Summary of political beliefs

[tschandler]

Ideology

Social: Libertarian
Economic: Neoliberal
Foreign: Realist

Social

Abortion/Reproductive Rights: Abortion should be legal on demand until viability.  After that only to save a mother's life.  No public funding.
Marriage Equality/LGBTQ Issues: Gay Marriage doesn't bother me.  It is settled law.
Death Penalty: Right in concept, horrible in execution.
Religious Freedom: Businesses should be able to deny service to everyone for any reason.
Drug Legalization: End the war on drugs. Marijuana should be legalized.
Guns: Repeal the NFA on suppressors.  50 state reciprocity of Concealed Carry Licenses.
Euthanasia: Support euthanasia and assisted suicide under certain conditions.
Black Lives Matter/Police/Criminal Justice Reform: Strongly support criminal justice reform.
Transgender Issues: An extremely unimportant issue.  Most modern businesses have a family bathroom.  That should really be the end of that issue.
Education: Crush the teachers' unions and increase education spending.
Affirmative Action: Opposed to it.
Judges: Judges in the mold of Reason/CATO not Heritage.

Economic/Spending

Taxes: Enact a VAT while cutting taxes on income and capital.
Social Security: Raise the retirement age and cut benefits for everyone except the poorest.
Budgets: A BBA is unrealistic so I oppose it. But reducing long-term deficits should be a priority.
Defense Spending: Don't cut it unless other NATO countries finally start boosting their defense budgets.
Minimum Wage: Oppose it.
Labor Unions: Limit their power. Pass a national Right to Work law.
Financial Regulation: Oppose reinstating Glass-Steagall. There needs to be some financial regulation but there are a lot of unnecessary rules in Dodd-Frank.
Trade: Strongly support free trade deals like NAFTA, TPP and TTIP. Also strongly support globalization.

Foreign Policy

Russia/NATO: Pro-NATO. Strongly oppose stronger ties with Russia when Putin still is around.  NATO should make its commitments to increase defense spending.
Radical Islam: Oppose the Muslim ban, but support strong efforts to defeat terrorist organizations.
Israel: Pro-Israel. Israel is a liberal democracy and one of America's strongest and most stable allies in a volatile region. They do go too far sometimes, but they still are much better than the alternatives.
Immigration: I support comprehensive immigration reform (like the 2013 bill).
Iran: It isn't a really good deal, but tearing it apart would make the situation even worse.
India: We should cultivate a productive relationship with India.  The world's largest democracy with a highly religious population under attack from Radical Islam.  Our relationship with India should be one of stewardship like the UK/US Special Relationship.  

Environment

Climate Change: Is complicated.  It is likely real but every solution to the problem involves those who rent seek in the name of the Environment.
Energy: Markets not politics should determine energy policy.   Renewables and Nuclear should be a key part of an all of the above energy policy.  One size doesn't fit all.

Healthcare

Universal Healthcare:  Medicare for all the eliminates the redundancies in Federal Healthcare spending.  

Political

Gerrymandering: Independent Commissions and end the Federal involvement in state elections.  IE stop creating token Democratic districts in the Deep South.
Campaign Finance: No limits.
Term Limits: They're called elections.  Encourage intraparty differences through the primary system.