What is your Political Affiliation?

Formerly a bleeding heart leberal democrat. Am now libertarian with a guilt complex.

 

Anarchy in the UK

\m/

but seriously, idk about gov't much from what i've seen, yet the concepts of total anarchy are obviously undesirable

so, fuck 'em all, individualist anarchist

 

Libertarian Party
Minimum Government, Maximum Freedom.

And yes, anything Ron Paul.

 

Im split in two .... not in my opinions, but in my perespective of government/politics.



One side of me believes true justice and fairness can only be a product of pure liberty. I'm a realist that believes nobody will ever perfect, and we should stop pretending we can achieve perfection in society through government. Government CAN be a tool that can get a job done of that i have no doubt, however its a tool that constantly needs repairing itself (ie revolution). In my mind, government can never achieve collectively what a mass of truly free individuals can achieve without government intervention.


Then there is the side of me that has to look through the eyes of whats actually happening around me. Along with having to consider how to approach forming an opinion on current events that fits my personal inner beliefs, i have to accept what is realistically going to happen. I might see through the two party system, but not everybody does. Its kind of like voting for the president, in that im always "voting" for the lesser of two evils by choosing which policy i agree with most. Add to that the fact that its plain as day that policy i would agree with, is only ever pursued for reasons i disagree with .... it gets pretty complicated.


To sum my beliefs up in a title, i would say i fit mostly into the anarcho-capitalist subset. However i don't really claim the title, as i have not completely stripped myself of what my past belief system was built on. Until i relearn my beliefs based on natural rights/law ...i have not truley earned the title i feel


Some would say it pathetic the way i sort of obsess with politics/government, but after being introduced to existentialism in high school by an English teacher, it became something to me personally rather than something i viewed from the outside. Being introduced to the ideas of some of these writers/philosophical thinkers literally changed my life. In finding Anarcho-capitalism, i finally discovered the governmental equivalent to existentilism .... no government. I sort of use the constant effort to understand my beliefs in government, as a tool to understand the beliefs in my own mind/soul.

 

In a nutshell, Libertarian. My political philosophy is, like most others', to complex to define in a single word, however, I generally adhere to a libertarian ideology--I suspect this has less to do with my attitude towards politics and as it does my attitude towards freedom (of which I am a strong advocate). I do quite like the idea of Anarcho-Capitalism, however, because of the level of cooperation necessary for it to work properly, I have trouble accepting it as a truly feasible system.

 

It's not a political affiliation, but I try to involve myself with politics as little as possible. In things like that, it's all or nothing, and I genuinelly don't care enough to give it my all. I might as well be trying to fight the weather, really.

 

Way to the left, but not a feminist.

 

i would say independent. I believe that we need to follow the constitution. and that we need to dramatically reduce the powers of the federal government until all they can do is what is only in the constitution. The best power is the decentralized kind. we need to get rid of the 2 party system. but pretty much ill back any canidate who offers realistic solutions.

 

Liberal. Although, this is more due to the actions of the Republican party than anything else. <I spent about five minutes editing out the cuss words and re-writing that sentence until I was content that I would not come off as a raving lunatic.

I would vote for Ron Paul, and I respect the libertarian ideology. If the rest of the GOP was a little more like RP we'd be a better country for it, and I wouldn't have to consider moving to Canada everytime I hear some neocon talking out of his asshole on national television.

 

independent for sure. im for all civil rights, but believe that businesses need to be regulated. i think the u.s. should take a non-interventionist approach in foreign affairs. i believe we should also invest more in clean, renewable energy as well as do more to protect our environment. we should not allow lobbyists in government and should restrict the amount of money being spent on political campaigns. companies that export jobs overseas should face a higher tariff. i also think that more should be done to help small businesses and prevent corporations from taking over this country. i know much of this is not plausible, but its what i believe

 

None of the above?

A label doesn't really seem adequate, but here: (slightly left of) centrist. Or maybe this: half a libertarian. I don't know. Good ideas are good ideas, but they have to be well considered and I view the largest problem in politics to be the tendency to refuse to consider an opposite opinion. Great way to know nothing. Or put another way, politics for the sake of politics... fuck that shit.

 

This is very true, and I'm guilty of it myself. It's easy to get caught up in the cutthroat nature of political debate in this country, especially for a stubborn asshole like myself. I've been reading up on some political theory lately and it's been shifting my perspective quite a bit. It's also made me realize how absolutely shitty we are as a society right now. Democracy doesn't work if the people don't fulfill their end of the bargain. The sense of entitlement and complete lack of responsibility/initiative as citizens that has become the norm in this country has resulted in the absolute mess of a government that we have today. We have the government that we as a population deserve right now, and it's sad that not many people seem willing to do anything about.

 

I find that once I engage in political discussion, it becomes inevitable that I will forget myself. No one is perfect. But as long as I can sit back and reflect, I know that at my core I am not as committed to my own views as I'd have people believe. That's a good thing.

How can I put a label on something I proudly hold open to change?

 

This is the fucking truth.

I consider myself an anarchist, perhaps an individualist anarchist, but I feel I apply it in a different way. I live my life as uninvolved in the government as possible while continuing to live comfortably. I pay my taxes when I need to; I pull over for cops. And I'm not going to tell you that you shouldn't have a government, because of that whole individual rights thing. If you want some douche bag telling you how to live your life you are more than welcome to it, the problem is that it affects me as well.

This is where my ideas get strange... you don't need to keep reading but if you do it will give you some background as to how I think. It is very easy to see that the government couldn't function without a host. This host is the people and their property. People didn't really have property until the agricultural revolution where we started to grow grain and herd livestock. This allowed people to have a surplus of goods, or their own property. If you didn't move around following your food you could build a house. Your house. You could develop better tools and have things and a place to keep them. This is the exact same moment in time when 'civilized' things such as government started. This is where the host became available for the parasites to weave their way in. The only place where surplus and individual property isn't as available as it is today is on a frontier. Survival on frontiers require the traits of the best heroes; intelligence, wisdom, bravery, strength, steadfastness, and a strong will to name a few. Parasites lack these heroic traits and die on frontiers. They are unable to mooch off of others in these circumstances. We only have one frontier left, but it is bigger than anything currently imaginable. Honestly I believe that my ideals will ultimately come to fruition because of this limitless frontier that lays before us. The colonization of space will at first be a dangerous game. Only those bold enough will go. The parasites will stay where they can still mooch, where it is still safe. Eventually these pioneers will make it safe enough for the rest of and the parasites will move in shortly after... Until the next planet needs colonization.

I understand this is all pretty retarded but I'm a big picture idealist and this is my big picture ideal. It is the ultimate realization of the Franklin quote, "Those who sacrifice liberty for safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." Pioneer a frontier and you are freer than any man ever will be, but the cost comes at the relative 'safety' of the situation at hand. Just my two cents...

 

My general premise for international politics and the problems of suffering and poverty in the world, is that we need to start a one world revolution and that's the only way to really fix anything. I'm not sure what category that falls under. Perhaps the time is not so unimaginable anymore given current world events.

In the long run, if we make it as a species, we're going to have to start looking at ourselves all as Earth-ians, or what have you. In the future we will hopefully be representing our planet to others if we ever break that barrier.

 

Yeah, I'm with you there. There's just wayy to much unnecessary suffering and oppression in the world for us as a species to go on ignoring it forever. International cooperation on a global scale is first step to fixing that. The next is education. I truly believe that education is the answer to just about every problem humanity is faced with; hunger, poverty, racism, intolerance, religious indoctrination, all of it. Granted someone's going to need to revolutionize the education system in a big way for this to happen, because the current system is just not even close to good enough.

I think the biggest problem right now is that political power is not something that most intelligent and worthy individuals are interested in attaining unless to serve their own means. Politics is a dirty business right now and politicians are often some of the most reviled humans on the planet. True humanitarians either never make it through the ranks or are corrupted by the time they reach a position of power. It's a sad state of affairs.

 

I'm not sure I can agree with the notion that suffering people need to be brought deliverance. They need deliverance, but it means nothing if it is simply given to them. It becomes this thing they got with little effort that is easily taken for granted. Don't get me wrong, I feel for those people, but interfering with the local situation could cause more problems than it solves.

I agree with the notion that education must be the key to the future solutions. It worries me when education comes under threat from the ignorant, because it's easy to imagine the whole world turning into an ignorant mass that has no idea what to do with itself or why. People tend to say foolish things like "education makes people liberal," when the truth is that education teaches people to appreciate their own critical skills and to embrace their differences with others and try to make sense of them. Focused education leads to technological progress, which always seems to hold a certain utopian hope of being able to solve all the problems. Naive as it might be to hold such a notion, a better understanding of the way things are hurts no one.

 

You wouldn't be human if you didn't feel for those people. You would lack the basic human trait of empathy. Allowing people to take these provisions for granted is definitely a bad thing.