Summary of political beliefs

[Boris]

Social Issues

general philosophy: Hard to pin down, but I guess overall, I lean liberal.

Abortion: Strongly oppose in all circumstances with the usual exceptions.

Separation of Church and State: Strongly support.

Marriage: Support homosexual marriage, although I oppose homosexual adoption.

Affirmative Action: Oppose.

Gun Control: Strongly Support. The 2nd amendment sucks. Support the Gun Control Act of 1968.

Death Penalty: Oppose in all circumstances.

Censorship: Strongly oppose any censorship of the entertainment mediums. Let the viewers decide what's inappropriate and what's not.

Flag burning: Don't care.

Hate crimes: Oppose hate crime legislation

Hate speech: Oppose hate speech legislation

Smoking: Support public smoking bans.

Alcohol consumption: Don't care. Just because the drinking age is 21 doesn't mean that underage drinking isn't prevalent. It's impossible to enforce anyway.

Euthanasia: Should be illegal.

Drugs: Support decriminalization of marijuana and lessen penalities on drug posession. However, I support the War on Drugs when it comes to fighting drug traffickers and hard drugs. Nevertheless, I feel as if the War on Drugs has been mismanaged since the 1970s, and in its present form, is unwinnable.

Gambling: Should be left up to local areas.

Prostitution: Strongly support its legalization, with government regulation.

Embryonic Stem Cell Research: Strongly support with government funding.

Immigration: Not very knowledgeable about this issue. I support amnesty for illegal immigrants, but we need to do something about the border. What to do, alas, is the question.

Economic Issues

General Philosophy: Moderate

Taxes: Support maintaining current tax levels for the upper brackets, while lowering taxes for the middle and lower classes.

Unions: Eh, mixed opinions. In some cases, they're good, but in other cases, they're awful.

Free trade: Generally support. Support NAFTA.

Spending: I believe in fiscal responsibility (i.e. not the current administration's viewpoint). Maintain defense spending levels, but scratch any missile defense program or any programs designed to deal with Cold War threats. Oppose "great society" type programs to help the poor, in general, although there should be some welfare.

Social Security: Oppose privitization.

Workers' Rights: Support, to a point.

Space Program: Strongly support.

Welfare: Fine as it is currently. 

Healthcare: Support universal healthcare (single-payer).

Education: increase spending, oppose vouchers.

Foreign Issues

General Philosophy: Interventionist/Hawk.

Democracy and Trade: Don't link human rights to China. It isn't economically viable and we can't do anything about it.

Anti (fill in the blank) Treaty: Strongly support disarmament of all nuclear weapons and efforts to stop nuclear proliferation.

United Nations: Strongly support, although it needs to be far more efficient. Nevertheless, I am a major proponent of mutli-lateralism and support working with NATO in all of our large military operations. In fact, I wouldn't engage in any large military action without support from the UK, France, and Germany.

Iraq: Eh, not much we can do but wait for the Iraqis to get strong enough to take over their own nation. Thank you Mr. President for getting us into this inescapable quagmire!

Israel: Tough one. Hezbolllah is a terrorist group, no doubt about it, but Israel's conduct during the Lebanese conflict has been awful. I guess I'd express scorn over the present conflict, but alas, I'd still support Israel. But most importantly, I'd work towards compromise and peace in the Middle east.