It's funny. Liberal is used as a curse by today's neo-con Republicans. I'm an old school Republican, but hell yes, I'd say I'm a moderate, liberal Republican. Here's my politics in a nutshell:
* low taxes for the middle class and poor, but a graduated tax to capture the bulk of the revenues from the rich, whom I consider to be any family that has ordinary income of more than $500K per year
* strong military and aggressively anti-proliferation of nuke weapons, but believe we should never give up our own; I know, it's hypocritical
* anti-abortion; I believe anyone who has seen a sonogram should know that it's murder, plain and simple
* anti-gay marriage; I believe marriage is between a man and a woman, full stop, everything else is a perversion
* I'm for a balanced budget; very strong against this neo-con spend like there's no tomorrow ethos
* walk and talk softly, but carry a very big-stick; don't be afraid to use that stick when the UN can't get things done, but if we have to fight, then let's do it with all of our might, not on the cheap like in Iraq
* I'm for creating a United Democratic Nations as an alternative to the current UN; entry will come with strict criteria around Democracy, human rights, and free markets
* if we have to fight, then let's use our military, our diplomacy and our economic might to crush folks; in my book, this means we need to crush terrorism by hitting it where it hurts and that means their pocketbook; fighting them on the battlefield gains them more converts; becoming oil independent deprives them of resources
* I'm for bringing all but 5,000-10,000 of our troops home by then end of 2007. The remainder should be special ops and would stay to continue to train the Iraqis and to search and destroy terrorist operations both within and around Iraq. I'd authorize covert operations in Iran, Syria, and Pakistan to search and destroy terrorists as well as to mark targets for future bombing campaigns if the need arose, especially in Iran.
* I'm for a crash program to get us off the oil within 15-20 years; no half measures; tax the oil companies, subsidize alternatives, provide tax incentives to manufacturers of alternatives and to consumers who buy them
* I'm for social security privatization, 100%, full stop, but put laws in place to not allow withdrawals prior to age 65 and give people limited choice: either they put it in an age appropriate target retirement fund or they can put it in Treasuries, no other choices; and all of the money they put in is tagged to their social security
* I'm for universal healthcare, heavily subsidized by corporate America, as well as taxes
* I'm pro-immigration to fill the worker shortage that will only get tighter when baby boomers retire, but not illegal immigration; I want companies sued civilly and criminally for hiring undocumented workers; I'm for Federal standards on IDs
* I'm for government mandated caps on Presidential election spending; draconian curbs on PACs and lobbyists
* I'm anti-labor unions, as I think they are an anachronism; I'm generally pro-corporation, but believe companies have a duty to share in the burdens of things like Universal Healthcare, since this country has made those corporations wealthy
* I'm for immediate elimination of the AMT
* I'm for immediate implementation of GAAP accounting for our Federal gov't, with criminal prosecution for any budgetary vagueness, manipulation, or off the books accounts, which means Bush should immediately be put on trial for wasting taxpayer money and trying to hide it
* I'm for reinvigoration of our Treason laws, so that whenever a gov't official outs a CIA agent, they will be subject to those laws, or if some American citizen is caught collaborating with terrorists they can be tried as a traitor
* I'm for ensuring complete autonomy of the CIA from the Executive branch, instead it should report into and be overseen by an elected Congressional committee
* I'm for imposing tariffs on Chinese goods as a counter-action to their currency that is not free-floating; we can lift the tariffs when they free their currency; in the mean time, let's ensure that we redress the estimated currency imbalance through tariffs
* Lastly, I believe in God and I believe that Christian ideals informed our founders as they created the institutions that govern this nation. I believe our founders intended us to respect freedom of religion, but did not intend for us to eradicate religion from every governmental institution. I believe that if we lose touch with our Christian roots, then we will devolve into a secular country that will forget all the best in ourselves that was once a shining light to other people around the world. I hate it when they try to take "Under God" out of the Pledge of Allegiance and think they should spend more time on something that matters more. Having said all that, I hate it when people like Bush use religion as an excuse to turn off their own critical thinking and as an excuse to further ideology and dogma, over reason and studied responses. And I hate it when Evangelicals seem to have so much influence on who becomes President in this country.
And there you have it. On the Dem to Rep scale, I'm mostly Republican with only a handful of things in common with Democrats. However, these neo-cons in power today do not represent me either. So what am I? I'm part of a very broad and large group of people in the middle of America. That middle ground is what the Dems and Neo-Cons both have no clue how to reach. |
