Politics?

I just find Politics really stupid, but maybe I'm too young to care.

 

My philosophy is "let the republicans stay out of my bedroom and the democrats stay out of my wallet." My mom has actually been mad at me because I don't support random killings of muslims like she does. (she can be insane at times. *understatement*) Rick Santorum is insane.
*placeholder* for President 2012!

 

I've yet to hear of a political system that produces fairness without any corruption. Neither of the two parties are great, but I support Obama and the Democratic party in general, although I make sure to do my research before offering any one candidate my support. The Democratic party is not too bad, which is much more than I can say for Republicans. For instance, I just met a professor at my school in the Democratic party who plans on running for governor. It may just be the fact that I met her in public, but I think she would do well because she is going against party politics, and always has. New Hampshire has this issue where education is being cut tremendously and businesses are leaving as a result, and it's because we have no income tax and pretty much only property tax. This hurts seniors and young families, so people always vote down their school district's budget. We actually have one of the highest percentages of millionaires because the pay next to nothing. Jackie Ciley is the only candidate I know of willing to open discussion for tax reforms. Wow that was quite a rant.

 

I consider myself a moderate liberal and I'm registered as a Democrat. I'm also married to a Republican and he'll be voting Obama this time around.
Honestly, I'm really disappointed in the Republicans right now. Like I said, I'm a Democrat, but they're just really laying on the crazy at the moment and I think it's really going to hurt their party. I think all of the presidential hopefuls are a joke - it's like someone was writing a parody of conservatives and it sprang to life. This is going to be an easy win for Obama and I wouldn't be surprised if we see the Senate and House are both controlled by Democrats at the end of this.
As for social issues, I'm pretty left-leaning. I certainly support the Affordable Health Care Act and all that it entails about contraceptives. While I think the separation of Church and State is a pretty awesome thing and must be maintained, this act doesn't infringe on that because it isn't discussing Churches but rather Catholic hospitals and universities. Since they've moved outside of religion, they're subject to the same laws at the rest of us. One could easily argue that Reynolds v. US covers this case. I'm also extremely pro-choice. I really dislike abortion and I would never get one myself (omitting exceptional circumstances) but I wouldn't force someone else to go through pregnancy. And I imagine it's pretty obvious that I'm pro-gay rights. :lol:
What other issues are there to cover? Weed? I don't care for it myself but I certainly don't oppose it being legalized. Considering I smoke cigarettes and I have a drink every so often, I'd feel like a hypocrite if I said otherwise.

 

I would consider myself left leaning, you're right. There was a time I didn't like the way Obama was doing things and wasn't at all surprised by the direction the November mid terms turned out. Things have turned around though and I support Obama entirely, especially given what the alternatives are turning out to be.

No, I would not vote for anybody like Santorum or Gingrich. There is no confidence in the direction of jobs and the economy across the board and Republicans are screaming "Jobs, jobs, jobs!" but nobody seems to have any solution other than get Obama out of office. So instead they're trying to appeal to the far right conservative evangelicals and sell themselves as Romney alternatives. I'm with you on issues like abortion in that I don't think it's right. But when you take it to the next level and say it should be illegal even if the woman's life was at stake, well...you make yourself incredibly difficult to digest.

There is another thread around here that asks what the hardest thing about being gay is. And, as a day to day experience, the hardest thing about being gay is having to suffer the presence of somebody like Santorum on my computer or television scream spouting more of his obnoxious nonsense about protecting marriage and traditional values. The only thing that is crazier than that is the fact that, right now, he's actually very popular for it.

I think I might've gone for someone like Ron Paul, but he's obviously not going to be the Republican candidate because he's not playing to the most extreme right like the others are.

 

This ^^^

And you said it so much better than I ever could have :eusa_clap

 

First off, I agree with everything you said.

I don't know how true this is since I don't know much about Republicans but I read that Republicans that were extremely serious about becoming president were waiting until Obama finished his second term until they fought for the presidency. At first, I didn't believe it but I really hope that it is true. I sincerely hope the Republican nominees that are out now are not the best they've got.

I'm more liberal than anything else. My beliefs can pretty much be summed up with live and let live. If a person wants to do something that isn't hurting anyone else, I probably don't have an issue with it

And I will be voting for Obama

 

Ideally I'd consider myself an Anarcho-capitalist, though I'm fine with any type of anarchism.

Realistically though, I'm a political fatalist. I think that humans are predestined to varying degrees of centralized governments, merely by their own human nature. Even when they rebel to move against it, it always comes back to the same utilitarian garbage that we have today. So I think the idea that the system can be changed, while I hope to be proved wrong, is moot, and that, particularly in economics, there is no point in trying to change policy.


I do believe that social change can be helped to be influenced by individual persons though, and so I'll willingly participate and encourage attempts to progress further into social liberalism. In that sense, I'm an extreme leftist (in America, at least), but I refuse to take stances on economic issues (especially since they'd probably be 'far right' stances, which seems to thoroughly confuse Americans who usually are incapable of thinking in terms beyond 'left' and 'right', *sigh*).

 

I'm going to talk about Canadian politics because that's all I know.

It's so hard to decide who to vote for when there's so many parties. It's usually between Liberals and Conservatives but NDP did good last election. I generally vote against the Conservatives because Harper has screwed up quite a few times in the past (prorogued government, anyone?) but I suppose he's doing an okay job.

I tend to not pay attention to politics too much outside of voting season. That's because there's decisions that affect my life that I have no say in going on all the time.

 

Oh and crap I glazed over these parts of your questions (tried to edit but went past 15 minute limit). My bad.

The primaries are frickin' hilarious - especially since I'm treating them like reality tv (changing system = pointless, so I might as well laugh at it). The Republicans are a complete and total mess and haven't a chance in hell versus Obama - I can't wait to watch him "cross-examine" Romney in a debate - "So, what exactly is your stance on [insert topic here], the one from the 2012 election, or the one from the 2008 election? Or perhaps the early 2000s?" It's going to be hilarious! Romney hasn't even an ounce of moral credibility now - which no politicians actually have, but he has destroyed any ability he once had to hide it. Makes for such a great tv show .

Yeah, Obama's a fantastic actor and therefore a magnificent politician - I absolutely adore his work. Should be interesting to see what happens when he heads out in 2016 - sounds like Republicans could have a good shot there.

And true, Ron Paul, along with Dennis Kucinich, is probably one of the few mainstream politicians that I could even remotely consider supporting. And only reason I would support Rick Santorum is that it would be cool to elect the first ever gay man to the White House! (I'm hoping that if we keep prodding him, he'll finally come out XD).

 

I love politics! I can get in heated discussions and everything. I'm definitely very right-wing in my beliefs, though that doesn't mean the same thing as it does in the US, I think. There's about 20 parties you can vote for in my country and I vote for the second most right-wing party. Always. I have very strong opinions about all kinds of stuff, and I don't care who agrees. I just think it's important that you think for yourself and have your own ideas about everything... which is why I love defending mine.

 

I'm pretty close to being a socialist of the "it isn't called class warfare until the poor start shooting back" stripe. I believe that we should work towards de facto rather than de jure equality (in the words of Anatole France, "The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread"). I have far more contempt for libertarians than I do for social conservatives as I see the latter as more ignorant than anything and the former as not giving a fuck what happens to other people. Economically I'm a fan of Keynes and believe the government does and should play an active role in the economy.

 

Libertarianism, the best choice out there. Minimize politics, legalize freedom.

 

Libertarian. Higher taxes should go away, so should large amounts of welfare, unnecessary red tape, and free health care. Gay marriage/abortion/euthanasia should be legalised, and if free health care isn't law, marijuana too. I don't care what people do as long as it doesn't affect how I live my life.

 

I'm only recently starting to learn about politics myself, having not cared for them before I started getting old enough to vote. Even though I'm not always a fan of my country, I feel like it's my responsibility as a citizen to pay attention to these things and cast my vote when available. It's my government, I need to be involved.

I guess I'm pretty liberal, and I almost always agree with the Democrat side of things, but I think I would call myself an independant. I don't want to simply vote for someone because of their party affiliation if I prefer the other.
My vote will be for President Barack Obama.

This is also my first time paying attention to a big election, and my god, it's like a reality show. Entertaining and funny, but since this isn't TV.. It's actually quite sad, and scary. I'm pro-equality, pro-choice, pro-freedom. I can't really debate anything yet, as I have much more to learn first.

 

Huuuuge, liberal. I can't even vote yet, but I get pretty heated about my beliefs. I support Obama and the Democratic party completely.