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Journal FortKnox's Journal: A political experiment 33

Journal by FortKnox
You're either a money-grabbing, world wide wrestling loving, gun toting rich bastard, or a tax loving, 5 million new buracracy suggesting, dirty hippy.
The one thing I hate about our political system is the extremists. Either Bush can do no wrong, or Bush can do no right. Either the liberals are just digging for something to bitch about, or they are doing hard work.

So, I've got an idea. Tell me your political swing (somewhat conservative, hardcore liberal)... be HONEST...
Now tell me what you AGREE WITH on the other side.
So its a little reverse roleplay... instead of bitching on whats wrong... lets talk about the pieces we LIKE from the other side. If you are a hardcore liberal, tell me some things about Bush you like. If you are a hardcore conservative, tell me what points the liberals complain about that you agree with...

And please... PLEASE... stay civil... the idea is to point out things we like, not bitch at those that agree with stuff you don't agree with.
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A political experiment More

A political experiment

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  • what i like about both parties is that i think by the time they've completely wrecked the country i'll be dead.
     
    on a side note, i have a hard time seeing how anyone can seriously try to differentiate between either group of politicians. they are exactly the same content in different packaging.
  • In other words, Roman Catholic is my default bent. But lately, I find my self getting discouraged with the virtues of patience and forgiveness- and drawn into the politics of revenge instead. I don't like that about myself OR the side that supports it, who are equally out of favor politically at the moment- more extreme than the "extremeists". In fact, you could say I'm more extreme than the extremeists on a lot of things- I prefer distributism to communism, genocide to conventional warfare, the "Seamles

  • I don't know... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by pythorlh ( 236755 ) <<moc.liamg> <ta> <rohtyp>> on Thursday September 14, 2006 @01:37PM (#16106353) Journal
    I don't know where I am on the spectrum. I certainly can't agree with the extremes of either party. I would have voted for Bush in the last election, but I was out of town unexpectedly on election day. I absolutely would not vote for him now. Unfortunately, I haven't seen anyone I would vote for lately.

    What I like:

    • I like lower taxes.
    • I like welfare reform.
    • I like less gun control.
    • I think abortion should be allowed, but not encouraged.
    • I think recreational drugs should be legalized, but heavily regulated.
    • I like school vouchers.
    • I want cheaper tuition for state colleges.
    • I like gay rights, including marriage.
    • I don't like affirmative action.
    • I like personal responsibilty.
    • I agreed with the invasion of Iraq at the time, though in hindsight, it was not worth doing (since we haven't found any real WMDs).
    • I want us to stay in Iraq until insurgency stops.
    • I want us to stop paying for Israel's military.
    • I want us to increase scientific spending in the US.
    • I want us to decrease airport security to pre-9/11/01 levels.
    • I want a stronger border.
    • I want fewer limitations on legal immigration.
    • I want laws that make sense for people, not corporations.
    • I want politicians with integrity, not connections.

    What does that make me? An idiot, to many, because I am on both sides of this fence.

    • I'm very similar to you, although I do disagree with some of your points. I'd consider myself a centrist who tends to vote republican (registered as a republican).
      However, I'm not offended by gays or gay rights. They should have the same rights as everyone else (but no special rights). Gays marrying? Gays adopting? More power to them. Although I'm a pretty big Christian, I think that if the basis of love, anything is possible.
      I'm against the death penalty, which is a big conservative thing. Maybe i
      • Trouble is, even when it was enacted, it was security theatre, and played upon many human cognitive errors. Notably, we should (be seen to) respond to the last event, rather than a rational appraisal of risks. To my mind, a general feeling that something should be done is no reason to disconnect one's brain; in fact, it is a reason to fight harder to restore sanity. Thus my respect for the bulk of those who voted for the USAPATRIOT act is close to zero. Their reaction to mass hysteria was exactly the o
    • Good list.

      I'm not with you on the not sending money to Israel though.

      The main thing I'm for is reasoned debate based on the facts. (Yes, on some subjects there aren't really a set of facts that everyone agrees on.)

      I'm against pork spending. Anything in a spending bill should be directly related to the bill and nothing more. If that means more bills out of the legislature than so be it.

      I'm for term limits and against any campaign funding limits. I say give and spend all you want but report every penny.

      Ma
      • On the Iraq issue, I would rather that we had stayed out of there until there was a real, clear, popular reason to go in. WMD were such a reason, but they failed to materialise. The next time Saddam had decided to gas some of his people would have worked too. In the meantime, we could have spent more time and troops in Afghanistan, and found Bin Laden. Put him on trial, and get rid of him.
      • Comment removed based on user account deletion
        • I've certainly become a bit more hard edged lately but that's because I perceive a real lack of "taking the situation seriously" from a lot of the anti-war side.

          First, off, I'm 100% anti-war. War is bad. HOWEVER, sticking your head in the sand and hoping things magically get better isn't a solution to anything.

          In the case of Iraq we actually had been in a state of war with them for 12 years and just didn't bother following through. The cease-fire that Iraq had agreed to was constantly violated, the sanct
    • I agree on everything except invading Iraq (because I didn't think there were WMDs) and Israel (not informed enough on that to have an opinion).

      A while ago one of my good friends was having a political discussion with my wife. In the midst, he turned and asked me what my political sway is, and I told him that I don't know. I know what I agree with and what I don't, but I have other things to do than keep track of which "side" each issue is on. I listen to the candidates when deciding who to vote for, rather
      • I don't particularly feel that we should be spending a ton of money on any other nation's military. I almost mentioned Japan, but there at least it's our military, and we just agree to defend their interests. Really, any time our government directly pays another government without it being rent or such, I'm annoyed. If you're interested in helping out poor nations with their infrastructure, then fund a non-profift organisation for that purpose. Don't give money to the government. And really, that's not
    • I would have voted for Bush in the last election, but I was out of town unexpectedly on election day. I absolutely would not vote for him now.

      What changed in his performance between 2004 and 2006?
      • My biggest beef is the executive orders authorising what I consider to be unethical privacy violations, such as the eavesdropping program. In addition to that, there are alot of failings of his administration. The problems in Iraq and Katrina are examples of such. He might not be directly responsible for either, or he might. Either way, he's the man in charge, and I think someone else would do better.
        • Ah, aside from Katrina, I had heard of all of this before 2004. I had forgotten that it didn't hit the mass media until after the election.
  • The left isn't left, the right isn't right. If scientology wasn't already a corrupted term, I'd bend it to my own means, but a bunch of nut jobs took it instead.

    I believe in executing people who do exceedingly stupid things.

    I catch flies in cups and put them outside.

    I believe in freedom of information.

    I have no ethical qualms about executing many of the performers on MTV[1].

    I believe in protecting freedom and liberties.

    I am a strong supporter of property rights.

    I am a strong supporter of environmental regu

  • I'm an anarchist (Score:2, Insightful)

    by eglamkowski ( 631706 )
    There's really nothing for me to agree with from either the democrats or republicans, since everything they stand for these days represents more taxes, more spending, more centralized power. Nobody (politicians) stands for freedom any more, especially not freedom from government.
  • My political leaning: Moderate libertarian moderate leftist independent.

    I agree that the war in Iraq, as envisioned by the Project for a New American Century, could have been a worthwhile undertaking. (But this administation went about it badly.) I agree that we shouldn't just up sticks and leave Iraq in its current state.

    I agree that abortion after the first trimester, with a few exceptions, should be strongly discouraged at least, and possibly illegal.

    I agree that we need a strong military and foreign int
  • Here's what we need more of:
    Lower Trade Barriers (the developing world needs commercial opportunity, not handouts)
    Simplification of the tax code. Every exception favors a minority at the expense of the rest.
    Greater respect for international institutions and treaties we have signed on to.
    Widespread enforcement of our borders and labor laws regarding illegal aliens. If an illegal is caught speeding, get him into the process of deportation, don't just give him a ticket and let him go.
    Politicians who can work [wikipedia.org]
  • It's funny how most people are responding while completely ignoring your question...

    Anyway, I'm a center-rightist and McCain voter, fairly similar to you. My two main points of leftism are:

    • Environmentalism
    • A suspicion that single-payer heatlth care is the least-bad option
  • Perhaps a Regan Conservative; if such a thing actually existed. Not ultra Right, but definitely Right-leaning. Right to life, right to keep and bare arms, small governement: meaning as few social policies as possible, and stop passing so many laws!!! Leave the lawmaking to local officials, move more power back to the States. Keep Social Security, but make it voluntary (you'd have to prove you are taking care of things on your own), Vouchers for Schools as someone else has said.

    As for what I agree with on
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • I was wondering, if you register as an Independant, do you get to vote in the Republican and Democratic Primaries?

    I'm a socialist, with conservative tendancies...
    • Not in most states... in fact, you don't 'register' to a party in Ohio. If you vote in a primary, you just 'registered' for that party. I always considered myself a reformist (though the party, itself, needs reformed), but ended up republican cause I wanted to get a republican out of office...
  • Frankly, I could argue that Bush isn't even pushing the Republican agenda, so I will stick with the typical "conservative" agenda instead.

    - I want a smaller national government. That would lower taxes faster than any tax cut. So far neither major party really seems to be taking real steps to make this happen.
    - The death penalty is justifiable in some cases, for the protection of society. Has it been proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that you killed 50 people over the past twenty years with an axe? Yeah I wo

    • This is NOT an argument (or an attempt to start one)... just me asking for a clarification:
      Old enough to get pregnant should be old enough to decide for herself.

      You are saying if a little 13 year old girl gets pregnant she is old enough to decide on an abortion?

      Again... I'm not trying to start an arguement, nor do I want anyone else to. I just want to clarify that you thought of that particular instance. I don't mind what you say (well, I do, but I'm not going to argue... you are entitled to your op

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by nizo ( 81281 ) *
        In a word: yes. However in an ideal world, that 13 year old would have access to birth control without parental consent; which to me is waaaaay preferable to getting pregnant and having to decide between having a child or getting an abortion. Don't get me wrong: in my opinion 13 is way too young to be having sex (with or without birth control) or having a child; but my (or anyone else's) feelings on the matter aren't keeping young kids from having unprotected sex. To me the best way to stop kids from having
      • "You are saying if a little 13 year old girl gets pregnant she is old enough to decide on an abortion?"

        I find it's pretty clear if it's phrased in a different way: Is a 13 year old girl old enough to consent to sex?

        If she is old enough to consent to sex, then she has taken sufficient control over her body to make choices with long-term consequences. She's already become the captain of her fate, so she should be allowed to choose how to deal with the consequences of her previous choices.

        If she is not old eno
  • I think I lean a bit towards what Europeans mean by Socialist, but I'm not really sure enough about what that means to apply the label myself.

    I believe that government should promote the existence of a healthy society by discouraging the extremes, i.e., disadvantaged people should be made more advantaged and the advantaged should forfeit some of that advantage. I think policy decisions should be based upon empirical evidence only, i;e;, what can be demonstrated with cold hard statistics. For example, it s

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