a reason to oppose people's right to die with dignity.  My uncomfortably with the state systematically condoning the killing of innocents (even if the innocents have asked for it) is slightly outweighed by sympathy for the patients who desire that type of ending.
Prostitution: This is a "live and let live" position that I strongly disagree with.  While a prostitute should never be in legal trouble for having to resort to that, prostitution must absolutely remain illegal.  Forgetting for a second the moral decay (unironic use) that would ensue, it enables the sex trade.
Environment: I am in favor of measures to preserve and protect our environment.  While regulations to do both can and should be balanced with policies that encourage the business community and private sector to thrive, punishment for breaking environmental regulations needs to be severe, and incentives for green policies should be generous.
Immigration: It is impractical (especially financially) to deport illegal immigrants that are already here, with the exception of ones that are identified as having committed minor crimes (ones who commit major crimes should be detained here).  However, a mark of a civilized country is to have border security that at least enables you to know who and what are entering your borders.  You owe that to your citizens, period.  I would support a pathway to citizenship for those already here (and amnesty for the crime of immigrating here illegally) and an intentional effort to secure our borders.  Most of my issue with more "conservative" thinking on this issue is with unwelcoming rhetoric that phrases the desire for border security in an unfair and unsavory light ... it's common sense to monitor immigration into your country and to make sure there is security.  How that somehow got associated with any type of "backward" thinking is absurd.

ECONOMIC POLICY
Minimum Wage: Have a federal minimum wage around $10.00 and let cities or states adopt higher ones if they desire to.  Index it to inflation, of course.
Right to Work: I'm rather conflicted, but I lean toward support.
Taxation: Current rates are fine, especially the new corporate ones.
Regulation: Regulation in general targets the wrong sort of companies and fails to truly alter the practices of the companies who acted irresponsibly in the first place.  We obviously need regulations on businesses, but in general what we have now has too much red tape that only ends up passing costs to consumers and lowering wages.
Healthcare: I would support a slightly more conservative version of Obamacare.  Most of my issue with liberal healthcare proposals is that they are too "one size fits all."  It seems to be an obsession of liberals to make everything uniform and under government regulation, but subsidies and whatnot for lower income individuals are a much better idea.  My other major issue with Obamacare is that it was intentionally designed to create a demand for government-run healthcare by making the fine for not offering healthcare less than the cost of providing it to your employees ... it's literally the worst of both worlds.
Free Trade: While human rights conditions and whatnot need to be considered, free trade is the best trade.

FOREIGN POLICY
I have a meeting coming up anyway (), but I also wanted to keep this one vague since it is a vague issue.  I generally believe that, post-World War II, we have assumed a responsibility (for better or for worse) as the leader and prime example for the free world and democratic West; a critic might call this the "world's police."  We obviously can't get involved in every conflict everywhere, but it is both in our interest and in the world's interest for the Untied States to be a leader in promoting democracy and human rights across the world.  Sometimes, this is inevitably going to mean military involvement.

[RINO Tom]

Sorry I ruined the thread, LOL.

[RINO Tom]

^ LOL, IceSpear I think you know you're wasting your time.   Anyway, this is the last spam I'll drop on this thread:

Sounds like Crooked H’s views to a T

That's probably why he voted for her.

In all seriousness, I wouldn't go that far, but it's a massive stretch to argue that those views fit in better in the modern day GOP than they do in the modern day Dems. Though he'd obviously be catching flack either way.

The bolded is undeniable.  So, it comes down to what I would personally prefer, and even now in the age of Trump, the best Republicans >>>>>>>>>>>>> the least bad Democrats, regardless of how the entire parties shake out.  At least to this RINO.

[RINO Tom]

^ LOL, IceSpear I think you know you're wasting your time.   Anyway, this is the last spam I'll drop on this thread:

Sounds like Crooked H’s views to a T

That's probably why he voted for her.

In all seriousness, I wouldn't go that far, but it's a massive stretch to argue that those views fit in better in the modern day GOP than they do in the modern day Dems. Though he'd obviously be catching flack either way.

The bolded is undeniable.  So, it comes down to what I would personally prefer, and even now in the age of Trump, the best Republicans >>>>>>>>>>>>> the least bad Democrats, regardless of how the entire parties shake out.  At least to this RINO.

Yeah, I know I am, lol. But this entire forum is a waste of time, so whatever.

What's your take on post #1351? Unless I'm missing something here, I can only assume you weight taxes/regulation extremely heavily and everything else very lightly for you to be a persistent Republican in this day and age. I would think that voting for Hillary would've caused you to rethink your party affiliation (not necessarily to become a Democrat, but at least not be a Republican.) Of course, I realize you have historical/non policy based attachments to the party as well, exactly how much do those factor into your decision?

Yes, a good enough description.  I also don't believe the Democratic Party will ever represent a truly appropriate vehicle for policies that I want in the future.  Even if it is a "better fit" now than the GOP (something I disagree with but can understand the thinking behind), I am highly skeptical that as I grow older (and especially as Boomers die off and Millennials get more power) the Democratic Party will ever resemble my politics in majority, especially for a sustained period of time. 

Hypothetical Future GOP >>>>>>>>>>>>> Modern Democratic Party > Modern GOP, if you will.

[RINO Tom]

Ghost, I obviously disagree with a lot that you typed, but I'm glad you typed this all up.  You often make pretty good effort posts, but they are usually just about Trump, and it was really interesting to see some of your unrelated views.