Summary of political beliefs

[courts]

I notice you don't mention medicare or social security.

[courts]

Alright, last time I'm doing this in a long time. I'm bored, way too awake and feel like ranting...

Abortion: Pretty anti-abortion outside of particular life threatening instances, although given public opinion this being a state issue is the best pro-lifers can really hope for unfortunately.

Marriage/Family: Government shouldn't be involved with marriage licensing or doing the sort of social engineering it does now in taxes, it's discriminatory towards all sorts of people. Also CPS and family court should be much more restrained than now, they are out of control and in a lot of cases send kids to even worse living situations under foster care.

Civil Liberties: Repeal the Patriot Act and similar legislation and abolish TSA, DHS, etc... The incredibly lax/non-existent standards for probable cause and ability for the government to spy on us are pretty ridiculous in general.

Guns: Very important issue to me. End all federal gun control legislation passed since 1934 and generally get government out.

Religion: I don't care if you pray in school or want a government grant for your charity (like all the others) just PLEASE leave me alone. Thank you.

Foreign Policy: We should have a non-interventionist foreign policy. Massively cut the military (>75%) and close down all foreign bases and withdraw from all current 'conflicts' immediately.

Economics: End the federal reserve, break up the banks/firms that caused this mess, ban further bail outs, significantly scale back most regulations (especially for small business), massively scale back the federal government in general. Also no more NAFTA/CAFTA/etc. type deals, we should trade with countries that are similar to us in standard of living and/or basic regulatory burden. As for the debt it's not going to be paid, sooner or later the US is going to default and whatever bond holders are left are going to get a haircut scalping IMO.. We're just delaying the inevitable at this rate. That's just how SamSpade I see it, sorry.

Taxes: Drastically reduce and simplify federal taxation. We should have consumption based taxes (gas tax and maybe VAT/National Sales tax).
 
Healthcare: Repeal Obamacare, the HMO act of 1973 and at least scale back EMTLA. I have mixed feelings here though, I support public healthcare at the state level but I don't really trust the federal government to handle this even putting aside possible constitutional issues... They can't even manage what we have now competently and lobbyists infect every step of the process as we've seen with all these waivers and special deals. This is one of those rare moments I really wish I was Canadian, at least they're not as stupid as us on this issue.

Energy: The government should stop subsidizing industries and avoid creating new carbon taxes or emissions trading.. Basically I think the market will handle it. I'm not a fan of fracking though.

Agriculture: End farm subsidies. Stop letting factory farms game the system like they do now.

Education: Repeal No Child Left Behind and scrap the Department of Education. I think we should move towards a charter school based system complete with uniforms, but it should pretty much be left to individual districts to decide things unless they're creationist or something equally stupid.

Crime: The drug war is a failure and we should abolish the federal death penalty and generally incarcerate way less people, it doesn't really make us any better off and costs us way too much. We should relax home defense laws in general and move towards a more restitution and/or rehab based system because that would be less expensive and be less invasive and counterproductive in general IMO.
  
Euthanasia: Should be allowed in terminal cases but leaving this to the states is for the best right now.
 
Freedom of Speech: For it especially in terms of political speech even if it's 'hateful' although some minor regulations (i.e. vchip or scrambling or something) are OK with me as a compromise as long as they don't ban or severely restrict access to 'offensive' content.
  
Foreign Aid: End, we have serious financial problems and really, it does a lot of harm quite a lot of the time even when not lost or squandered (e.g. local agricultural markets being harmed; cost of foreign loans). People can donate out of their own pocket or give blood or something if they want, I know I do.
 
Immigration: I think we should basically have a moratorium.. At least until the economy improves and we've done SOMETHING about our illegal immigration problem, although obviously I'd prefer we simply deported people here illegally.

Minimum wage: Abolish at federal level.

Nuclear disarmament: The US really doesn't need to spend the enormous amounts of money it does maintaining its arsenal these days, assuming it ever really did.
 
Voting system: IRV + scrapping the electoral college + either scrapping the senate or ending the practice of electing senators (they really are pretty useless). Maybe we should add up the popular vote per state to make things fairer, but idk.. Almost anything would be better than now though.

[courts]

You had me thinking you were another Paultard until you described yourself as a neo-con.

His initials wouldn't happen to be JC, would they?

[courts]

social conservatism. anti abortion, anti-gay marriage (any state marriage really but the whole concept personally annoys me), anti-gun control, anti-immigration, anti-cultural marxism and 'individualism' in general. the 1960s murdered this country.

third position economics. smash the fed and international financial parasites, credit unions are better. end 'free trade.' replace income tax with some sort of national sales tax (this doesn't have to be regressive). some deregulation and spending cuts would actually make sense but i'm very much in favor of nationalizing large portions of healthcare and oil, coal and natural gas. also i really don't like environmentalism, we need more nuclear power and i want to avoid any 'green' tax hikes or subsidization schemes to fight alleged global warming. we need more industry in general in this country.

isolationism. bring our troops home and put them at the border. we don't need to spend 6 x more than china as a country and police a bunch of countries for no reason. also we get nothing out of our 'friendship' with israel, they are a burden on the tax payers and war criminals. i consider the neocons to be israeli firsters and un-american, more so than a lot of left wingers.

against universal suffrage. there need to at least be safeguards like voter testing to screen out the incompetent and lazy. as it is democracy is a highly flawed concept even taking that into account. i don't have a very high opinion of liberal values in general, not everyone is created equal. sorry.

oh and last but not least end the stupid wars on concepts that don't do anything positive for the country like the war on drugs. the whole fake rambo mentality is pretty nauseating coming from ex-coke heads like bush and obama. not that i like drugs they are disgusting. i hate being surrounded by drug users.

[courts]

I'm glad Mint posted here, because instead of having to write a post myself you can just invert every position and voila, you've got my beliefs.

i thought you liked to enjoy things other than what the liquor store had to offer every so often.

[courts]

I don't think (?) Mint would object to me characterising his positions as generally fascist, so O-MA might indeed be the proper choice.

there are some common threads. nationalism, a leeriness towards modern democracy, anti-egalitarianism, desire for independence from international finance, anti-marxism. but classical fascism was imperialist, conflict loving, all encompassing in its goals. it criticized the democratic state for being too weak. if anything i share many of the criticisms of anti-democratic libertarians like hans-herman hoppe and bryan caplan.

then again certain developments in the west i view as undesirable (such as the bank bail outs) would be unlikely to have occurred under direct democracy as iceland and other countries have shown us. we can see also that when put entirely to a vote, a lot of modern liberalism fails. hence the modern right's love for referenda and initiatives and constant bleating about activism here in the states. i could go on about the left/liberal drive towards criminalizing 'hate speech' and enacting 'speech codes,' but you get the idea. on some level i feel that a bit of turn around is fair play.

[courts]

moderate hero, away!

[courts]

interesting that virtually everyone is summing up their views with positions rather than actual concepts...

[courts]

1. The right to individual autonomy is important, even if it threatens collective security.

disagree. i'm not even sure 'rights' really exist other than as social constructs. regardless communities are under no obligation to accept everyone. if you are a free loader or not willing to assimilate or just generally a nuisance then they should be able to kick you out. actually i'd argue if society was more 'tribal' and monocultural in general like that we might actually have more freedom and personal happiness than we do now rather than less. i suppose part of my sympathy towards radical ideas like demarchy lately stems from that.

2. The government should penalize organizations that practice outsourcing.

agree.

3. Giving faith-based charities the same government resources as secular organizations is a good idea.

agree

4. We should increase foreign aid to countries struggling with poverty.

disagree. it is often hugely wasteful, counterproductive (e.g. food aid driving local farms out of business), and frankly 'saving' is not any country's job. governments should focus solely on their own countries. the only exceptions i can think of are basically just trying to prevent a refugee crisis or helping a business partner or something practical like that.

5. We should increase funding for education.

agree kind of. teachers should be paid more and schools shouldn't be funded through property tax. on the other hand i think people spend too much time in school. so certain things like senior year should be abolished.

6. Heterosexual couples should receive higher marital recognition than same-sex couples.

marriage has never been about 'equality.' it has to do with trying to favor some lifestyles over others with benefits and privileges (e.g. married life over being single). if we are going to accept that a ) marriage has nothing to do with promoting the nuclear family and b ) people should be treated equally then i think government should just get out of marriage entirely. also i hate what 'no fault divorce' and the anti-male bias in family courts has done to our society.

7. Overall, free trade hurts more than it helps.

agree, there's a reason protectionism was embraced by virtually every industrialized power in history. plus the 'comparative advantage' argument doesn't really make sense given how mobile capital is.

8. We should reduce the number of government programs substantially.

agree but mostly in the sense that there's a ton of corporate welfare programs out there and duplication going on.

9. Abortion should be illegal or very heavily restricted

agree. i support heartbeat laws.

10. The government should fund museums, theaters, and other cultural institutions that are unable to survive independently.

in theory agree, in practice a lot of it is obviously way too degenerate though.

11. The government should subsidize health insurance for those who cannot easily afford it.

i don't really think insurance is a great model but yes, obviously i support universal healthcare. i think single payer would be best.

12. The government should work to reduce children's exposure to offensive radio and television content.

agree obviously.

13. It is unfair that wealthier people pay higher tax rates.

disagree, tax rates are way too low. to say nothing of the crooks and parasites on wall street.

14. The minimum wage should be raised.

agree, raise it to ~$15.

15. Marijuana should be legalized.

agree and aggressively promote hemp use.

16. Society focuses too much on forcing equality at the expense of real merit

agree to an extent.

17. Violating individual rights is acceptable when it comes to fighting terrorism.

again i don't really like how this question is framed but i disagree anyway because of the rule of law and not wanting the state turning on its own citizens and all that. on the other hand to some extent modern surveillance is probably unavoidable...

18. Current levels of government regulation on industry are excessive.

agree, we have way too many laws and regulations to keep track of (over criminalization). and a lot of these regulations exist solely because big business lobbied for them to stamp out their competitors not the other way around (regulatory capture).

19. The government should provide basic needs for all people.

kind of vague. my instinct is to say no because there are limits to our resources. and you don't want to encourage parasitism or otherwise create perverse incentives. on the other hand i could support replacing social security and most welfare programs with something like a negative income tax or guaranteed income as milton friedman once suggested. and there is a major problem in terms of long term unemployment/underemployment...

20. The death penalty should be an option for serious crimes.

agree. someone that burns an old lady to death on an elevator or kills an 8 year old child in a bombing just to prove a point should be shot. we shouldn't expend resources on such complete monsters or put other people's lives at risk out of some misguided humanist belief.

21. We should reduce the difficulty of immigration.

disagree. go back to the pre-1965 immigration policy or something similar.

22. Union workers should be protected against being fired during strikes.

agree, we need more unions and profit-sharing in general.

23. Prostitution should be legalized.

disagree. i could get into arguments about it failing to root out the black market or address the undesirability of being a prostitute sure... but honestly what it boils down to is that i just don't want to live in a community where that sort of thing is tolerated. but if you do then whatever.

24. Flag burning should be banned.

kind of agree although i have no attachment to what the current flag stands for obviously.

25. I support affirmative action.

disagree. if it exists it should be based on income level rather than race or gender. although to be honest considering i may very well have benefitted from affirmative action schemes i feel somewhat hypocritical here.

26. The government should impose tariffs to protect industries from foreign competition.

agree

27. Physician-assisted suicide should be legal if the patient is capable of informed, rational consent.

agree. if you have a terminal illness then choosing death with dignity should definitely be an option. i would much rather be euthanized than suffer a slow and degrading death. i know someone whose mother is slowly dying from face cancer. the thought of being forced to endure something like that or alzheimers or any number of other ailments because of a bunch of do-gooders is terrifying.

[courts]

- Legalize nationally (civil rights issue). I would even go as far as to say people should marry multiple people if they want to.
 - Get the government out of marriage, the definition should be very broad, a bond between people.

why have a definition at all if you're 'getting the government out of marriage'?

[courts]

people have asked questions before on this thread

[courts]

Social Security - I swear that Social Security and Medicare are Ponzi schemes straight out of a smoke filled room, sold by the snake oil salesmen known as socialists. I want Social Security and Medicare abolished.

yeah i don't like the way social security is structured right now either