JediBeldarine
Nov 8th, 2007, 08:27:48 AM
So, I've been following a lot of political discourse on the internet lately and I've been seeing quite a few people claim to be Libertarians. I've found that most of them fit into the college-educated, younger end of the spectrum and that's surprising to me since that's the demographic who is most likely to be solidly in the Democrat camp. I've been thinking a lot about political parties and the divide that seems to exist in the main parties today -- especially since most major polls identify more and more Americans who fit the Independent category rather than fitting squarely into red or blue. The major parties seem to have left the great middle behind somewhere, hijacked by the extreme wings of both parties. It almost seems like common sense and rational discourse has disappeared in politics today... that lead me to wondering about everyone here... so let me ask you a few questions...
1. What are you registered as?
2. Do you feel like you identify with another party even though you have registered with a different one?
3. Have you ever been registered as a different party?
4. If so, why did you change?
5. Why are you a member of your current party? What are your beliefs?
6. Do you think it's too late for change?
7. If not, what do you think we can do for a change?
I'll start...
1. I'm a registered Libertarian, though I'm probably more of a moderate than a radical.
2. I think, as a Libertarian, I've found a party that fits the vast majority of my beliefs. I do disagree with some of the party's more insane philosophies, but those are few and far between. I know I've been tempted to change my stance to Republican simply so I could vote in their primaries, but I'm content to stay where I am.
3. No, I've been a registered Independant... but I've never been listed as either a Republican or Democrat.
4. For the longest time I truly thought there were only two parties to register for (thanks to our government schools for their bangup job at teaching the American political climate!!!), so I rebelled and kept my registration as an independant. I can say that even back in high school I had definite Libertarian leanings, especially since I can look back at some of my persuasive essays dealing with politics and see the beginnings of a pro-small government belief.
5. This is probably the longest one... I feel both of the major parties are too extreme and rigid -- if you're Republican, you're automatically against abortion (while you might just favor smaller government), if you're a Democrat, you're automatically pro-government schools (even if you're just a social liberal). I feel like people have been typecast, with Republicans being cast as the "Anti-Abortion-No-Evolution-No-Global-Warming" crazies and the Democrats fitting the bill of the "Enviro-Nazi-Pro-Killing-Babies-No-God" party. Do the majority of Americans fit either of those two stereotypes? Absolutely not. That's why I'm a member of a third party and one who feels that the two-party system simply divides rather than unites.
So, what do I believe? I believe in smaller federal government and more emphasis on local activities. I do believe in welfare, but ONLY as a way to actually help people. Provide those down on their luck with job skill training and help for a limited time, with benefits ending after a year (or perhaps extending if you can provide you're on track to complete a degree). I don't believe in drug laws -- the war on drugs has cost us billions upon billions of dollars since its inception and has done nothing to stem the flow of drugs. I don't believe in farm subsidies. I don't believe in waging war without the approval of Congress (and not just an authorization to use force, I'm talking about a formal declaration of war), and I certainly don't believe in waging war for the inane reasons we've come up with since Korea. It's not our job to be the world's police and protector -- that philosophy is one of the reasons many people around the world hate us. I don't believe in participating in the UN, nor bowing down to their edicts.
I believe in privitizing SS. Our SS system is broken and needs to be fixed. We can lower payments and increase taxes all day long, but those are simply temporary fixes. The SS system has convinced people to not provide for their own retirements -- it has allowed them to operate under the mistaken belief that the US government will provide for them until they die. They don't save, they don't invest and they don't get that SS is in no way guaranteed. Every year I get my SS statement and I see my benefits declining. I read the front page that states, quite clearly, that SS will be defunct well before I reach retirement age. I understand that SS is inherently biased against those whose demographics dictate a younger life expectancy (like African Americans). By privitizing SS, we hand a part of the responsibility back to them. By privitizing people will get to see exactly how much they have to retire on and it will allow those who pass away early to hand their entire retirement savings to their next-of-kin. We got in this situation because Congress couldn't keep itself away from the SS stockpile, they had to keep writing themselves checks out of the SS kitty with no intent to pay it back. Now baby boomers are retiring and they'll will be the straw that breaks the camel's back.
I believe in getting rid of "public" education and the mandate that people attend certain schools based upon where they live. It's amazing -- in Florida, new schools are being built so often that you can spend a lot of money purchasing a house in a good school zone only to find in two years that your child will be moved to a different school because of overcrowding issues. I know one child who switched elementary schools FIVE times in his six years there because of "relief" schools being built one after another (instead of just building a few BIG schools). Is that good for his education? As a teacher, I can testify that 90% of my Geometry students could not add, subtract, multiply or divide fractions. My PreCalculus students could not factor. Does that sound like they're getting a good education? Now I don't believe in running schools like a business, but I see no reason to not have competition and free market. I feel like every school-age child should get a rebate for whatever the government would have spent on their education (let's say $5600). If they choose to go to their local school, they'll have bus transportation provided... but they can choose to take that money and go elsewhere, applying at other public schools or private. As it stands, the teacher's unions are too powerful and protect way too many bad teachers. How many teachers do I know that just showed movies every day? How many students can't read at a high school level in 10th grade? Trust me when I say the numbers are disturbingly high. We need to put a lot more emphasis on technical trades because not everyone is equipped to attend college.
6. Yes, I do think it's too late for a change. We have the power of inertia against us -- it's way too hard to overhaul an education system than it is to keep throwing patches on it, hoping for a temporary solution. That's why fads are so popular in the education system. The American public would have to wake up and start truly looking at the candidates they're voting for -- their ethical records, their voting trends, their PACs, EVERYTHING about their professional lives (note I didn't say if they smoked marijuana or had sex with their intern).
7. If we could change, we'd need a massive overhaul in the way American's think. We would need to stop listening to mass media and start thinking for ourselves. We would need our education system to start producing people who could think for themselves (but that's dangerous, so it's not to be tolerated).
Anyway...
What do you think? What do you feel?
Jen
PS: Please keep this civil... if you don't agree with me, that's fine, but I think we can have a reasonably polite and educated conversation on this topic... ALSO, can I limit this to US Citizens only? While it's nice to see other people's opinions... I really want to reach out to those who have a direct influence on American politics :).
Edited to add: I just wanted to throw in... I believe in evolution and the fact that man is making global warming worse. I believe that abortion is wrong (barring instances of rape or incest) but the government should not have a say in what a woman does... but I do draw the line at aborting after 22 weeks (unless there is mitigating circumstances, such as the fact that one or both wouldn't survive) because that's about when a baby can live on their own. If you kill a child at seven months, that's murder... that's not abortion.
1. What are you registered as?
2. Do you feel like you identify with another party even though you have registered with a different one?
3. Have you ever been registered as a different party?
4. If so, why did you change?
5. Why are you a member of your current party? What are your beliefs?
6. Do you think it's too late for change?
7. If not, what do you think we can do for a change?
I'll start...
1. I'm a registered Libertarian, though I'm probably more of a moderate than a radical.
2. I think, as a Libertarian, I've found a party that fits the vast majority of my beliefs. I do disagree with some of the party's more insane philosophies, but those are few and far between. I know I've been tempted to change my stance to Republican simply so I could vote in their primaries, but I'm content to stay where I am.
3. No, I've been a registered Independant... but I've never been listed as either a Republican or Democrat.
4. For the longest time I truly thought there were only two parties to register for (thanks to our government schools for their bangup job at teaching the American political climate!!!), so I rebelled and kept my registration as an independant. I can say that even back in high school I had definite Libertarian leanings, especially since I can look back at some of my persuasive essays dealing with politics and see the beginnings of a pro-small government belief.
5. This is probably the longest one... I feel both of the major parties are too extreme and rigid -- if you're Republican, you're automatically against abortion (while you might just favor smaller government), if you're a Democrat, you're automatically pro-government schools (even if you're just a social liberal). I feel like people have been typecast, with Republicans being cast as the "Anti-Abortion-No-Evolution-No-Global-Warming" crazies and the Democrats fitting the bill of the "Enviro-Nazi-Pro-Killing-Babies-No-God" party. Do the majority of Americans fit either of those two stereotypes? Absolutely not. That's why I'm a member of a third party and one who feels that the two-party system simply divides rather than unites.
So, what do I believe? I believe in smaller federal government and more emphasis on local activities. I do believe in welfare, but ONLY as a way to actually help people. Provide those down on their luck with job skill training and help for a limited time, with benefits ending after a year (or perhaps extending if you can provide you're on track to complete a degree). I don't believe in drug laws -- the war on drugs has cost us billions upon billions of dollars since its inception and has done nothing to stem the flow of drugs. I don't believe in farm subsidies. I don't believe in waging war without the approval of Congress (and not just an authorization to use force, I'm talking about a formal declaration of war), and I certainly don't believe in waging war for the inane reasons we've come up with since Korea. It's not our job to be the world's police and protector -- that philosophy is one of the reasons many people around the world hate us. I don't believe in participating in the UN, nor bowing down to their edicts.
I believe in privitizing SS. Our SS system is broken and needs to be fixed. We can lower payments and increase taxes all day long, but those are simply temporary fixes. The SS system has convinced people to not provide for their own retirements -- it has allowed them to operate under the mistaken belief that the US government will provide for them until they die. They don't save, they don't invest and they don't get that SS is in no way guaranteed. Every year I get my SS statement and I see my benefits declining. I read the front page that states, quite clearly, that SS will be defunct well before I reach retirement age. I understand that SS is inherently biased against those whose demographics dictate a younger life expectancy (like African Americans). By privitizing SS, we hand a part of the responsibility back to them. By privitizing people will get to see exactly how much they have to retire on and it will allow those who pass away early to hand their entire retirement savings to their next-of-kin. We got in this situation because Congress couldn't keep itself away from the SS stockpile, they had to keep writing themselves checks out of the SS kitty with no intent to pay it back. Now baby boomers are retiring and they'll will be the straw that breaks the camel's back.
I believe in getting rid of "public" education and the mandate that people attend certain schools based upon where they live. It's amazing -- in Florida, new schools are being built so often that you can spend a lot of money purchasing a house in a good school zone only to find in two years that your child will be moved to a different school because of overcrowding issues. I know one child who switched elementary schools FIVE times in his six years there because of "relief" schools being built one after another (instead of just building a few BIG schools). Is that good for his education? As a teacher, I can testify that 90% of my Geometry students could not add, subtract, multiply or divide fractions. My PreCalculus students could not factor. Does that sound like they're getting a good education? Now I don't believe in running schools like a business, but I see no reason to not have competition and free market. I feel like every school-age child should get a rebate for whatever the government would have spent on their education (let's say $5600). If they choose to go to their local school, they'll have bus transportation provided... but they can choose to take that money and go elsewhere, applying at other public schools or private. As it stands, the teacher's unions are too powerful and protect way too many bad teachers. How many teachers do I know that just showed movies every day? How many students can't read at a high school level in 10th grade? Trust me when I say the numbers are disturbingly high. We need to put a lot more emphasis on technical trades because not everyone is equipped to attend college.
6. Yes, I do think it's too late for a change. We have the power of inertia against us -- it's way too hard to overhaul an education system than it is to keep throwing patches on it, hoping for a temporary solution. That's why fads are so popular in the education system. The American public would have to wake up and start truly looking at the candidates they're voting for -- their ethical records, their voting trends, their PACs, EVERYTHING about their professional lives (note I didn't say if they smoked marijuana or had sex with their intern).
7. If we could change, we'd need a massive overhaul in the way American's think. We would need to stop listening to mass media and start thinking for ourselves. We would need our education system to start producing people who could think for themselves (but that's dangerous, so it's not to be tolerated).
Anyway...
What do you think? What do you feel?
Jen
PS: Please keep this civil... if you don't agree with me, that's fine, but I think we can have a reasonably polite and educated conversation on this topic... ALSO, can I limit this to US Citizens only? While it's nice to see other people's opinions... I really want to reach out to those who have a direct influence on American politics :).
Edited to add: I just wanted to throw in... I believe in evolution and the fact that man is making global warming worse. I believe that abortion is wrong (barring instances of rape or incest) but the government should not have a say in what a woman does... but I do draw the line at aborting after 22 weeks (unless there is mitigating circumstances, such as the fact that one or both wouldn't survive) because that's about when a baby can live on their own. If you kill a child at seven months, that's murder... that's not abortion.