Your Political Beliefs?

[Skylar1]

There was a similar thread like this made a little over a year ago that generated a pretty good discussion, and I thought it'd be interesting to see another one since there are a quite a bit more new members and such.

[aNGRY sCOT]

frawnkly a donnae gie a wee rawits airse aboot pawlitucs. leev it tae t geeks

[-GAZKUL-]

Anarcho-Communist

[animeyay]

A political discussion is almost never fruitful since everyone just holds on to his/her own view, but still, it's interesting to know what everyone thinks.

I identify myself as a liberal Democrat, just like the other 75% people who live in my county.

[aNGRY sCOT]

I identify myself as a liberal Democrat, just like the other 75% people who live in my county.

EEEYAAAGGHHH nawit that loida tae faced freeks!!!!

[Forgotten Show]

I vote for correct usage of political terms and full understanding of what the terms mean. But then I also believe in the importance of an informed voter populace, so maybe my ideas are a bit dated.


Bad Memory

[Aleyna]

I selected other. Why? because I vote for the person whose ideas I agree with most, it's doesn't matter if their an independent, democrat, or a republican. I can't wait til I can vote in the 2012 president election, because if my birthday would've been a little earlier, I could've voted in the 2008 election. What I'm mainly interested in is medical ideas, because I depend on some medications to keep me healthy. If I had to consider my upbringing, it would be democratic, because my mom's family is very politically involved with democrat politicians.

[under the rain]

Eh... If I had to identify myself I'm somewhere between liberal and libertarian... I could go either way on various issues, though. (ex. I'm pro gun-rights.)

[Eris]

According to your poll options, I'm liberal. But I generally don't vote, as I've never seen politicians who I'd trust to run the country. Every one of them scream either sociopath or incompetence (many scream both).

[Skilero]

Although I'd like to vote for other, the poll choice 'conservative' most nearly fits my perspective of politics. Conservatives nowadays, throughout the world, are not what the traditional sense of the word entails. Rather, I support true conservatives, which are nearly extinct in the U.S. and are misguided in Europe.

Why

The only person I can cite that symbolizes true conservatism (without writing an entire essay) is U.S. President Calvin Coolidge. If you do your research, you will find that, through his avoidance (not intervention) of the market, he got the United States out of a recession with higher unemployment than the Great Depression.

My argument against aggresive/total control of the economy

Most liberals, whether they know it or not, are supporting a policy of economics called Keynesian Economics. This form of economics basically says that private sector decisions sometimes lead to inefficient macroeconomic outcomes. Because of this, Keynesian Economics entail that the government should enforce policies that limit the private sector's activity in the market (sometimes restraining the private sector's ability to grow). The major problem with this form of economics, which have always arose at one time or another in any government that used this or a similar type of economics, is that the government can not and never will (in a large country like the U.S.) flawlessly maintain microeconomic-level actions (which then, as the method teaches, bring out unwanted macroeconomic outputs). The private sector in countries like the United States is too large to manage to a level that Keynesian Economics tries to target and, in effect, has its growth stunted because the only ones who were told to decrease their output (companies told to decrease their output to develop other companies' outputs and later have an even larger overall output from the market) were large companies that supported the economy (and not smaller ones who are also needed to start growing from the bottom-up as the freeze sets in). In the end, the government (usually at a painfully slow rate) destroys the economy and, as it downturns, it panics and makes ill-advised decisions on their regulations.

Sources:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keynesian_economics
Many, many weeks of political studies

Further reading

 

Another person who is highly praised by "liberals" is U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. In my opinion, progressivism and liberal politics prolonged the Great Depression with regulations and forced circulation of money throughout the market that, in turn, brought not only small companies but some of the largest companies in the nation to its knees. These are the same economic policies liberals embrace. If you look at varying tax rates for each class in the United States during the Great Depression, you see that the wealthy were taxed at high rates and the poor at lower ones. While doing this to a minimal effect is essential in bringing a people back to their feet, it was overdone and the poverty in the U.S. didn't shrink. The reason for this being that the taxes limited the wealthy class on how many people they could hire (thus limiting the number of people who could get out of poverty). These taxes were then spent on preventing people from dying, rather than getting them jobs so that there could be an output from the U.S. market and they wouldn't die.

[Aulos]

I'm not exactly sure. The issues which I am knowledgeable about and care about (like LGBT rights) typically put me to the far Left. However, I don't tend to consider myself a liberal because I do not fully agree with the liberals. Especially not the ones in office. Obama really hasn't helped anything much on the issues I tend to care the most about.

When it comes to economics, I am ignorant. And I will not hide that fact. So, to be honest, I can't tell you who is right there, whether it needs less or more government. I tend to just consider myself neutral. I'm not going to get into that issue until I know more about it.

[Aku no Hikari]

On your poll, "liberal" is the closest thing to my political philosophy, but... I don't really care. I've chosen to be completely apolitical because politics is for monkeys-in-suits and for people who can believe in them.

[Skilero]

On your poll, "liberal" is the closest thing to my political philosophy, but... I don't really care. I've chosen to be completely apolitical because politics is for monkeys-in-suits and for people who can believe in them.

Or people who don't want to be run by the monkeys-in-suits and their supporters, thank you.

[brolyx74]

I like to think i am an anarcho-capitalist, because it is the closest thing I have found to actual pure capitalism. But, according to everything my history class has told me, I am a conservative. Though, I do have some liberal tendencies. I believe in slight control of the market, such as I believe there should be a minimum wage.

[Light Buster]

I honestly don't care as long as they can maintain the government.

[Skilero]

I like to think i am an anarcho-capitalist, because it is the closest thing I have found to actual pure capitalism. But, according to everything my history class has told me, I am a conservative. Though, I do have some liberal tendencies. I believe in slight control of the market, such as I believe there should be a minimum wage.

You do realize minimum wage is a basic human right, correct?
They are called labor laws. Everything but an authoritarian or an anarchist follows them.

I like to think i am an anarcho-capitalist, because it is the closest thing I have found to actual pure capitalism

Good luck having a government that supports capitalism without a government -.-

Maybe capitalism is the closest thing to 'actual pure capitalism'? There are people spread throughout every field of the political spectrum who ruin capitalism through economic control. This control is not to be confused with fiscal limits on certain things like downpayments on loans.

I think we can all agree that no government is a no-go nowadays. Without a government, another one will take its place.

[Anuket]

Communism all the way! Just kidding...

To be honest, I don't really care much about politics. There's just nothing to believe in, whenever there's politics there's corruption and that's something the government can't really get rid off.

[Kyubi-no-kitsune]

Conservative Republican, although i dont really care for politics, the rest of my family are very hard core Democrats i'm sort of the black sheep so to speak in my family>.<

[~*Red*~]

I believe in a strong social services side and a strong economy side.

[brolyx74]

You do realize minimum wage is a basic human right, correct?
They are called labor laws. Everything but an authoritarian or an anarchist follows them.

Good luck having a government that supports capitalism without a government -.-

Maybe capitalism is the closest thing to 'actual pure capitalism'? There are people spread throughout every field of the political spectrum who ruin capitalism through economic control. This control is not to be confused with fiscal limits on certain things like downpayments on loans.

I think we can all agree that no government is a no-go nowadays. Without a government, another one will take its place.

You do realize that not every country has labor laws, correct? In China, you could get paid 10 cents for a weeks work. Hyperbolic statement to prove a point, not actual statistic.

No, captitalism is not the closest thing to pure capitalism because government can never have a true laissez-faire relationship with the market.

And yes, we can agree that no government is no good nowadays. I have no arguments toward that. Society has come so far, that we can't really go backwards, or even allow some other country to revert to some anarchist state without interfering.

[aNGRY sCOT]

ye see ony pairty wit keeps yon benifuts is gran by me.

[Aku no Hikari]

Or people who don't want to be run by the monkeys-in-suits and their supporters, thank you.

When? Who? Where? How? What?

The only choices you have are this or that politician. They're all politicians.

[Skilero]

When? Who? Where? How? What?

For most people, it is anyone with a differing viewpoint from your own. Because if that person with a differing viewpoint comes into power, they may (and with how things are nowadays, most probably will) impact your life in a way you don't want it to be.

Think of politics, for me, as a way of defending my liberties and hopeful family's future.

The only choices you have are this or that politician. They're all politicians.

In almost every single politician's case you are right. That's why a country's people should keep them in-check.

You could say all politicians are 'people in monkey suits', while some people who are in politics are trying to use damage control against those monkeys.

My priorities are in a different place than yours are, that's all ^^. I'd still be happy to host the conversation through PM's though.

Let's get back to the poll everyone! Surprised with the results?

[Forgotten Show]

A poorly-constructed poll incorrectly describing terms on a site catering primarily to people too young to vote or understand 'issues' common to the political spectrum.

I'm shocked, I tell you. Shocked.


BM

[Anoleis]

A poorly-constructed poll incorrectly describing terms on a site catering primarily to people too young to vote or understand 'issues' common to the political spectrum.

I'm shocked, I tell you. Shocked.


BM

I'm not; on the contrary I was expecting one to pop up sooner or later.