Just Curious. What Are You?

I prefer to think of this in terms of right and wrong. I'm not exactly sure who's right but I'm certain that Republicans are wrong!

I am neither.

Here are a couple of comments from both sides of that continuum.

Mostly I favor a progressive agenda. I am for the social safety nets now in place; I want them expanded...and I want new ones enacted.

We have more than enough to go around...and everyone should have (more than just) enough. The problem of seeing that everyone has (more than) enough is a distribution problem...one that can be solved.

I do not advocate that all have equal; just that all have enough.

I advocate completely for a woman's right to have dominion over her own body. If a woman decides to terminate a pregnancy occurring in her own body...NOBODY except her should have a right to any part of that decision. And laws have to insure she has that power.

On the conservative side...I am pro-death penalty...and I argue that guns are a part of our society and will never be significantly restricted.

Actually, Finn, you might consider presenting a list of items you see as having a strong liberal/conservative constituency...and asking how people feel on those issues as part of this "curiosity."

No one is "just curious." One has a reason, and "curiosity" is just a euphemism for that real reason, in my opinion. I'm curious about many things; however, the advice from the sergeant that gave us new recruits a five minute speech, before getting us fed and bedded down, upon arriving at 2 a.m., included the good advice of M.Y.O.B., as the way to get through the next four years.

Well, I am. Of course if I use someone's reply to mount a biased argument against them, I will reveal that I wasn't. We'll just have to wait and see, won't we?

I would argue that pro-death penalty is not a true conservative position.

Providing the government with the right to kill any of its citizenry is not consistent with conservative principles.

Arguing that expanding controls on gun ownership is never going to happen is a realist, not conservative position.

If you do not wish to label yourself a liberal or progressive, I am not going to insist that you do. I will however, respectfully, challenge those positions you hold that you believe to be conservative.

I'm afraid that I don't see the value in this suggestion.

I'm not asking if anyone agrees with what I think is conservative or liberal.

I'm a leftist, in american jargon, with a smatter of libertarian, and some dots of conservative. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes.

Well...you just disagreed with what I consider to be conservative positions...so perhaps you ought to define what are conservative positions...and what are liberal positions...so we can say where we stand on them.

I disagree with your assessment of my suggested "conservative positions"...but why bother to argue that aspect.

What do you see as conservative positions...and I will give you my take.

I will acknowledge that while I hold what I consider both liberal and conservative views...

...if mistaken for a liberal, I laugh benignly and shake my head "NO."

If mistaken for an American conservative I consider it a damning insult and will do my best to correct the person making such an accusation. There will not even be a trace of a smile while doing so.

What am I? Annoyed is my first reaction. Boiling down the views of members to two categories is simplistic. And it's arrogant to assume you are equipped to correct the viewpoints of members who actually bothered to indulge you in your nosy intrusion. I don't think anybody here is running for office in your piece of Texas heaven, so what possibly do you hope to accomplish? You seem to looking for affirmation that you are the sole individual with the ability to judge. This is a new low, what's next, asking people to inform you of their net worth or place of worship. Frankly, I'm surprised anybody provided you with their opinions. By the way, is supporting a death penalty supposed to be a progressive position? This is nuts, I know many people who are split on this issue, and they are both conservatives and progressive.

aka confused

I am a communist.

This is an interesting question. I consider myself an engineer. I believe in the scientific method, I like to generate hypotheses and test mine and those of others against the data that is out there. This seems like a golden time for me - the quantity of raw data available to me is astounding. If I want to look up what the impact on Wal Mart pricing will be if we raise the minimum wage, I can do that pretty easily. If I then want to compute the change in workers eligible for government assistance as a result, I can compute that also. Last month I found an extremely detailed business plan for a pizza store that allowed me to model the impact of minimum wage on pizza prices. If you want to get raw data on climate change, no problem. If you want to read scholarly articles, again no problem. Truly a golden age.

There are certain areas of debate that don't lend themselves to this kind of analysis, civil rights for example. I don't see my views as particularly conservative or liberal but given the state of politics these days, I suppose I would be considered a liberal. I support freedom of speech, freedom from government intrusion (like the NSA), etc but to me those seem like both conservative and liberal positions. I support gun ownership but also reasonable restrictions (like on assualt weapons). I support voting rights. I support reasonable checks on police and government powers. I support having a good military but relying primarily on negotiation and alliance building to solve international problems. 30 years ago, those were not controversial or political positions, now they seem to be liberal positions although I could easily find A2K "conservatives" that agree with me on a particular issue.

Perhaps the greatest challenge is trying to limit political discourse to a continuum where conservative and liberal are the extremes. It seems like the political class has a strong interest in doing this. "If you agree with me on abortion and gay marriage, you need to agree with me on taxes and guns or you are not sufficiently conservative." The answers posted so far point to a more textured view of the world but it doesn't seem like politics today allow for that. There are a couple of cases where I see the pendulum swinging back the other way. In California, you essentially have one party rule and suddenly they are able to solve problems and pass laws again. I think I'm seeing the same thing in South Carolina. Without any Democrats to force them to ban together, the Republicans are free to branch out looking for solutions.

Evidence based politics.

I consider myself unaffiliated for the reasons Frank illustrates -- that what is conservative or liberal gets redefined at the convenience of the various power wielders and meme peddlers.

Neither nor. Philosophically, I consider myself a utilitarian ("do whatever makes the most people the most happy") and an empiricist ("follow wherever the evidence leads you"). In terms of party politics, the consequent application of these two principles has pushed me all over the place, from Green (Germany, 1987--ca 1998) to moderately conservative (in Germany, ca 1998--2007) and moderately libertarian (in America, also until 2007) to somewhere between the Democratic Party's left wing and the Green Party (since 2008). Summing up, I'm a political slut, and I intend to keep it that way.

EDIT: In other words, what FreeDuck said far more succinctly already.

I assume the question relates to our general political opinions, as opposed to the many other possibilities.

Some who know of my past posts here would likely label me as a reactionary conservative. That's OK by me, but in fact I consider myself to be an experienced skeptic.

By that I mean une who is inclined to be suspicious of the motives of those who promise new "solutions" to the problems of life, society, and our economic activity. Experience suggests such advocates eventually become more interested in expanding their personal power over others than in the new end states they promise (and almost alway fail to deliver). I'm often even more suspicious of the real merits of the plans usually proposed by such folks. Human nature is complex and perverse, People are generally highly skilled at manipulating any fixed system to their advantage over time, and in a struggle between self-interested crooks and even high-minded bureaucrats, I will bet on the crooks every time. The usual result is that unanticipated side effects massively dilute or even eliminate the promised benefits of "new" authoritarian controls over our choices and behaviors, and usually do so at a high cost to our individual freedom and our collective ability to adapt to evolving challenges.

The planet we inhabit is not, and never has been, a steady state environment. Indeed we on earth are on a one-way trip to oblivion in the red giant phase of our sun's evolution. Most of us don't fully understand our own behavior, much less that of everyone else, or human nature as an imagined whole. Folks who believe they can find lasting (i.e. steady state) solutions to the problems of our physical environment or the organization of our lives are standing on feet of clay.

In that sense, and in rejecting the usually trivial and poorly thought out schemes of power seeking individuals promising the better organizations of all our lives if we will only give them the power to control our actions, I suppose I am a conservative. Freedom is almost always the best, or least bad, solution.

I am (singular) a conservative,
in that I demand a historically accurate interpretation
of the Supreme Law of the Land, with no deviations therefrom.


Is DEVIATIONIST a more accurate description than "liberal"??

Progress toward WHAT??
Toward oppression?




I am an Individualist, libertarian hedonist.





David

I agree, in regard to historical accuracy in all interpretations
of the Supreme Law of the Land.

Government has been recidivistically guilty of USURPATIONS of power,
the same as a bank teller taking home samples that he scoops up
from the vault, on his way home at nite.

i believe my signature says it all