Summary of political beliefs

[Ferguson97]

Overview:
Social: Liberal to Libertarian
Economic: Centrist to Center-left.
Foreign policy: Globalist

Social Policy:
Abortion: Pro-choice. Federally fund Planned Parenthood.
Same-Sex Marriage: Fully support.
Drug Laws: Legalize, regulate, and tax marijuana. Decriminalize all other drugs.
Death Penalty: Strongly oppose.
Gun Control: Universal background checks, national registry, psychological evaluation, required training, ban gun show loophole, limit amount of ammunition that can be sold, ban assault weapons and the like.
Affirmative Action: Support.
Euthanasia: Support
Prostitution: Legalize, regulate, and tax.
Immigration: We need to make it way easier for people to come here legally. Provide amnesty and a path to citizenship for anybody here illegally, unless they've committed a violent crime. Increase the amount of immigrants we allow every year drastically.

Economic Policy:
Minimum Wage: Having a minimum wage that's the same everywhere is dumb. Require that states set it at 50% of the median wage.
Taxation: Consumption/Sin taxes > Income taxes. Ideally, we'd fund most of the government with a land-value, value-added, and carbon tax with a bunch of sin taxes sprinkled in there. Some level of income taxes for the wealthy.
Healthcare: I fluctuate between federally funded healthcare vouchers and a public option.
Education: Outlaw homeschooling, increase federal funding for education. Make it much harder for states to customize their education plans.
Free Trade: Strongly pro.

Foreign Policy and National Security:
Iran: Keep the Iran deal.
Syria: Assad is a war criminal and we should seek to remove him from power at some point.
Israel/Palestine: Pro-Israel.
Russia: Biggest threat to our national security.

Environment:
Climate Change: Carbon tax. Regulate what corporations can do. Tax cuts for green/alternative energy sources. Invest in nuclear energy.

Electoral and Political Reform:
Term limits: Only for the presidency.
Electoral College Reform: Abolish. Just make it a popular vote.
Voter ID: Oppose. Automatically register everyone at 18 and make "Election Day" several days instead of just one.

[Ferguson97]

I'd call myself very socially progressive, fiscally liberal, and a liberal internationalist with foreign policy.

Social Issues

Abortion: Pro-choice. Federally fund Planned Parenthood. Virtually no restrictions. Increase funding for public sex education and contraceptives to reduce the need for abortion.

Same Sex Adoption: Strongly support. Give same-sex couples the same rights as heterosexual couples.

Transgender Rights: Allow individuals to use bathroom of their choice; allow the transition of all individuals above the age of 16. Prohibit discrimination against transgender individuals; ban the "gay panic" defense.

Marijuana: Legalize, regulate, tax. Expunge the records of non-violent offenders.

Death Penalty: Abolish.

Prostitution: Protect sex workers by decriminalizing sex work for sex workers, but not Johns. (Research shows this is the most effective way to guarantee their safety.)

Euthanasia: Strongly support. Require a psychological evaluation to determine they are of sound mind.

Reparations: Support. Don't know how it should be implemented.

Affirmative action: Support.

Gun control: National registry. Mandatory training, background check, and psychological evaluation, and three non-family character references. Limit three guns per individual. Ban assault-style weapons. Limit ammo/magazines. Routine inspections.

Drugs: Decriminalize and don't incarcerate people for simple possession. Give them rehabilitation. Open safe injection sites and needle exchange programs nationwide.

Confederate Statues: Tear them down.

Criminal justice: Drastically overhaul; transition to rehabilitative system of justice. Ban solitary confinement, maximum sentence of 20 years; mandatory job training and temporary housing upon release; ban three strikes law; ban mandatory minimums; ban cash bail; allow all felons to vote during and after their sentencing; most crimes should not result in prison.

Police reform: Demilitarize the police; require police live in their communities; body cameras on at all times; ban the hiring of cops fired or suspended for misconduct; automatic investigation of all fatal shootings; ban police from having sex with people in their custody; ban police quotas for things like tickets; drastically reduce funding; desegregate duties so that social workers handle necessary cases rather than police; BAN QUALIFIED IMMUNITY; ban no-knock raids.

Immigration: Automatic citizenship for every single non-violent undocumented immigrant. Make it drastically easier to immigrate to the United States. Basically, I want a step below open borders. Abolish ICE. Shut down the border camps. Reparations for individuals in the camps. Immediately set up a system for family reunification. Bar ICE employees from federal employment.

Economic Issues

Minimum Wage: $15 hour nation wide, indexed to inflation.

Welfare: Drastically expand Earned Income Tax Credit; drastically expand the child tax credit; implement Cory Booker's baby bond plan. Allow immigrants to be eligible. Basically, expand the social safety net to the extent that no on ever need to worry about putting food on the table.

Taxes: Reduce taxes for low-income earners. Drastically increase for the wealthy. Eliminate the mortgage interest deduction. Increase taxes on corporations.  Increase the estate tax. Tax capital gains as income. Create way more tax brackets.

Social security: Eliminate the cap on payroll tax. Raise the retirement age to social security. Use income taxes to fund social security. Increase social security payroll tax.

Sin taxes: Tax soda, cigarettes, and alcohol. 

Wealth tax: Support.

Value-Added tax: Support, with dividend for low-income earners.

Healthcare: Public option.

Foreign Policy

Russia: Sanction. Condemn their election interference and the bounty they placed on American soldiers. Defend Ukraine from Russian aggression.

China: Biggest 21st century threat. Sanction. Condemn their treatment of the Uyghurs as genocide. Recognize Taiwan as a sovereign country. Allow Hong Kong residents to seek refugee status. Go after their IP theft. Counter their influence in Africa.

Israel: Condition their aid on stopping annexation and make them stop treating Palestinians like sub-humans. Make them give back stolen land and homes.

Palestine: Provide humanitarian aid on the condition that they give women and LGBT+ rights. Designate Hamas as a terrorist.

Iran: Renegotiate Iran nuclear deal.

Latin America: Expand humanitarian aid and strengthen our relationship with allies like Mexico and Brazil. 

India: Support India against Chinese aggression.

NATO/UN: Drastically increase our presence.

Military spending: Redirect most funding to R&D. Increase intelligence spending, and naval spending. Drastically reduce ground troops, but leave intelligence operatives.

General: China Hawk. Russia Hawk. Multilateral coalitions focused on diplomacy and humanitarian aid. Promote liberal democracy. Climate change should be an international effort.

Environmental Policy

Carbon Tax: Support.

Environmental Regulations: Support.

Subsidies: Eliminate fossil fuel subsidies. Expand wind and solar subsidies.

Nuclear: Strongly support.

Paris Accords: Rejoin.

Electoral Policy

Electoral College: Eliminate, replace with national popular vote.

Senate: Make proportional to population.

House: Eliminate 435 cap.

DC statehood: Support.

PR statehood: Support.

Gerrymandering: Independent commission.

Term limits: Oppose.

Voter ID: Oppose.

Compulsory voting: Oppose.

Automatic registration: Support.

Expand early voting: Support.

Expand absentee voting: Support.

[Ferguson97]

Same-Sex Marriage: Support, but thinks straight couples should get some priority in adoption situations.

Why?

[Ferguson97]

Overall: Progressive/liberal blend

Social Policy
Abortion: Strongly support.
Same-Sex Marriage: Strongly support.
Drugs: Legalize marijuana, decriminalize all other drugs. Rehabilitation instead of incarceration.
Death Penalty: Strongly opposed.
Gun Control: Assault weapons ban. No open-carry or concealed carry, you can only have the gun on your private property. Mandatory background checks and psychological testing. Routine training every six months. National gun owner database. Close the boyfriend loophole.
Affirmative Action: Support.
Euthanasia: Support.
Prostitution: Legalize for sex workers, decriminalize for Johns. (As I understand it, this is the most effective way to protect sex workers, but I'm open to whatever experts say is best.)
Immigration: Open the borders. Stop having them be closed.
Criminal justice: Abolish private prisons. Abolish mandatory minimum sentencing. Abolish the three strikes law. Focus on rehabilitation over punitive sentencing. Follow the Nordic model of updating the infrastructure.
Surveillance: Depends on the circumstances. I think it's a necessary evil for the FBI to track extremist groups, but local police forces should have their power limited.
Police: Abolish qualified immunity, ban police unions, don't allow beat cops to carry firearms. Require a bachelor's in criminal justice and four years of training. Reduce their budgets.

Economic Policy
Minimum Wage: Raise to $15 and tie it to inflation.
Right-to-Work: Strongly opposed.
Tax Rates: Increase taxes on the very rich. Keep current levels for middle class. Reduce for working class.
Healthcare: Public option.
Social Security: Remove the payroll tax cap.
Trade: Free trade is good and should be expanded.
Environment: Abolish fossil fuel subsidies. Expand research/investments into nuclear, wind, and solar. Carbon tax.
Education: Universal preschool. Invest heavily in preK-12, after school programs, free school lunches. Forgive all student debt. Make public universities tuition-free.
Transit: Expand public transit within cities. Invest in a high-speed rail across the country. Invest in electric vehicles.

Foreign Policy
Foreign intervention: Generally support intervention, with an obvious preference for diplomacy.
Russia: Invest in cybersecurity. Give arms/money to Ukraine so they can defend themselves.
China: Invest in cybersecurity. Give arms/money to Taiwan so they can defend themselves. Invest heavily in trade in the region to reduce their influence.
Israel-Palestine: End US financial support for the IDF. Demand that Netanyahu stop any and all further annexation. Reparations for the Palestinians, and restore their stolen land and property.
NATO: Strongly support.
UN: Strongly support.
Defense budget: Reduce amount of ground troops and invest heavily in cybersecurity, R&D, and the Navy.

Electoral Reform
Electoral College: Abolish it. Nationwide popular vote.
Gerrymandering: I want Democrats to play dirty while it exists, but ideally there would be a bipartisan commission to redraw the districts.
Term limits: Opposed to, except for executive offices.
Voter ID: Strongly opposed.
Voter registration: Automatic registration.
Voting age: Keep at 18, but allow states to lower to 16 for state and local elections.
Mandatory voting: Strongly opposed.
Statehood: Statehood for DC and PR. Allow other territories to vote on statehood referendum.
Supreme Court: Pack the court!

[Ferguson97]

Foreign Policy
(Not a complete list, this is just what comes to mind)

Redirect defense spending to cyber security and research & development.

Invest economically (a ‘Marshall Plan’ of sorts) in Africa to reduce Chinese influence.

Emphasize multilateral cooperation in the Arctic region to reduce Russian influence.

Expand naval forces in the Arctic.

Expand naval forces in the South China Sea, and be willing to defend Hong Kong or Taiwan against an invasion.

Develop a Lend-Lease program to aid Ukraine’s defense against Russian aggression.

Expand naval forces in the Black Sea.

Reinstate the Iran Deal.

Withdraw the majority of ground troops from the Middle East, but keep a skeleton crew of intelligence groups.

Increase the amount of refugees we accept from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Iran.

Work in conjunction with NGOs to provide food, medicine, and infrastructure development for Iraq,
Iran, Afghanistan, and Syria.

Work in conjunction NGOs to provide food and medicine for people in Venezuela.

Increase the amount of refugees we accept from Venezuela and Cuba.

Expand our role in international organizations like the United Nations and NATO.

End foreign aid for Israel until they stop expanding settlements, and allow a UN investigation into the IDF.