Summary of political beliefs

[ian]

Just because I am interested in knowing y'all a bit better, I think a topic should be made descibing you all and your personal views on politics.  I like the way Sen. WMS has linked his personal views to his signature, and I found his comments very interesting.  So, that's what I'm planning on doing with this post; you should, too.

[ian]

I am a total social libertarian, with the exception that I am pro-life, oppose hate crime legislation, pro-censorship, anti-drug, anti-prostitution, and I don't support any extreme issues, albeit the separation of church and state, where most would consider me to be very extreme (ie taking "under God" out of the pledge of allegiance, "in God we trust" out of money", and the 10 Commandments off of governmentally-run buildings.)

Economically, however, I am much more complicated.  I am an economic moderate/liberal.  On the liberal side, I oppose the modern privization attempts by Republicans, mostly oppose welfare reform (because I feel that it is my job as a human being to help a person live, even if he will not help him/herself), support labor unions, support agricultural subsidies, am pro-environment, strongly in support of affirmative action, oppose tort reform, and oppose school vouchers.  However, my Conservative economic views are these:  I oppose progressive taxation, support a flatter, more fair tax system, I am a deficit hawk, support tax cuts for all, especially the wealthy, and would have supported Bush's tax cuts had the deficit not been so astronomical; I oppose special interest groups getting funding from the government (NASA, I'm talkin' to you!), oppose the pessimistic comments made by the majority of the Democratic party criminalizing the rich, support school choice in a non-voucher system, support the rights of businesses over ethics, oppose big spending in general, oppose efforts to encourage immigration or lessen the amount of years it takes to immigrate, and support protectionism in trade with other countries.  And I have no official opinion on free/fair trade, embargos on China and Cuba, and health care, among several other economic issues I cannot remember at the moment.

And, foreign policy-wise, I'm a dove.  (Although I don't support UN approval to go to war).  Expanding on this, I don't believe that one can go to war with a non-existing country, such as "Terrorism," but military intervention into terrorist networks is advisable.  Oppose Iraq.  As far as Israel and Palestine go, I support offering military aid to Israel if other nations declare war on them for being the only official Jewish nation.  I also believe that Israel treats Palestine unfairly, and Palestinians have just as much a right to live in that country as the Jewish people; it is, after all, both of our holy lands, and I would suggest a separation of church and state to ease tensions in Israel.

So those are my positions on the issues.  Let's hear some of you.

[ian]

- Oppose large deficits, but not necessarily small ones like we have now. The real problem is too much government spending.

Small?  $7,798,011,499,375.68 is not small!

[ian]

That would be the national debt (i believe). A18 is referring to the annual shortcomings which aren't exactly small in and of themselves.

Ah, yes.