Summary of political beliefs

[WoodlandAscetic]

Philosophy: Communitarianism/Distributism
Political Affiliation: No Party/Independent (I vote for candidates who are closest to my principles rather than for a specific party. My state has semi-closed primaries so I can register with either party when I go to vote. Closest political party to my beliefs is the American Solidarity Party.)

My political principles are guided ultimately on the virtues of love and charity.

I believe that all human beings should be treated with love and respect. I oppose abortion and believe we need to address the socio-economic problems that often cause someone to choose to have an abortion. I believe we can do that by fighting against poverty, fighting for free public college and university education, economic support for parents, guaranteed parental leave, and universal health care which all help address other issues I see as a lack of charity for people.

I also oppose euthanasia, but believe people should be allowed to choose to refuse treatment.

I oppose the death penalty and support a system of prisons not as a form of punishment, but as a form of rehabilitation so people can rejoin as fully active members of society again.

I oppose war and believe we should not give military aid, but rather give real humanitarian aid. I believe we should trade with any country that meets a certain standard of labor and environmental protection.

I believe racism in America has caused long lasting societal effects and we need to seriously transform all of our institutions to end racial injustice. I support reparations for the descendants of slaves and Native Americans.

I support strong environmental regulations, a transition to 100% renewable energy, and banning the production and importation of products that are less than 50% biodegradable.

I support religious freedom as the ability to practice or not practice a religion as best meets the person's conscience both in private and public as long as they don't harm another person.

I support strong decentralization both of political power and economic power as I see the two ultimately aligned with one another. I believe most decision making power should be handled at the local level democratically, then at the city level, then at the county level, then the state/regional level, and then the federal level. I support publicly funded elections with donations being paid through vouchers given to each citizen who can legally vote in the election. I also support ranked choice voting, initiatives, referendums, and recall elections for all levels of government. Economically I support breaking up corporations and monopolies and banks, a transition to workplace democracy as the primarily model of worker relations for medium-large businesses while support family and locally owned businesses, supporting worker cooperatives, replacing social welfare with consumer cooperatives and prohibiting for-profit health insurance and other types of enterprise that would weaken the strength of consumer ownership of social services.