Political Stance Poll

HARD left. I'm a Progressive.

 

Left leaning

 

I didn't mean I vote based on that, I don't even look at political party when voting I just pick who I like more. I meant I socially align myself more with one group than the other based on behavior but still vote for whoever as a moderate.

For example I go out of my way to avoid any event or member of the college Democrats club here because they're crazy and pretty much blame all issues on "white privilege" or "male privilege" and crap like that instead of having reasonable discussions. I have no problem with the Republican club members however.

It doesn't mean I would not vote for a Democrat, just that I have no interest in their social activities and would not support their organizations here because of how they act.

During the election I changed my vote on one congressional seat because the person I was going to vote for happened to be there and was spewing hatred and insults in a speech instead of suggesting solutions (we're from the same area so you know her too, Debbie Wasserman Schultz). It's not only policy that matters, the behavior of political representatives affects people's trust in them too. Still voted for Clinton though even with a dislike of what the Democrats were doing at the time.

 

I'm definitely on the left. How far, though, is hard to say. By the standards of many in the US, I'd probably be far out left...but probably more middle of the road elsewhere.

 

Solid middle. Which apparently is the worst thing a person can be in the USA.

I don't pick sides, for neither group is on my side.

 

I do not identify with any of the options listed in the poll. I think I'm in the middle. There are some things where my opinion may be slightly to the left, and slightly to the right with other things. I also try to see everything from both perspectives. Both the ''right" and the "left" have always their pros and cons. The only thing I'm really against are the extremes on both sides.

 

I’m fairly left leaning, on the liberal side. But it depends on the topic or issue at hand. There are some issues I care a lot about, some I don’t care about, and many that I don’t know about. I try to keep out of politics these days, what with things being the way they are here. I generally keep my political opinions to myself too...because people can be very aggressive and hostile when it comes to political differences.

 

I would say left leaning. I'm definetly
pro-choice, support gay marriage, legalizing marijuana, and stricter gun control. However there's some things where I don't agree with the left, but would say I agree with them about 60% of the time. I plan to vote based on candidate then party.

 

I understand what you’re saying, though I do want to make sure that you realize that just because the clubs at your university are like that, doesn’t mean everyone is. I know at my university our college republicans and college democrats have discussions, they work together to host election nights on campus, they share their views in a respectful way. Obviously I don’t know your university, but I would hope to believe that not every single person in each organization is the same.

Even then, organizations on campuses don’t represent the whole. I mean I’m a Democrat but I’m not a member of the college democrats. I see these orgs more as small samplings.

 

The only things I really care about are global warming and nuclear war.
In both of these cases the political left makes much more sense.
I don't agree with Republicans on much, but outside of those two things I don't think we have the future of civilization at stake if they get their way.
(The Democrats seem to be promoting war with Russia, but I still think wanting to not be hawkish on them is a left-wing position).

 

Socially, I'm very left-leaning. Economically, while I'm aware of the shortcomings of raw capitalism, I reckon that intimate knowledge of the system's inner workings is required in order to dictate economic policy.

For example, in this corner of the world, it's very common for politicians to spend public money like there's no tomorrow. Sometimes, they do it just to please their electoral base; other times, they do it because of a genuine interest in helping the least advantaged. However, while I think that the least advantaged should be protected by the state, the government should also protect the country's macroeconomic performance; to put it simply, a government shouldn't ever spend beyond its means.

What "beyond a government's means" actually means is open for discussion, too. In my humble opinion (I don't happen to be an economist, to be honest), that means keeping fiscal deficit below GDP growth. Say, if GDP growth is at 3% per annum, then I would allow the government to run at a deficit of up to 3% in an extreme case.

 

(halfway through an economics degree)

What you're suggesting sounds like a good plan on the surface, but it's trying to apply financial logic that works for individuals to a government, which is never as simple as it seems. An individual person will be fine never spending more than they make, but doing that on a macroeconomic level causes harm to the country long-term.

It seems to go against common sense, but deficits actually cause expansion. Increasing the deficit technically puts the country in debt, but if done properly it causes enough expansion to come out on top overall. The country adds a million to the deficit, but the expansion caused by it results in more than a million worth of overall value added to the country in the form of people getting jobs (new income taxes to collect) and buildings/infrastructure being improved which attracts foreign investment to a country. With a permanent surplus the country might be adding a million a year in profit, but with a correctly managed deficit they can obtain much more than a million in value every year which outpaces the surplus.

The ideal situation seems to be counter-cyclical policy switching between deficit and surplus in order to maximize the output of both. If the country is in a deficit, you wait until most of the benefits have been absorbed and then use fiscal policy to force it into a surplus to stabilize the economy before it gets too far into debt. When the surplus starts stagnating, you force the country back into a deficit to start generating growth and expansion again. The idea is to keep swinging it back and forth to get the benefits of both at the same time without either one going on long enough to add too much debt or stagnation. The main problem that causes this to not work, is that everything has to be timed correctly. Switching it too early or late throws off the cycle and causes huge amounts of harm (which is why the United States has such a gigantic deficit... the timing is always destroyed by infighting between politicians and by the time they approve something it's already too late to work correctly).

 

I am a card carrying, dues paying, Libertarian with a capital L... I care more about the social issues such as ending the deadly racist drug war, abolishing the meddling and incentivizing practice of government being involved in marriage, treating immigrants like human beings who increase our ability to produce rather than some sort of job stealing criminal monsters and free and open trade which will ultimately reduce the desire for other countries to fight us and give us access to the amazing progress that globalization is bringing.... I care a little about the fiscal issues and I do wish we'd stop spending so much money but I doubt that in our democracy that we'll get to a place of fixing that without true disaster.

At the same time, I am what you may call a "bleeding heart libertarian" which means I am a little more forgiving of the idea of certain welfare programs... personally I'd rather see those programs taken out of the hands of the incompetent government and moved towards more effective decision makers but I am willing to wait as our society tends to get more and more creative with enhancing the social good of the world thanks to newer and better technologies and smarter people.

All of that is fueled by an almost irrational optimism though... I believe the world is getting better rather than worse, so I think over time we could probably get rid of the nanny state, government welfare, and militarized police, international intervention where we NEVER belonged, disgusting bickering elections, etc etc...

I see movements like black lives matter and metoo and I see a society that is getting better, smarter, and more effective in it's activism. I don't agree with the democrats on much (at least not as far as their actual platforms) but I think they're shaking things up in the right way that gets people talking. I do wish they'd be less agressive and violent. It seems the left is likely to be agressive with anyone who dissagrees with them... whereas the right at least is mostly aggressive against those whom trigger their xenophobia... oh and I think Fox News and MSNBC are dangerous media sources and people who rely on either as their sole information source are the scariest of all!

So... i guess all in all... it's kinda complicated... lol...

 

Yep, I understand that side of it of course. I'm just fairly jaded having been around 90% Democrats growing up and seeing first hand a massive amount of hypocrisy on nearly every level of Democratic beliefs in my area, which I continue to see now. My mother is a good example... she's a super liberal feminist who claims to believe in equality, fair treatment, education etc. yet she's also the most racist, hate filled, man-hating woman I've ever seen. If someone isn't white, female, Jewish, straight, and upper-class she thinks they're vermin yet will lie about how much she loves minorities and gays etc. just because it sounds good. She's also a professor and I've personally seen her and Democrat co-workers talk about minorities not belonging in college because they're too stupid to teach.

Just one person? Sure, but the same thing was repeated over and over again in every Democratic community I encountered. The general idea always seemed to be make all the minorities think you're their friend while laughing at how easy they are to manipulate behind their back. Comments like "I can work with those people but I refuse to live around losers" while referring to Hispanics and Blacks were extremely common coming from the supposedly open-minded free-thinking Democrats.

On the other hand, I've found Republicans to be much more truthful about their beliefs and contrary to the stereotypes, much less racist. I've never heard any disparaging comments about minorities from the Republican groups in this area in a 60% black city (except the KKK...) but continue to hear those same hypocritical comments from nearly all of the Democratic groups, including from minority politicians themselves. The mayor of this city is a black Democrat who openly talks about wishing the city had less black people. Things like that don't sit well with me.

 

I'm curious where you live. Your experience is certainly almost diametrically opposed to mine.

 

I'm originally from south Florida, Miami/Ft. Lauderdale area. I currently live in North Florida, but since it's a college town a huge amount of people here are also from south Florida still.

 

I actually find that really interesting. Not okay, but interesting. It makes me think that we’re looking at major regional differences. I’m from a small town in central PA but the people that are typically more open minded and identify as a Democrat act far differently than how you describe your experiences.

I’m obviously not trying to write off your experiences, but I think we’re looking at just very drastic cultural differences. The North and the South are fairly different in thinking on some topics so it’s not terribly hard to believe that people act differently in different parts of the country despite same party.

 

For once, I voted with the majority. I forgot - I'm right handed, too.

 

Definetly closer to the middle. I'm an American who is totally disgusted with the 2 party polar insanity here. I hold some libertarian beliefs, and some downright socialist ones. I primarily feel compelled to vote democrat lately, as I am queer, and want to live my life the way I see fit, and extend the same to my neighbors .