Summary of political beliefs
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SATW
SunriseAroundTheWorld
Junior Chimp
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« Reply #1175 on: December 08, 2016, 07:59:58 PM »

Social Issues: Moderate to Conservative

Abortion:
- Pro-Life, with exceptions for rape and when a mother's life is endangered.
- Oppose embryonic stem cell research but support adult stem cell research.
- Support overturning Roe v. Wade and support a federal ban.
- Support defunding Planned Parenthood.
- Support Personhood amendment.

LGBT Equality:
- Support Marriage equality and LGBT Adoption.
- Support ENDA strongly.
- Support the Matthew Shepard Act.
- Believe every public university should have resources to support at-risk LGBT youth.
- Support banning "conversion therapy" and oppose public money going to "conversion therapy"

Drugs:
- War on Drugs has not been successful, thus far, and needs to be reorganized ASAP.  Like education, I think our efforts against drugs can and should be localized.
- Part of this localization effort requires the repeal of the federal ban on marijuana. I think the federal government's overzealous focus on pot has had devastating effects on society. Let states decide if they want to legalize it or not but it should not be a criminal offense, unless one is dealing. 
- Another step in the localization effort would be to focus on each state's biggest drug epidemics. Heroin, Meth, Crack all have bad epidemics in key areas of the country. We should be focusing our efforts on tackling the drug dealers spreading these drugs and not on some college kid smoking weed.
- Go after drug cartels and drug dealers harder then ever before. They are a menace on our society.
- I support the legalization of medicinal marijuana and also support legitimate medical research on marijuana. 

Voter ID Laws:
- I support photo and non-photo ID Voter laws.
- Photo ID options: License, passport, driver's permit, a simple ID card from the DMV.
- Non-Photo ID options: social security cards, voter registration #, birth certificate.

Gerrymandering:
- Independent Redistricting Commission in every state. Tired of people on both sides whining about muh gerrymanders by the other side.

Congressional Term Limits:
- Generally against term limits for Congress but I could see myself supporting a solution that has a 24 year limit for the U.S. House and a 24 year limit for the U.S. Senate.
- I'm big on preserving seniority in Congress but I am also against congressional lifers (people serving like 50 years until they die).


2nd Amendment:
- Strong supporter of the 2nd Amendment.
- Oppose most forms of gun control.
- Support criminal and background checks.
- Oppose bans on AR-15s, or other semi-auto's.
- Oppose waiting period for gun purchases.
- Support bans on suspects listed on a terror watch list.

Vaccines:
- I trust medical professionals, doctors, nurses, scientists and 100% support the usage of vaccines to help people.
- Anti-Vaxxers are crazy conspiracy theorists and pose a danger not only to themselves but to others as well.

Death Penalty:
- Strong supporter of the death penalty on the state and federal level.
- Believe that each state has a right to ban or not ban the usage of the death penalty.
- I only support using the death penalty for heinous and serious crimes such as terrorism, sadistic crimes against humanity, murder/mass murders/serial killers, serial rapists, serial pedophiles etc...

Law and Order Issues/National Security:
- For localities and states, I support law and order anti-crime measures to keep our societies safe. This includes the death penalty, the broken windows theory, the three strikes law etc...
- Also support stop-and-frisk policies.
- On the federal level, I strongly support the work the NSA engages in. I also support the TSA but believe that there is much room for improvement there.
- I support the PATRIOT Act.
- I proudly support our law enforcement officials.
- We need to do a better job on educating the youth about sexual assault and rape and how to prevent it, how to help the victims and how to properly handle these situations in the public sphere. Of course, people convicted of rape and sexual assault deserve to be punished to the fullest extent of the law.  On the same note, there needs to be an effort to counter fake rape and sexual assault reports as well, as rare as they may be.

Affirmative Action:
- Oppose affirmative action, especially in regards to college education.

Civil Rights Issues:
- I obviously oppose all forms of bigotry, sexism and racism but people have a right to think and speak in bigoted manners. They just cannot act on those pretenses in a physical or threatening manner.
- I strongly believe in promoting equality in the form of opportunity. Everyone, regardless of race, religion, gender or sexuality has a right to have the opportunity to succeed in the public forum.
- I especially focus on countering antisemitism as I am Jewish. I specifically believe that antisemitism on college campuses is a severe and growing problem in the U.S., Canada, Europe and other places.
- Clearly, we have some work to do in our country in relations to the African-American community but I strongly oppose Black Lives Matter (BLM) as I think they are extreme in actions and rhetoric and do nothing to better the situation.  I think a dialogue needs to be opened up between legitimate organizations on both the people of color's side and the law enforcement side. Community outreach, compassion and bridging of differences is the only way we will be able to solve anything.
- Finally, I believe diversity in friend groups and culture is a positive and should not be feared.

Freedom of Speech and Political Correctness:
- Supporting civil rights causes is almost always a positive but social justice warriors have taken their pursuit of justice to a very dangerous extreme. I oppose SJWs with an undying passion and believe that they are against freedom of speech and freedom of expression when they disagree with an opinion.
- Everyone has a right to freedom of speech in a public forum, even if that opinion is controversial, unpopular or bigoted. Safe Spaces are jokes and should not be allowed or encouraged. People who get "triggered" need to grow up.
-  However, freedom of speech does not mean one is void of all consequences that may occur. A private company has a right to fire a racist if it violates their vision for their workplace and mission statement. Private organizations, like twitter, do not have an obligation to let you do whatever you want on their time or domain.
- I despise people who burn the American flag but it is a form of legitimate political expression and should not be banned.

Other Social Issues:
- Oppose Prostitution legalization but it is a state issue.
- Oppose euthanasia and assisted suicide but it is a state issue.
 
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JGibson
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« Reply #1176 on: December 08, 2016, 09:00:27 PM »
« Edited: May 30, 2017, 02:59:21 AM by JGibson »

Ideology
Social: Very liberal
Economic: left-populist
Foreign: Pragmatic
Registration: Democrat

Social
Abortion/Reproductive Rights: Proudly pro-choice. Supports repeal of Hyde Amendment, against TRAP Laws, personhood movement, pro-Planned Parenthood funding.
Immigration: The system needs to be reformed to provide those here currently with a path to citizenship and to make the legal immigration easier. I'm generally pretty pro-immigrant.
Marriage Equality/LGBTQ Issues: I think marriage equality is great. Proudly supportive of LGBTQ rights. Against Indiana SB101/Missouri SJR39/North Carolina HB2-style RFRA laws.
Death Penalty: I am weakly supportive of the DP in certain cases.
Religious Freedom: Strong supporter of religious freedoms for all faiths and those with no faith belief at all.
Marijuana Legalization: Strongly in favor of legalizing it for both medical and recreational usage.
Guns: Generally pro-Gunsense and pro-2A (not in the way that NRA/GOA crowd mean it). Support gun background checks and Assault Weapons Ban. Also support conceal carry.
Euthanasia: I am against euthanasia and assisted suicide.
Black Lives Matter/Police/Criminal Justice Reform: Strong supporter of criminal justice and police reform and #BlackLivesMatter. Such stance doesn't make me "anti-police."
Transgender Issues: I strongly believe that trans people have the right to enter the bathrooms/locker rooms of the gender matching their identity and that transphobia be condemned.
Sex Education: I strongly support sex education in schools, starting from middle school.
Education: Lower interest rates on student loans and work with colleges to curb rising overhead costs. Also allow for refinancing of student loan debt and perhaps even loan forgiveness in some cases. For K-12, I strongly support public schools.
Muslim Ban/Testing: Trump's ideas about Muslims are Islamophobic and bigoted, and flatly unconstitutional as well.
Voting Rights: Fully reinstate and expand the VRA of 1965. Voter ID laws are a tool of voter suppression.

Economic
Taxes: I support a more progressive tax code (and a simpler one) where corporate loopholes and offshore loopholes are closed. The tax system (through EITC) should also be used to combat poverty.
Social Security: No increase of the retirement age minimum. In fact, it should be decreased to 55. Expand, not dismantle.
Medicare/Medicaid: Expand, not repeal, both Medicaid and Medicare.
Trade: I strongly oppose TPP and believe that NAFTA was done recklessly.
Health Care: PPACA was a mostly good start. Public option is the way to go.
Welfare/Food Stamps: Strongly pro-food stamps. Attempts to eliminate/reduce are forms of poor-shaming. Drug-testing for food stamps is a costly idea.
Minimum Wage: Strongly pro-increase of a minimum wage to at least $10. Server increased to $6.
Campaign Finance Reform: Overturn Citizens United v. FEC and McCutcheon v. FEC immediately.
Unions: I support card-check bills and strongly oppose RTWFL. Supporting unions is a great way to bolster the middle class.
Energy: Clean energy. Against fracking. NO to KXL and DAPL.
Job Creation: Invest in infrastructure, especially in disadvantaged areas.

Foreign
ISIS: Continue airstrikes and work with regional allies to totally defeat the group. Also provide humanitarian aid to the region to counteract ISIS' ideological pull.
Russia: Be tougher on Russia over their abuses and expansionary drive.
North Korea: The USA should partner with allies to take down Kim Jong-Un if he strikes the USA.
China: We must recognize that China is one of our close partners and also a potential threat. Work with diplomatic and economic might to counteract expansion while collaborating on common ground like fighting climate change.
Cuba: Close Gitmo, end embargo.
Iran: I support the Iran Deal.
Iraq: The 2003 Iraq invasion was a massive mistake.
Israel/Palestine: Favorable to the 2-state solution, and BOTH Israel and Palestine are at fault for the hostilities.
Syria/Refugees: The US needs to step up and take more refugees (with proper screening processes of course) but also needs to urge nations like Saudi Arabia to take more. Also, we should provide aid to those in camps and villages ravaged by violence.
Turkey: While they have been one of our long time allies, their continuing slide towards full-on dictatorship is very worrisome.
Venezuela: Chávez and Maduro have wrecked Venezuela beyond repair.
NATO: We should continue full support for NATO.
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SATW
SunriseAroundTheWorld
Junior Chimp
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« Reply #1177 on: December 08, 2016, 09:14:51 PM »
« Edited: August 28, 2017, 09:45:57 PM by SunriseAroundTheWorld »

Foreign Policy: Neoconservative/Hawk

Alliances:
- The United States should always stand by its allies across the world, especially those that are democracies.
- Examples: UK, Israel, Canada, Japan, Australia, and countries of the EU.
- I am 100% in support of increasing foreign aid to our allies, in terms of military aid, technological/scientific aid, financial aid and humanitarian aid. In many cases our allies cooperate with us and provide useful information relating to cyber-security, counterterrorism and other fields.
- In relations to some of our more controversial, non-democratic allies (Egypt, Saudi Arabia, China, Jordan, Azerbaijan etc...) I believe we should also support them in many cases, as they are our allies for often very important reasons. This is especially important in relation to the Middle East where power and trust are valued over anything else. However, we do have a right to question these non-democratic countries when it is in our interests to do so.

War on Terrorism/Radical Islam:
- The United States and the world as a whole should remain vigilant in its efforts to counter, defeat and destroy terrorist organizations and terrorist cells. A Government's main responsibility is to protect its own people and to protect its own interests.
- One of our main goals should be to weaken/destroy (preferably the latter) ISIS and its offshoots in Iraq, Syria, the Sinai and Libya.
- Another main goal should be to stabilize Syria. The humanitarian situation there is depressingly disturbing and the international community's reaction has been...lacking. Obviously, it easier said then done. I always don't want to create the impression that only the US should be involved in stabilizing Syria and alleviating the suffering there. The entire world, especially the western world has an obligation to stabilize Syria's borders. I honestly think cooperation with Russia is the only way that a possible ending to this bloody civil war is even remotely foreseeable.
- After those two quagmires get addressed, the world can then focus on tackling other terrorist organizations, such as Hamas, Hezbollah, al-Shaabab, Boko Haram, Al Qaeda, al-Nusra and others. the world will also need to address the two elephants in the room - Iran and Turkey.

Turkey:
- Obviously, a difficult situation for the western world here. Turkey is on the border of Europe, separating us from ISIS in Syria, and is in NATO. They should be a trusted ally but because of Erdogan's insane power trip things have become extremely problematic.
- Since the coup, Erdogan has purged all of Turkey of secular leaders, of pro-democracy teachers, journalists and military officers. I honestly think this is grounds for sanctions on Turkey and a discussion of Turkey's future in NATO.
- Turkey has threatened to jump to the Shanghai Bloc, if this is done then Turkey should be suspended from NATO.
- Also, in light of Turkey's continued anti-democratic actions, I believe we should renew the international community's opposition to revisionist history and formally recognize the the Armenian Genocide. It is imperative that countries like the U.S., Israel, the U.K. and Germany all do so on a national level.

Iran:
- Iran is one of the biggest threats to world stability at the moment. They are determined to continue sponsoring terrorism abroad, especially with Hezbollah as its proxy and are even more determined to obtain nuclear weapons.
- I vehemently oppose the Iran Nuclear Deal negotiated by the P5+1 and I believe it will go down as a historic mistake that will only worsen the state of the middle east in the long run.  I think that increased sanctions would have been a better alternative until we were able to get a better deal.
- Iran's military threats are not the only thing concerning about their quests. They want to gain economic control of the region for then anything else, which of course includes the oil markets. This would bring Europe to its knees economically and leave them no choice but to cave to pressure created by Iran.

Israeli-Palestinian Conflict:
- I have long supported the two-state solution for a very long time but I am starting to look for other alternatives. I am not convinced that the Palestinian leadership wants peace with Israel nor do I think a solution will be finalized anytime soon.
- I also side with Israel on most issues relating to the conflict. Mainly on security and counterterrorism issues. I also side with Israel, mostly, on settlements (especially in relation to East Jerusalem and the Gush Etzion region of Judea and Samaria).
- I believe reform within the Palestinian Authority is the only way a two state solution is salvageable, but sadly, I don't see that occurring anytime soon.
- I believe the U.N., most of the western media and a good amount of western countries are appeasing the Palestinians and that this is very much apart of the reason why they aren't taking peace seriously.

U.S. Military/Defense Issues/Veterans Issues:
- U.S. Military should always be prepared for the worst and should always be updated with high tech weaponry and intelligence.
- The Defense Department should continue its cooperation with important allies such as Israel, the UK, Australia, India etc... in fields such as cyber security, military tech advancement and training ops.
- I am a huge supporter of the U.S. military and am thankful for all the sacrifices they make for us.
- In relations to Veterans' issues, I truly believe our country has done our veterans a disservice. The VA is a circus show and clearly needs to be reformed. We have a serious backlog problem (relating to benefits) and it must be addressed ASAP. I don't see how anyone can propose creating new benefits plans for veterans when we haven't even cleared our current, giant stack of owed benefits.

Russia:
- I have changed my views on Russia recently. We need to continue an increase in sanctions and to continue opposing Putin's lack of respect for human rights in his country and abroad.
- Our policy in the Middle East when it comes to Russia needs to be more aggressive in diplomatic terms. We need to weaken it's influence as it has its fingers deep in Assad's Syria and in Iran. Russia emboldens Iran by continuously selling it high grade weapons and by ignoring Iran's sponsorship of terrorism. 

- In regards to Russia's European expansionist policies, I think its clear we need to put our foot down and increase pressure and sanctions on them. Russia was threatening out diplomats last year and we had no response except to ask them to halt their harassment. Extremely pathetic response. 
- Russia respects power confidence more then anything else and they have not seen any of that under Pres. Obama, and this has not gotten better under Pres. Trump.


China and the South China Sea:
- We must continue to assert our strength and opposition to China's claims to the South China Sea.
- Our allies' security in Asia  depends on it (Japan, S. Korea, Taiwan etc...).
- In general, I believe we need to adjust our policy on China. Especially in relations to Taiwan. I believe we need to move away from the One China policy and start moving towards accepting Taiwan into the community of nations in a reasonable time frame.
- I do strongly support maintaining close and intimate ties, economically, with China but it should be made clear that our foreign policies are clearly opposite of each other's and that the United States will not abandon its positions because of pressure from Beijing.

The Philippines:
- Duterte is a sociopath. The world should continue to monitor his activities and words over the coming months. I would prefer to denounce him formally at the UN but, unfortunately, it seems that the people of his country wanted this type of leadership.
- We should be ready to sanction him if he starts engaging in more ludicrous behavior and if he starts to engage in anti-democratic activities (i.e. curbing the media, etc...)


Promoting Democracy:
- I strongly support promoting countries, organizations and people that engage in pro-democracy activities. This includes supporting the State of Israel and Taiwan against its enemies.
- I also support the creation of an independent and democratic Kurdistan in Iraq and believe the world has not done nearly enough to support the Kurds in their historic aspirations for freedom. I also believe the world has not done enough to support the Pershmerga.
- It is a known fact that the International community is not always keen on territories or conflicted areas seeking independence. This is because it is difficult to create an environment for these new countries to succeed in. The Czech Republic and Slovakia have been, for years, a gold standard example of successful separation and independence. Neither country is perfect but they have been recent examples of successful countries that separated from previous, existing alliances/countries.
- I think we should be evaluating potential areas of the world that want independence and, as a international community, determine if independence is sustainable or desirable. For example, I think many would agree that the South Sudan experiment has been a failure on almost every level.
- The said could be partially said about Kosovo, which sits as Europe's most impoverished nation at the moment.
- I believe in promoting democracy in areas of the world where it is sensible to do so. Not every country is ready for democracy and that must be understood. This is especially important to remember when dealing with allies of our allies who aren't necessarily democratic.  

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JA
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Junior Chimp
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« Reply #1178 on: December 14, 2016, 09:21:48 PM »

Ideology
Social: Social Justice, Left-wing
Economic: Progressive, Social Democratic (Scandinavian Model)
Foreign Policy: Realist
Environment: Environmentalist, Green

Social Policy
Abortion: Pro-choice, legal partial birth
Same-Sex Marriage: Strongly support
Drugs: Legalization of marijuana; decriminalization of all other drugs with the focus on rehabilitation instead of punishment for offenders
Death Penalty: Strongly oppose in all situations
Gun Control: Support background checks, mental health screening, closing the gun-show loophole, a mandatory firearm safety course, and strict ban on all automatic and semi-automatic weapons
Affirmative Action: Support as a way of improving the socioeconomic position of disadvantaged groups and representation of these groups in all industries and fields
Prostitution: Strongly oppose. While I do not oppose it as a personal choice, per se, it cannot be legalized since it would further objectify the human body to be exploited for profit. We must end the existence of situations that would compel a person into prostitution, not legalize the practice
Euthanasia: Strongly support. Should be an option for a terminally ill patient of any age
Immigration: Grant amnesty to all non-violent undocumented immigrants. Dramatically increase our refugee intake and slash the cost and regulations associated with immigration, while focusing on increasing skilled immigration and decreasing unskilled
Black Lives Matter: Strongly support
Transgender Issues: Legislate against any discrimination aimed at LGBTQ persons. Gender and sex are not the same; one is a socially constructed identity, the other is a biological reality. No one is born a boy/man or girl/woman, but they are born a male or female
Political Correctness: Sometimes it goes too far by censoring, harassing, intimidating, and bullying anyone who may not be aware of the most recent sociological findings. However, it has been an overall net good as it has encouraged us to be more empathetic, polite, and sensitive
Muslim Ban: Pure Islamophobia arising from a total misunderstanding and fear of Islam and the Muslim community

Economic Issues
Minimum Wage: Establish a national living wage of $15 per hour set to rise with inflation. Also establish a basic minimum income of a negotiable rate – ideally 25% of the median personal income for a county
Welfare: Safeguard and expand the welfare state. Ensure food security for all Americans, provide adequate living assistance, paid maternity and paternity leave of at least 1 year each, paid sick leave, 2 weeks guaranteed paid holidays, and subsidized childcare
Social Security: Lift the taxable income cap and protect it from misuse of its funds by Congress
Healthcare: National single-payer system based on Medicare-for-all. Open the market to drug imports from abroad
Trade: Opposition to corporate controlled “free trade” deals such as TPP. Renegotiate our trade agreements to ensure our trade partners meet minimum standards for environmental regulation, labor rights, workers’ safety, fair wage laws, no currency manipulation, and no unfair regulations on American businesses
Deficit/Debt: Maximize efficiency, streamline all governmental agencies, consolidate agencies and eliminate redundancies, abolish the NSA, gut the military and defense budget, focus on implementing cost saving technologies, and make it publicly available and readily accessible to see where all funds are going, the budgets of every agency and department, and who voted for what funding
Campaign Finance Reform: Overturn Citizens United and pass a Constitutional Amendment limiting campaign donations to individual contributions of $100 or less (set to adjust for inflation)
Unions: Strongly support. Completely overturn the Taft-Hartley Act, strengthen public and private sector unions, and abolish all right-to-work laws
Energy: Invest heavily in green energy with the intent of revolutionizing our energy sector. Incentivize businesses and individuals to go green with tax breaks, implement cap and trade, partially nationalize all companies exploiting our natural resources, and begin reducing fracking and offshore drilling
Job Creation: Invest in a massive infrastructure redevelopment program; create the world’s largest green energy industry; incentivize businesses to create jobs in underprivileged areas (inner cities and Appalachia especially); dramatically increase investment in STEM, research, education, and creating the world’s best internet connection and distribution
Education: Tuition free public universities, refinancing of student loan debt, universal pre-k, end school segregation that further disadvantages lower income and minority students, implement an educational system modeled after Finland’s, and ensure all students are extensively taught the science behind anthropogenic global warming and evolution, critical thinking rather than rote memorization, budgeting and finances, civics, empathy and tolerance, and sexual education (beginning in kindergarten)
Taxes: Institute a steep, but gradual progressive income tax with the maximum rate of 60%; increase taxes on unhealthy foods and drinks, alcohol, cigarettes, and marijuana; implement a VAT on par with that of most European countries; implement a strict 60% tax on speculation and income derived from investments; maintain the current corporate tax rate, but eliminate all loopholes and save deductions only for specified domestic, positive investments

Foreign
ISIS: Focus on providing humanitarian aid to the region in cooperation with the UN. Continue targeted tactical airstrikes intended solely to weaken their infrastructure without endangering civilian lives. Pressure the Gulf States and Turkey to cease any potential cooperation and business they may have with the terrorist state
Russia/NATO: Reaffirm our commitment to the NATO alliance, pursue international condemnation against Russia for their domestic human rights violations and war crimes in Syria, and arm the government in Ukraine to combat the Russian foreign fighters
China: Address the country’s currency manipulation and rampant human rights violations. But pursue this agenda strategically, without trying to anger a country with which we would benefit more from trade and cooperation
Cuba: Completely normalize relations. Close Guantanamo Bay
Iran: Pursue international condemnation of Iran’s rampant human rights abuses. Protect the Iran Nuclear Deal as the best safeguard against Iran obtaining nuclear weapons
Israel/Palestine: A two-state solution is the only option. Israel must be pressured to cease all new construction in the West Bank, reach a mutually beneficial agreement over Jerusalem, and recognize the human rights and dignity of the Palestinians. The Palestinian leadership must accept that the Israeli state will continue to exist and gain control over its citizens who engage in terrorist acts
Syria/Refugees: Alleviate the pressure on Europe and Syria’s neighbors by taking in at minimum 200,000 Syrian refugees. We must also negotiate using our leverage for the Gulf States to take in refugees or at least provide funding for host countries (which we should as well). Iran, Russia, and Syria must be pressured to act in accordance with international laws of warfare and allow humanitarian aid. The situation in Syria is too complex for external players to make any positive contribution by picking sides; we should only ensure the minimum number of civilians suffer as a result
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Shadows
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« Reply #1179 on: January 02, 2017, 04:31:17 PM »
« Edited: January 02, 2017, 04:47:19 PM by Shadows »

Ideology : Left leaning progressive with strong libertarian streak on social, civil liberties & foreign policy

]Social Policy

Abortion: Pro-choice

Same-Sex Marriage: Strong support

Drugs: Legalize all drugs, treat as mental illness, open rehab & awareness programs

Death Penalty:
Strong opposition in all cases

Gun Control: Background checks, mental health screening, closing the gun-show loophole, National Referendum or State Ballot poll on all automatic and semi-automatic weapons

Affirmative Action: No (support more investment in poor communities, affordable housing etc)

Prostitution:
Legalize

Euthanasia:
Undecided

Sex Education Sad Strong supporter

Immigration: Amnesty for non-violent. Increase refugees considerably, make immigration easier for skilled people & increase skilled people intake

Black Lives Matter:
Strongly support

Transgender Issues: Pro Transgenders

Muslim Ban: Oppose strongly

Economic Issues

Minimum Wage:  $15 per hour & indexed to inflation.

Universal Basic Income : Oppose now, re-evaluate in 10-15 years depending on unemployment, tax revenue, deficit, demographic breakup

Welfare: Paid maternity and paternity leave for first 2 children, paid sick leave, subsidized childcare, expand food security programs

Social Security: Lift the taxable income cap & dis-allow looting

Healthcare: Single Payer, allow drug imports

Trade: Free Trade with countries having comparable wages & environmental norms. Otherwise free trade but allow sectoral tariffs for industries with high paying & job intensive sectors like automobiles

Deficit/Debt: Reduce gradually, start with 50B reduction every year, reduce Military spending drastically year by year & increase taxes on very wealthy, close corporate loopholes. Balance the budget in 7-8 years. Support high deficit in recession (Keynesian) & poor economy years but deficits should be cut down soon

Campaign Finance Reform: Overturn Citizens United, maintain current individual cap

Unions: Strong support, overturn Reagan's disastrous policies

Energy: Tax breaks for Renewable R & D, Subsidies for Solar/Wind, 10 Year Moratorium on all off-shore drilling.

Environment - Ban Fracking, impose Carbon Tax, Increase Emission standards for Cars, Boost public transport in big cities, Increase R & D & funding for hybrid/electric cars

Job Creation:
Massive infra program spending 4T in 10 years. Support green jobs

Education:
Tuition free college, refinance debt, include climate change in text books

Taxes: Progressive taxes with maximum tax between 50-55%, same current corporate tax rate, tax breaks for people earning less than 150K

Glass Steagal - Yes, break the banks

Aid - Only humanitarian & strictly for poor countries. No aid to countries which aids terrorists tacitly

Foreign

ISIS: Ensure Turkey & Sunni countries don't buy ISIS Oil & don't support them. Use Drones but decrease usage to reduce civilian casualties. Work with Gulf Countries, NATO, Russia to beat ISIS. Ensure Gulf states have soldiers on the ground. Stop funding Rebels/Al Qaeda in Syria, decide on Assad only after ISIS is taken care.

Russia/NATO:
Ease relations with Russia for 6 months, lift all sanctions & try to be friends with the condition that they leave Syria, don't support people in Ukraine. Try to mend relations. If not go back to strong sanctions. Support NATO but refuse to pay beyond current share. Pull out of bases if they refuse to pay but give them a 3 year time limit.

Japan/South Korea Sad No nuclear weapons, give them 3 year time-frame for full reimbursement, otherwise pull out troops

China: Scrap FTA with China. Deal strictly to reduce greenhouse emission by China & to control North Korea. if China misbehaves - Open to declare Taiwan as nation. Open to support Tibet.  There is no currency manipulation (I live & breathe economics, I can explain)

Cuba:
Normalize relations & end of Guantanamo

Iran: Protect Nuclear Deal, condemn support for terrorism but try to normalize relations. Iran used to be a secular state & still has a large moderate population (look at Saudi). Try to control all weapon sales to Iran globally (to reduce it)

Israel/Palestine: 2 state, stop all Israeli Settlements, borders after 1967, Jerusalem co-sharing. Oppose radical Netanyahu & try to isolate him

Saudi Arabia Sad Weapons embargo to Saudi Arabia who will just send those Weapons to ISIS, Al Qaeda or fight in Yemen Gradually cut ties with this fundamental extremist group. Would even support sanctions in 10 years time as they are spreading the poison of Wahhabi Islam in the world

Pak Sad Tie all aid to defense certification of  countering terrorism In the future, put trade restrictions & other strict methods to stop support of terrorists & Haqqani network which are killing people in Afghan. Co-operate with civil government to secure nukes so that terrorists don't get it

Syria/Iraq/Afghan - Withdraw all ground forces (only air-strikes)

Turkey - Try diplomatically otherwise combine NATO actions as they have lost it

Electoral -

Voter ID - Currently no, yes in 10-15 years with gradual phasing in

Gerrymandering - No, formation of independent body to avoid this

Term Limits
- Oppose

Primaries - Open, same day reg, proportional delegates, No Super delegates

GE - Decide by Popular Vote or ensure proportional allotment of state votes & electoral votes by population for each state

Automatic Registration - Yes

Early/Absentee Voting - Yes

Holiday in State, GE & Primary Elections - Yes (Target massive turnout)

Public funding of elections - Yes & Ban all corporate funding
Others -

Patriot Act - Strongly oppose

Snowden - Pardon, commend him for exposing the crooks

Keystone, Dakota - Strongly oppose

Puerto Rico - Referendum & abide by decision

Statehood DC, PR - Abide by referendum results

Nukes - Bilateral  treaty with Russia to reduce Nukes under 500, then work with other nations to get everyone below 100, No nukes for North Korea, wait & watch with Pak & diplomatically engage
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« Reply #1180 on: January 31, 2017, 02:12:30 PM »

Rather than list every specific issue, I will try to describe my views in general terms of how I tihnk:

Economics: Pro-trade, pro-competition, anti-monopoly. This generally leads me to right wing economic conclusions, such as thinking taxes should be as low as feasibly possible, though not always. For example, I am strongly opposed to "corporate welfare" (such as farm subsidies), because allowing businesses to fail is one of the essential parts to making free market competition work, but I do think the government should provide a social safety net and that the public sector should be involved in the few areas where competition doesn't work,  such as police and (more controversially) healthcare.

Social issues: Basically the standard libertarian spiel about how people should be allowed to do things that don't violate the rights of others, with the caveat that I have no qualms about punishing people who do violate the rights of others to the fullest extent of the law. I'm also generally supportive of the policies and the military, seeing these institutions as being necessary to protect and enforce people's rights and liberties, both domestically and abroad. This combination of views is what leads to the weird quark of me generally being libertarian on social issues, while also being "hawkish" and supportive of things like the death penalty.

Foreign policy: To but quite simply, globalization. I think that free trade, liberal immigration laws, and global cooperation are all net positives that we should strive for whenever possible. While I am not necessarily an "abolish all borders" extremist, since that frankly seems unworkable to me, I do think we should try to become more globally integrated, not less, and that while it's obviously not possible to solve all the world's problems, we can't just turn a blind eye to  suffering and tyranny in other countries either. I am strongly against pulling out of organizations like NATO and UN and think that, despite their flaws, we are better off with them than without them, and I am frankly very concerned about the nationalism and anti-globalization trends that are happening to recently, to the point that I am almost becoming a single issue voter.

Overall: I don't know what to call this fricking mess of an ideology or philosophy or whatever, do you? Tongue
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« Reply #1181 on: January 31, 2017, 05:49:10 PM »

Rather than list every specific issue, I will try to describe my views in general terms of how I tihnk:

Economics: Pro-trade, pro-competition, anti-monopoly. This generally leads me to right wing economic conclusions, such as thinking taxes should be as low as feasibly possible, though not always. For example, I am strongly opposed to "corporate welfare" (such as farm subsidies), because allowing businesses to fail is one of the essential parts to making free market competition work, but I do think the government should provide a social safety net and that the public sector should be involved in the few areas where competition doesn't work,  such as police and (more controversially) healthcare.

Social issues: Basically the standard libertarian spiel about how people should be allowed to do things that don't violate the rights of others, with the caveat that I have no qualms about punishing people who do violate the rights of others to the fullest extent of the law. I'm also generally supportive of the policies and the military, seeing these institutions as being necessary to protect and enforce people's rights and liberties, both domestically and abroad. This combination of views is what leads to the weird quark of me generally being libertarian on social issues, while also being "hawkish" and supportive of things like the death penalty.

Foreign policy: To but quite simply, globalization. I think that free trade, liberal immigration laws, and global cooperation are all net positives that we should strive for whenever possible. While I am not necessarily an "abolish all borders" extremist, since that frankly seems unworkable to me, I do think we should try to become more globally integrated, not less, and that while it's obviously not possible to solve all the world's problems, we can't just turn a blind eye to  suffering and tyranny in other countries either. I am strongly against pulling out of organizations like NATO and UN and think that, despite their flaws, we are better off with them than without them, and I am frankly very concerned about the nationalism and anti-globalization trends that are happening to recently, to the point that I am almost becoming a single issue voter.

Overall: I don't know what to call this fricking mess of an ideology or philosophy or whatever, do you? Tongue
These are largely my positions, with perhaps a bit more lean towards the center on economics. I have problems with the Libertarians exhorting the benefits of the Fair tax, something I despise.

On the whole, though, this sounds exactly like me.
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JustinTimeCuber
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« Reply #1182 on: February 21, 2017, 11:31:47 PM »

Ideology : Bernie Bro / Kyle Kulinski viewer / Social Democrat
Social Policy

Abortion: Pro-choice up to viability, then life of the mother, yada yada

Same-Sex Marriage: duh

Drugs: The fact that marijuana is illegal is a f**king joke. Legalize, tax, and regulate all drugs.

Death Penalty:
  Not *morally* opposed, but practically opposed, because sometimes we get the wrong person

Gun Control: Background checks, gun show loophole, high capacity magazine ban

Affirmative Action: Probably not a good idea, better ways to support minorities & women

Prostitution:
It's not my problem.

Euthanasia:
Obviously support. Who the hell am I to tell someone that they have to go through potentially days or weeks of pain before finally dying?

Sex Education Sad Duh

Immigration: Moderate. Give amnesty to people who are here and who aren't criminals, but enforce immigration law. If you catch a bad hombre (or mujer we're not sexist here) crossing the border then deport them.

Black Lives Matter:
Support the platform, but some of their people are kinda dumb (those knuckleheads who shut down a Bernie Sanders speech or rally or something because he wasn't talking about their specific issue 100% of the time)

Transgender Issues: duh

Muslim Ban: "I'm Donald Trump, and I don't approve this Constitution message.)

Economic Issues

Minimum Wage:  Increase slowly to $15, then adjust to inflation

Universal Basic Income : Probably not but worth looking at.

Welfare: Paid m'paternity leave and sick leave, strengthen social safety net

Social Security: Lift the cap and the minimum benefit

Healthcare: National healthcare system, allow dangerous Canadian drugs to be smuggled in by Bernie and Amy Klobuchar.

Trade: Way too complicated to explain here. In general, for some free trade but don't support TPP, NAFTA, PNTR w/ China

Deficit/Debt: Chill. It's not as big a deal as right wingers pretend it is. I think it would be a good idea to have lower deficits though when possible.

Campaign Finance Reform: Constitutional amendment necessary

Unions: No RTW laws

Energy: Look into clean energy

Environment - Lots of complicated things but in general implement green policies.

Job Creation:
Rebuild awe crumbling inferstructure! I'm Bunnie Sandas.

Education:
free$hit (public tuition for public colleges/universities)

Taxes: Bunnie Sandas' plan is pretty good.

Glass Steagal - Yeeh, duh

Aid - Humanitarian aid where it's sensible.

Foreign

ISIS: End the drone strikes, stop funding the goddamn terrorists

Russia/NATO:
Let's not be close allies with Putin, but let's not provoke them and start WWIII. Make him know that he can't just annex parts of sovereign nations.

Japan/South Korea Sad Defend South Korea and Japan from North Korea by intimidation. Don't occupy places but make Kim know that if he does an act of war, he's dead.

China: No more PNTR. Put pressure on them to better control emissions.  Don't provoke them by recognizing Taiwan as an independent country.

Cuba:
Guantanamo = dead, open up relations

Iran: The nuclear deal was pretty solid.

Israel/Palestine: 57 state solution

Saudi Arabia Sad Saudi Arabia is a rogue state. They behead people in public for sorcery and officially call all atheists terrorists.

Pak Sad What's pakistan

Syria/Iraq/Afghan - gtfo of them

Turkey - I don't know what's happening in turkey either I'm dumb lol

Electoral -

Voter ID - No

Gerrymandering - No, mathematical formula put into place

Term Limits
- Bad idea

Primaries - This is impossible practically but if I were designing a system from scratch, all states vote on the first weekend in June by IRV. The winner actually wins.

GE - Popular vote

Automatic Registration - Yes

Early/Absentee Voting - Yes, expand it somewhat

Holiday in State, GE & Primary Elections - Just make it on the weekend

Public funding of elections - You should have to get a certain number of signatures and then your funding is completely public, otherwise you have to self finance. No donations.
Others -

Patriot Act - RIP

Snowden - Make him Sec. of homeland security to piss off the establishment

Keystone, Dakota - RIP

Puerto Rico - statehood referendum

Statehood DC, PR - yes unless they vote not to

Nukes - Ideally: RIP
Practically: Do what we can with deals like the Iran Deal to stop any spread of nukes.
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Famous Mortimer
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« Reply #1183 on: February 22, 2017, 10:18:43 PM »
« Edited: February 22, 2017, 10:28:30 PM by Famous Mortimer »

Updating since I became a fascist:


Ideology : Simple answer: Social democrat, snowflake answer: Statist liberal
Social Policy

Abortion: Pro-choice but no public funding unless rape, incest, or life of the mother is in danger

Same-Sex Marriage: For

Drugs: Legalize all drugs

Death Penalty:
 Support but only for extraordinarily crazy crimes

Gun Control: Repeal the Second Amendment, guns as a privilege, not a right. Broadly legal but require a license and all guns in a national gun database

Affirmative Action: Made sense in the 70s, not anymore. Get rid of it.

Prostitution:
Legalize it. No worse than any other job.

Euthanasia:
Support but only with approval of panel of doctors.

Sex Education Sad For.

Immigration: Legalize all non-violent illegals already here. Deport violent ones. No new immigration, legal or illegal, for 10 years. Maybe allow like 20k a year but only if they are sponsored by an employer who will pay them 200k. Constitutional amendments ending birthright citizenship and making English the official language.

Black Lives Matter:
BLM is dumb but support a policy of police reform. Stop hiring violent low IQ jocks as cops. Instead take advantage of our growing pool of underemployed social science majors.

Transgender Issues: However people want to identify is their own business. Trans people should have all the same protection as everyone else. Protecting them under hate crime laws would be fine too. No government funded HRT for minors though.

Muslim Ban: I support a ban on all new immigration. It is wrong to single out groups by national origin or religion though.

Economic Issues

Minimum Wage:  Increase to $15. Adjust for inflation. Let the businesses that can't afford it go out of business, as long as universal healthcare is established beforehand.

Universal Basic Income : Yes but very basic and everyone gets it regardless of whether or not they work, so as not to incentivize failure.

Welfare: Universal healthcare and UBI.

Social Security: Replaced by UBI

Healthcare: Full Communism. Doctors who protest should be publicly executed or else forced out of medicine and forbidden from ever having a job that pays more than minimum wage.

Trade: Fair trade not free trade.

Deficit/Debt: Sky's the limit. Crank it to 12.

Campaign Finance Reform: Seemed like a good idea but turned out it wasn't. If billionaires want to waste money paying conservatives to vote how they would have anyway, let them.

Unions: Not for the public sector. Hopefully government social policy will render them less necessary in the private sector as well.

Energy: Hydrogen.

Environment - Error on the side of not fuccin up da earf

Job Creation:
Build a new American capitol city in the middle of West Virginia. Build bullet trains connecting all cities with more than 100k. Light rail inside each city with more than 100k. Colonize the moon and Mars.

Education:
Ban teachers unions. Ban private schools. Ban home schooling. Create three tracks in the public school system: One for dummies, one for smarties, and a tiny one of elites who will go to an American version of École Polytechnique where they will be trained to be hipster philosopher kings

Taxes: 50% bottom rate. 90% top rate.

Glass Steagal - Yeah but more socialist.

Aid - Third world nations will be offered funds on par with the Marshall Plan if they submit to 10 years of direct rule by the UN.

Foreign

ISIS: Fund the Kurds. Let Russia bomb on behalf of Assad.

Russia/NATO:
Get rid of NATO, not for Russia's sake but just cus it's dumb.

Japan/South Korea Sad If they want us to withdraw, withdraw. Maybe set up a new base in the Thai Redshirt Republic just in case.

China: Cordial relations but don't s their d

Cuba:
Normalize relations. Thank for them being the only country that discourages their people from immigrating here. Maybe try to get permanent lease on Gitmo out of the deal.  Gitmo is good. The prisoners there are hardcore Jihadists with no hope for reform.

Iran: Offer full normalization and help with alternative fuel plan in return for scrapping nuclear deal. Side with Shi'its over Sunnis in general.

Israel/Palestine: Israel is done for. Start planning to relocate Jewish refugees.

Saudi Arabia Sad IDK no good policies here

Pak Sad Let Modi annex

Syria/Iraq/Afghan - Fund the PKK and the PUK

Turkey - Cordial but don't s their d

Electoral -

Voter ID - Every citizen gets a free ID. It's required to vote.

Gerrymandering - Some form of state based PR and/or IRV.

Term Limits
- Anti-democratic. No.

Primaries - Randomly pick order of states every 4 years. IRV.

GE - Popular vote, democracy, IRV.

Automatic Registration - Yes

Early/Absentee Voting - Not unless you got a good excuse

Holiday in State, GE & Primary Elections - Yes

Public funding of elections - Yeah but not that much. Free air time on TV
Others -

Patriot Act - Good. Make eternal. I support the any secret provisions of the PATRIOT Act that the public doesn't know about as well.

Snowden - Don't care.

Keystone, Dakota - No but also get rid of all special status for Native Americans.

Puerto Rico - If they want to become a state, they can switch to teaching English in their schools. If they don't want to do that, cut them off.

Statehood DC, PR - Yes. Would also back just merging with Maryland. Washington, Maryland could be the US capitol.

Nukes - They're out there already so keep a couple but limit the arsenal to just enough to blow up the world twice.
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Santander
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« Reply #1184 on: February 22, 2017, 10:24:24 PM »

Is this a somewhat ironic statement aimed at disarming the opposition?
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Famous Mortimer
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« Reply #1185 on: February 22, 2017, 10:30:32 PM »

Is this a somewhat ironic statement aimed at disarming the opposition?

Read my earnest positions and decide for yourself :*
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🕴🏼Melior🕴🏼
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« Reply #1186 on: February 22, 2017, 11:45:03 PM »
« Edited: February 22, 2017, 11:48:07 PM by Melior »

Ideology
Social: Stuanch progressive liberal nanny-statist
Economic: Pro-business liberal. I'm a proud believer in capitalism and free markets, but I also support a strong welfare state to help those in need and tough government regulations on certain industries to protect consumers.
Foreign: "Realist"
Political Registration: Democrat

Social Policy
Abortion: Pro-choice
Same Sex Marriage: Support
Drug policy: I believe in legalizing marijuana for both recreational and medical purposes. I support ending the War on Drugs. However, I also support heavy sin taxes (especially on cigarettes) and raising the smoking age.
Death Penalty: I wouldn't necessarily say I support the death penalty. I believe that the death penalty should only be used very rarely (like maybe once every year at the absolute most) and only for the most heinous crimes.
Gun Control: I support background checks and banning guns for those on the No Fly List. However, I oppose banning "assault" weapons, and I also believe that gun control laws should vary by location (New York City should have stricter gun laws than rural Ohio)
Prostitution: Legalize it
Euthanasia: Reluctantly support
PATRIOT Act/NSA Spying: Reluctantly support
Immigration: I am a strong supporter of immigration reform. Immigration is good for our country.
Guantanamo: Close it


Economic Policy
Minimum Wage: I support increasing the minimum wage.
Welfare: Support
Social Security: I'm strongly opposed to cutting or privatizing Social Security.
Right-to-Work: Oppose
Taxation: We should keep income taxes at current levels. We should abolish corporate taxes. However, we should raise the capital gains tax and taxing carried interest like regular income. We should also close any loopholes to make sure the wealthy pay their fair share.
Obamacare: Support, but I oppose universal health care.
Trade: I'm a strong supporter of free trade. I'm pro-TPP and pro-NAFTA.
Climate Change: Climate change is real. We should impose heavy regulations to help combat climate change.
Keystone pipeline: Oppose
Fiscal policy: I oppose any form a balanced-budget amendment. More government investment on things like infrastructure and the economy is good. Cutting government spending is bad for the economy.
Equal pay for equal work: Strongly support
Wall Street: This is an issue that I disagree with most Democrats on. I support repealing Dodd-Frank. I believe that the financial industry should be deregulated. I believe that many Democrats wrongly blame Wall Street for our problems. Wall Street gets an unfair amount of hate. However, we should also reinstate Glass-Stegall.

Other stances:
Gerrymandering: Establish non-partisan redistricting commission
Term limits: Oppose
Common core: Support
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The_Doctor
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« Reply #1187 on: February 23, 2017, 01:36:03 PM »
« Edited: May 04, 2017, 06:11:36 PM by TD »

Stole this from Frodo.  (INcluding some of the wording)

Ideology

Social: Libertarian/Right
Economic: Center-Right
Foreign: Neoconservative/Realist
Registration: Republican

Social

Abortion/Reproductive Rights: Pro-life, favor the Hyde Amendment, and oppose abortions in all cases but the mother's life. Roe should be overturned.
Marriage Equality/LGBTQ Issues: Support sending marriage to the states. Generally supportive of LGBTQ rights. I oppose the NC transgender law, support the Indiana RFR law.
Death Penalty: Strongly favor the death penalty upon DNA confirmation or absolute confirmation of a crime. Should be also applicable for rape.
Religious Freedom: Strong supporter of religious freedoms for all faiths and those with no faith belief at all. Favor religious liberty laws for bakers and other businesses.
Drug Legalization: Strongly in favor of legalizing it for both medical and recreational usage. Likewise favor LSD legalized and all classes of drugs being decriminalized.
Guns: Oppose the assault weapons ban, oppose gun regulation. Also support conceal carry. Support background checks and closing the gunshow loophole.  
Euthanasia: I am for euthanasia and assisted suicide as an individual right.
Black Lives Matter/Police/Criminal Justice Reform: Strong supporter of criminal justice and police reform and #BlackLivesMatter. Such stance doesn't make me "anti-police." I however also believe in cameras to help cops and the community. Likewise, I would want to encourage "community policing."
Transgender Issues: I strongly believe that trans people have the right to enter the bathrooms/locker rooms of the gender matching their identity and that transphobia be condemned.
Sex Education: I strongly support sex education in schools, starting from middle school.
Education: I believe in limiting the power of the Department of Education to set curriculum over the states. For colleges, I would pop the "student loan" bubble and restructure FAFSA aid to deflate that bubble.  
Affirmative Action: Opposed to it, completely. Either class-based, or merit.
Judges: Favor constructionist judges sitting on the Supreme Court and in the lower judiciary, that interpret the Constitution based on original intent, not a "living Constitution" text.

Economic/Spending

Taxes: I favor a two tax bracket of 35% and 20% with those making under $30,000 single having all income exempt from taxation, including payroll taxes. That said, tax reform should be enacted gradually so that our revenues match our spending and we aren't suddenly halving the revenue stream overnight.  I do favor a very strong estate tax of 65% on estates over $5 million.
Trade: Unapologetic free trader, in favor of NAFTA, CAFTA, TPP (minus the biologics section), and want a global market free from subsidies, quotas, and restrictions on trade. Oppose, of course, all subsidies, restrictions on trade, imports taxes, etc.
Social Security/Medicare: Significantly overhaul and limit benefits to the truly indigent and needy who need healthcare coverage and disability and other benefits to survive in old age. Didn't like their creation and believe we have a vastly expansive welfare state that needs curtailing.
Budgets: Hold spending down alongside tax reform to gradually enact real spending reforms that allow us to balance our budget. A BBA is unfeasible, but in general, our spending should be slowly curtailed and I favored the House GOP's hardline on spending.
Defense Spending: Limit defense spending to what we need to maintain America's hegemony.  Don't overspend, if we can help it. Cut down independent contracting in the defense industry.
Minimum Wage: Oppose it as unnecessary. 5% of all workers work for the minimum wage and it hurts teen youths and others just entering teh job market.
Labor Unions: Really hate them. End collective bargaining for public sector unions and support RTW states.
Financial Regulation: Support financial regulation that is common sense. No 1000 pages of regulations. I oppose Glass-Steagall being reinstated and I oppose Dodd-Frank but I would support a variation of common sense liberal regulation and an extremely strong and independent SEC to regulate Wall Street.

Foreign Policy

Russia/NATO: Completely, unapologetically, and vehemently anti-Russia. Moscow is among our enemies and we should undermine it in Ukraine, Georgia, and Syria, and maintain (and tighten) sanctions on Moscow. The eventual goal is to break up Russia and force it to become a rump state incapable of challenging the United States. I also strongly favor NATO remaining in force to stop the Kremlin.
Radical Islam: Use a mix of covert operations, drone strikes, and infiltration of radical Islamic groups to destroy them. The Muslim ban is stupid primarily because it converts swing Muslims in the Middle East and elsewhere from turning on the Mullahs and the radicals and deprives us of assets that would help us defeat the radicals. Eventually force the Muslim world to embrace a secular revolution that divorces power from the Mullahs in society and puts the Middle East on a road to peace and secular growth.
Israel: Avowedly pro-Israel. She is our main Middle East ally and must remain so. We must defend Israel at all costs from her Arabic neighbors, who would like to see her wiped out.
Immigration: All illegal immigrants in the country should be deported if they came after 2017. However, all prior illegal immigrants should have a pathway to citizenship provided they learn English and pay fines. e-Verify should be the standard for all businesses. No welfare benefits to illegal immigrants or education benefits. Expand legal quotas and require that all immigrants coming to the United States have a college education or some sort of essential skills.
Iran: Support the deal on Iran on the grounds that it removes an enemy of the United States from the table and frees our hands in the Middle East.

Environment

Climate Change: It is real and we need to impose a revenue-neutral carbon tax (that would return all revenues to small businesses and taxpayers).
EPA: Maintain strong support for the EPA. Our planet is our future and we need to balance growth with environmental protection, but let's not hesitate to challenge corporate polluters and stand up to them.

Healthcare

ObamaCare: HP law but maintain it on the books. Limit the Medicare expansion. Enact sweeping changes to healthcare law that would lower costs while expanding the pool of covered people. Limit subsidies to those who maintain a healthy BMI and don't smoke.
Drug patents: Consider broad patents of 10 years and then allow them to become considered generic. End re-buying of patents to hike drug prices. Allow drug importation from Canada.

Political

Gerrymandering: Let it continue. It's a practice as old as the Republic and we will be fine if state legislatures and governors - elected representatives - dictate the lines.
Campaign Finance Reform: No limits - but likewise, no 503(c) groups and no advocacy groups that hide donors. All donors must be disclosed, and no soft money in politics. No donations from unions and corporations allowed. All donations must be individual - based.
Term Limits: As Mitch McConnell said, we have them. They're called elections.
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Virginiá
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« Reply #1188 on: February 23, 2017, 02:37:29 PM »
« Edited: February 23, 2017, 02:45:13 PM by Virginia »

Gerrymandering: Let it continue. It's a practice as old as the Republic and we will be fine if state legislatures and governors - elected representatives - dictate the lines.

Why though? Just because it is old doesn't make it right. The fact that it helps politicians stay in power is why it has gone on for so long - it is incredibly difficult to get someone to vote for something that may cost them their job, or their ability to push their agenda via party majorities.

If it is about elected officials - you can still mandate bipartisan commissions made of legislators that have rules prohibiting partisan/incumbent gerrymandering. Yes, the maps can still end up skewed one way or another, but it can be reduced and open to litigation if the commission ignores the rules. The absurdity of what is going on now, aided by technology and tons of data on voting patterns makes gerrymandering far too damaging to be ignored any longer.

Look at the North Carolina delegation - 10-3 Republican. In a state that only leans Republican and is highly polarized. There is no way that delegation represents NC as a whole. It represents one party at the expense of the other because that one party got to draw the lines, and because of that, those 10 seats are largely noncompetitive in all but a good-sized backlash against the GOP.
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Lexii, harbinger of chaos and sexual anarchy
Alex
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« Reply #1189 on: February 23, 2017, 03:43:22 PM »
« Edited: February 23, 2017, 05:15:33 PM by Alex »

Ideology

Social: Progressive/Civil Libertarian
Economic: Center-left
Foreign: Between idealist and wilsonian
Registration: None

Social

Abortion/Reproductive Rights: Moderate,but pragmatically pro-choice
Marriage Equality: Strong support
Death Penalty: Strongly oppose in all cases
Religious Freedom: I don't have a problem with differentiating legally between essential and non-essential gooda and services (not that I support them in practice) to
Drug Legalization: Strongly in favor of legalizing it for both medical and recreational usage. Likewise favor LSD legalized and all classes of soft and medium drugs being decriminalized or legalized. I support an Uruguay or Colorado-like system, but allowing drugs from other origins.
Guns: Oppose the assault weapons ban, Support background checks. I don't care about concealed carry
Euthanasia: I am for euthanasia and assisted suicide.
Black Lives Matter/Police/Criminal Justice Reform: Strong support
Transgender Issues:I think anyone should go to whatever bathroom they choose, the government should work on insertion and suicide prevention peograms
Sex Education: I strongly support sex education in schools, starting from the last years of elementary school
Education: Strong supporter of public education, state-funded public university
Prostitutioj: legalized and regulated
Judges: supporter of a living Constitution,.

ies.

Environment

Climate Change: It is real, but the costs of reducing it are staggeringly high, and probably prohibitively so.
EPA: Probably does too much, but environmental protection on a Federal level is probably warranted, especially if it affects interstate issues. Not a fan of pollution from fracking chemicals.
Healthcare




Political

Gerrymandering:  Independent Commission
Campaign Finance Reform: No limits, but enforced transparency on large donationd
Term Limits: I support term limits, but you can ran again after one election
NATO: Opposed
Israel: America should be opposed to or critical of Israel's most radical measures, and should work with Palestine to guarantee a state of law and transparency
Immigration: As close as you can get to open borders while still maintaining proper vetting, easy legal way to citizenship, maintaining b birthright citizenship, no quotas, no immigration or travel bans, no deportation for crimes
Iran: Support the deal on Iran, but it's still a bad deal

Environment

Climate Change: It is real, and the US should do everything it can to avoid it getting even worse, by participating in international deals (Tokyo, Paris), subsidizing sustainable energy sources, and slowly de-subsidizing oil, gas and coal
EPA: it needs to be a very strong, and independent, agenxy

Healthcare

ObamaCare: It's very than the previous system but it's still awful. I support a public free-for-all healthcare system, with private competition

Medical Drugs: Patents should be significantly shorter, smaller companies should be able to lease these parents. And parents shouldn't matter in case of a real emergency/epidemic.
I support importing drugs from other countries and some drugs should be subsidized by the healthcare system
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The_Doctor
SilentCal1924
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« Reply #1190 on: February 23, 2017, 04:01:20 PM »

Gerrymandering: Let it continue. It's a practice as old as the Republic and we will be fine if state legislatures and governors - elected representatives - dictate the lines.

Why though? Just because it is old doesn't make it right. The fact that it helps politicians stay in power is why it has gone on for so long - it is incredibly difficult to get someone to vote for something that may cost them their job, or their ability to push their agenda via party majorities.

If it is about elected officials - you can still mandate bipartisan commissions made of legislators that have rules prohibiting partisan/incumbent gerrymandering. Yes, the maps can still end up skewed one way or another, but it can be reduced and open to litigation if the commission ignores the rules. The absurdity of what is going on now, aided by technology and tons of data on voting patterns makes gerrymandering far too damaging to be ignored any longer.

Look at the North Carolina delegation - 10-3 Republican. In a state that only leans Republican and is highly polarized. There is no way that delegation represents NC as a whole. It represents one party at the expense of the other because that one party got to draw the lines, and because of that, those 10 seats are largely noncompetitive in all but a good-sized backlash against the GOP.

I don't want to clutter this thread so I'll put up a new thread answering this later in this forum. Smiley
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Blackacre
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« Reply #1191 on: February 23, 2017, 04:44:29 PM »

Stole the format from TD, though with some alterations to the topics, and a ton of alterations to the answers

Ideology

General: Liberal in the mould of Hillary Clinton
Social: Liberal, though not at full SJW level
Economic: Slightly to the right of Bernie Sanders
Foreign: Diplomacy enthusiast
Registration: Democrat

Social

Abortion/Reproductive Rights: Pro-choice. Abortion should be safe, legal, easily accessible in all parts of the country, and rare. I favour increased access to contraceptives and other policies that would reduce the abortion rate without denying access to anybody. Also I am very pro-PP
Marriage Equality/LGBTQ Issues: Pro-SSM, Pro-LGBTQ rights, pro-laws that would forbid an employer from discriminating against LGBTQ employees, against "Bathroom Bills" and for increased access to resources to help trans people transition if they so choose.
Death Penalty: Appose, on the grounds that there's always the possibility for DNA evidence to exonerate somebody already convicted, and you can't exonerate a dead person. Also, for heinous crimes, I think life in prison is both crueler and cheaper.
Religious Freedom: This country is for people of all faiths and for people of no faith. Any effort to put laws on the books that favor one religion over another, in any way, is unacceptable. I'm also against the idea of using religion as a shield against beneficial laws. FWIW, I'm Jewish.
Drug Legalization: Weed should be legal for medical and for recreational use in all 50 states, and people incarcerated over weed charges should be freed. For other drugs, in general I think treating drugs as a public health problem rather than a criminal one is best for society, but also people who sell drugs like cocaine and heroin should be punished.
Guns: Oppose concealed carry, support gun-free zones. My ideal gun law would tax ammo and implement a very strict background checks program, but otherwise leave most firearms unbanned. So I'm against an assault weapons ban. 
Euthanasia: I am for euthanasia and assisted suicide as an individual right. (TD's words but I agree with him)
Black Lives Matter/Police/Criminal Justice Reform: Criminal justice reform is essential. Systems of mass incarceration for low-level offenses, the school-to-prison pipeline, mandatory minimums, private prisons, all those things are HP and, in practice, very racist. Basically I agree with John Oliver every time he talks about the criminal justice system. I sympathise with BLM, and I believe in police accountability, including body cameras and an independent system to hold police accountable. I also oppose stand your ground laws.
Transgender Issues: I strongly believe that trans people have the right to enter the bathrooms/locker rooms of the gender matching their identity and that transphobia be condemned. (also TD's words, also we are in agreement)
Sex Education: I support comprehensive sex education, and it should start in middle school, but we need to make absolute sure that it's handled well by the schools. Abstinence-only is not acceptable.
Education: Our school system is a hot mess, incredibly antiquated, and it'll be very difficult to reform, but it needs to be done. Administrators tend to be terrible, many systems aren't designed around modern-day students, (like high school starting at 7:30 AM) and the current system overall is really good at teaching kids to hate themselves and take tests, but not much else. Charter schools are a cool idea as a laboratory for alternate models for education, but are prone to mismanagement, and when a charter finds a really good structure for teaching kids then public schools should take it and run.
Affirmative Action: In a perfect world we wouldn't need this, but at the moment we do because of systems of inequality. Maybe one day we'll phase this out when it becomes an antiquated solution, but for now it's kind of necessary, as much as I don't like it.
Judges: I support the living document interpretation of the constitution. Our laws and documents should be interpreted in ways that are relevant to a society beyond the imagination of the founders.

Economic/Spending

Taxes and Spending: I'm a Keynesian at heart, meaning that I think spending should be up when the economy's in trouble and down when it isn't. Kind of a "tax and spend" liberal when the times call for it. All tax systems should be progressive, the rich need to pay their fair share, (I support a top tax rate of 45-50% for income over $500k) and current corporate loopholes that allow the richest to stash their money to get out of being taxed need to be closed. Also, the IRS should do people's taxes for them (with an opt-out system ofc) to make it more painless and pennies need to go.
Social Security/Medicare: End the tax loophole that allows income over $110k to avoid being taxed when it comes to social security. Keep medicare.
Infrastructure: This should be our next big stimulus. Repair roads/bridges/dams/highways, and then create a national high speed rail/bullet train service. This would bind the country together in a polarising time, potentially cause urbanisation to affect places outside the coasts, and create all kinds of economic growth, both in creating jobs building the thing and because it makes travel much, much easier.
Defense Spending: Limit defense spending to what we need to maintain America's hegemony.  Don't overspend, if we can help it. Cut down independent contracting in the defense industry. (TD's words, but I agree)
Minimum Wage: Set the national min wage to roughly $9-10/hr and then tie the min wage to inflation or the cost of living. The idea is that a 40 hr work week should be enough to clear the poverty line, at the very least. However, the Fight for 15 is best off limited to cities and wealthier states, because the cost of living is higher there.
Labor Unions: I love them with all my heart. Repeal RTW, repeal Taft-Hartley, create a national right to organise.
Financial Regulation: Support reinstating Glass-Stegall, support Dodd-Frank. The financial sector cannot get away with murder.

Foreign Policy

Russia/NATO: VERY pro-Nato, anti-Russia. I generally hate Autocracies, and Putin is among the worst of them. Weakening NATO is terrifying
Radical Islam: Don't use that phrase. It conflates the terrorism we're fighting and Islam as a religion, which are not the same thing. Calling it Radical Islam plays into the hands of ISIS and makes Muslim Americans uneasy; we cannot do this. Having said that, terrorist groups and repressive societies that wear the face of Islam are reprehensible; while I opposed the Iraq War I reluctantly support Drone Strikes as long as they don't kill innocents, and I support fighting ISIS. The Muslim ban was a terrible, terrible thing because it conflates Islam and Terrorism.
Israel: Israel is the Problematic Best Friend of the US. We should acknowledge the questionable actions it's taken, and push it to be better, (possible including a two-state solution or political reforms that make Israel work for both its Jews and Muslims) but at the end of the day, the world is better with Israel than without it, and we must protect it.
Immigration: I favour opening up immigration laws to allow more immigrants, and giving all undocumented immigrants living in the United States (except those who have committed a felony) a path to citizenship. Give instant citizenship to DREAMers. Border walls don't work so we shouldn't do them.
Iran: Support the deal on Iran on the grounds that it removes an enemy of the United States from the table and frees our hands in the Middle East. (again, TD's words and I agree with him)

Environment

Climate Change: It is real and we need to impose a revenue-neutral carbon tax (that would return all revenues to small businesses and taxpayers). (TD's words, I agree) But in addition to that we should invest heavily in solar and wind power, abide by the Paris agreement, and aim to eventually phase out fossil fuels.
EPA: Maintain strong support for the EPA. Our planet is our future and we need to balance growth with environmental protection, but let's not hesitate to challenge corporate polluters and stand up to them. (TD's words, but we agree)

Healthcare

ObamaCare: Keep it on, actually, expand it, make the medicaid expansion mandatory, set up exchanges in all 50 states, and add the public option. Single-payer is fantastic but the ACA with a public option is basically single-payer but with added bells and whistles.

Political

Gerrymandering: End that crap NOW. Either create a national redistricting commission tasked with creating as many swing districts as possible or implement STV. Also the Senate should be proportional.
Electoral College: I support the Interstate Compact.
Statehood: Should be given to DC and Puerto Rico.
Campaign Finance Reform: Return to where we were before Citizens United.
Term Limits: For Presidents only.
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Santander
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« Reply #1192 on: February 23, 2017, 04:45:34 PM »

About time for me to do another one of these.

Ideology
Social: Conservative
Economic: Liberal (as in freedom), with a populist streak
Foreign Policy: Western chauvinist and Zionist
Registration: Republican, but Democrat at heart

Social Policy
Abortion: Oppose, with exceptions for rape, incest, life of the mother, and for Jews; criminalize sex-selective abortion and punish the mother and/or father
Same-Sex Marriage: Oppose, but accept the law of the land
Religious Liberty: Strongly support, but I do not consider requiring bakers to bake cakes for same-sex wedding receptions to be a violation of religious liberty
Drugs: Strongly oppose drug legalization, increase criminal penalties for using soft drugs
Death Penalty: Support for military use and for terrorists
Gun Control: Background checks are fine, but the Second Amendment must be protected
Affirmative Action: Criminalize all diversity programs
Prostitution: Strongly oppose
Euthanasia: Strongly oppose, make it illegal to seek or aid someone in seeking euthanasia overseas, and charge anyone involved with murder
Immigration: Deport all illegal immigrants discovered by DHS through the course of their regular duties, end family immigration for all except spouse and dependent children, tighten quotas on immigration from non-Western countries
Transgender Issues: Let private businesses determine their own bathroom access rules, oppose recognizing self-identified gender on government documents that list sex, oppose bullying (sane)

Economic Issues
Minimum Wage: Ideally, it would be abolished, but indexing the current one to inflation would help put the issue to bed; the idea of a minimum "living wage" is abhorrent
Welfare: Abolish SNAP, Section 8, EITC, SSI and similar state-level programs; streamline TANF or abolish and move to a universal income supplement, perhaps administered through the tax system
Social Security: Transition to mandated individual savings with income supplements for financially distressed seniors
Healthcare: Repeal Obamacare and move to a market-based health system based on transparent pricing and cash payments for services; keep Medicaid for low-income Americans
Trade: Support free trade with friendly countries that we share cultural/moral values with such as most countries in the Americas and Europe, oppose anything even approaching free trade with hostile nations such as Vietnam or China
Deficit/Debt: Reduce the scope of government first, then we can talk about the bottom line
Campaign Finance: The status quo is fine
Unions: Support, abolish right-to-work nationwide, and encourage average workers to become more involved with their unions to reduce the influence of hardline activists in organized labor
Energy: All of the above policy - let the market sort it out
Job Creation: Government doesn't create jobs, and working is a lifestyle choice
Education: Generally oppose vouchers (support for practicing Jews and Catholics to attend private religious schools) and homeschooling, restore prayer and nativity plays in public schools, strongly emphasize cultural education, make basic education only compulsory until age 12
Higher Education: Greatly reduce government loan/grant programs to deflate the education bubble, end government funds going to proprietary schools, regulate the word "university" in every state
Taxes: Moderately progressive or flat individual income tax and abolish worldwide taxation; abolish all deductions except for charitable giving including the education and mortgage interest deductions; abolish carried interest; reduce the corporate tax and switch to territorial taxation; abolish FICA (since SS and Medicare will be abolished/reformed); index federal excise taxes to inflation

Foreign
ISIS: Work with Russia and make the sand glow
Russia: Improve relations with Russia to defend Christendom from external threats, but make it clear we stand with NATO allies
China: Remove diplomatic recognition and recognize Taiwan until the CPC is removed from power and every single member of its leadership is executed
Cuba: Treat them like any other country that the US imposes sanctions on
Iran: Prevent them from getting a nuclear weapon at all costs
Israel/Palestine: Stand unapologetically with Israel and support a one-state solution with Israel remaining a Jewish state with Jerusalem as its eternal and undivided capital; move the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem
Syria/Refugees: Accept Christian refugees only, help non-Christian refugees settle in culturally compatible countries
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Eharding
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« Reply #1193 on: February 23, 2017, 04:57:16 PM »
« Edited: February 23, 2017, 05:14:14 PM by Eharding »

Ideology

Social: Libertarian/Right
Economic: Near far right
Foreign: generally non-interventionist

Social

Abortion/Reproductive Rights: Favor the Hyde Amendment, but don't have any specific abortion stance. Don't really care about the fate of the fetus. Roe should be overturned, as it's a perversion of the Constitution.
Marriage Equality/LGBTQ Issues: I think same-sex marriage is bad. Not supportive of LGBTQ "rights". I strongly support the NC transgender law, think the Indiana RFR law is too weak.
Death Penalty: Strongly favor the death penalty upon DNA confirmation or absolute confirmation of a crime.  
Religious Freedom: Strong supporter of religious freedoms for all faiths and those with no faith belief at all. Favor religious liberty laws for bakers and other businesses. Also strongly support separation of religion and state.
Drug Legalization: Weakly in favor of legalizing it for both medical and (more tepidly) recreational usage. Likewise favor LSD legalized.
Guns: Oppose the assault weapons ban. Also support concealed carry. Support background checks. Like abortion, this is not a huge issue for me.
Euthanasia: I am for euthanasia and assisted suicide as an individual right.
Black Lives Matter/Police/Criminal Justice Reform: Both police unions and #BlackLivesMatter are generally horrible movements. Abusive police officers are treated too leniently in this country, and so are Black criminals (and some White ones).
Transgender Issues: LOLNo.
Sex Education: I oppose sex education in schools.
Prostitution: I support legalization.
Education: I favor vastly expanding the power of the Department of Education to set curriculum over the states in a spirit of national equity so long as it exists, but preferably eliminating it, as it's a wasteful big government program. I support cutting funding for lower education and raising it for higher education. Teacher salaries are fine where they are; arguments can be made for cutting them to save money or raising them to attract talent. However, I think the only legitimate argument to be made for free government-run schools is to encourage childbearing.
Affirmative Action: Opposed to it, completely. Either class-based, or merit.
Judges: Favor constructionist judges sitting on the Supreme Court and in the lower judiciary, that interpret the Constitution based on original intent, not a "living Constitution" text.
PATRIOT Act: Strongly opposed. Abolish all unconstitutional mass surveillance.
Indian policy: Abolish the reservations and tribal governments; nobody else has them. Treat Native Americans just like anyone else.

Economic/Spending

Taxes: I support completely eliminating the capital gains tax. Taxes should be cut overall, with a greater share of taxes being exacted from wages.
Trade: Unapologetic free trader, in favor of NAFTA, but not CAFTA or TPP, and want a global market free from subsidies, quotas, and restrictions on trade. Oppose, of course, all subsidies, restrictions on trade, imports taxes, etc. However, this is hardly my biggest issue.
Social Security/Medicare: Significantly overhaul and limit benefits to the truly indigent and needy who need healthcare coverage and disability and other benefits to survive in old age. Didn't like their creation and believe we have a vastly expansive welfare state that needs curtailing.
Budgets: Hold spending down alongside tax reform to gradually enact real spending reforms that allow us to balance our budget. A BBA is unfeasible, but in general, our spending should be slowly curtailed. The House approach to cutting spending is weak and does not go anywhere near far enough.
Defense Spending: Cut it by 90%.
Minimum Wage: Oppose entirely.
Labor Unions: Not a fan. End collective bargaining for public sector unions and support RTW states.
Financial Regulation: I oppose Dodd-Frank. Otherwise, don't know enough to comment.
Welfare: Support benefit cuts. Opposed to universal basic income due to revenue collection issues.

Foreign Policy

Russia/NATO: Completely, unapologetically, and vehemently pro-Russia. Moscow is the most moral major power in the world and we should accept all its acts in Ukraine, Georgia, and Syria, and completely eliminate post-2013 sanctions on Moscow. The eventual goal is a multipolar world. I also strongly favor abolishing NATO due to its terrorist nature.
Radical Islam: A temporary shutdown on Muslims entering the United States is more than warranted. Trump's ban does not go far enough. There are simply too many Muslim terrorist attacks in the U.S. Support defeating ISIS by all serious partners. Turkey is not a serious partner, and nuking Turkey for its support of terrorist activity should definitely be on the table. At the very least, an ouster of Erdogan is warranted.
Israel: America should emulate it, but not become its puppet and servant.
Immigration: All illegal immigrants in the country should be deported, including DACA beneficiaries. No welfare benefits to illegal immigrants or education benefits. Expand legal quotas and require that all immigrants coming to the United States have a college education or some sort of essential skills. Legal immigrants should also be barred from welfare. A return to the national origins quota system is suboptimal, but superior to the current system.
Iran: Support the deal on Iran on the grounds Iran has been so mistreated by the United States over the course of these many decades. Iran has no intention to acquire a nuclear weapon, and it really doesn't matter if it does.
Foreign Aid: Eliminate all foreign aid to Ukraine and Mexico, as well as various other loser countries. Maybe also cut it to some winner countries, like Israel, who are ripping us off so badly.
Cuba: Support normalized relations here.
China: The two-China policy should be on the table. U.S. should build its own islands in the South China Sea and not recognize China's completely improper claims to it.

Environment

Climate Change: It is real, but the costs of reducing it are staggeringly high, and probably prohibitively so.
EPA: Probably does too much, but environmental protection on a Federal level is probably warranted, especially if it affects interstate issues. Not a fan of pollution from fracking chemicals.
Healthcare

ObamaCare: HP law. Eliminate it and replace it with something very terrific. Limit the Medicare expansion, get rid of the pre-existing condition and individual mandates, as well as most, if not all, of the other mandates. Enact sweeping changes to healthcare law that would lower costs while expanding the pool of people who pay out of pocket.
Drug patents: Consider broad patents of 10 years (if that many; patents should be limited in length to the minimum proper to spur innovation) and then allow them to become considered generic, if necessary to spur innovation. Allow drug importation from Canada.

Political

Gerrymandering: Let it continue. It's a practice as old as the Republic and we will be fine if state legislatures and governors - elected representatives - dictate the lines. Proportional representation is a freedom idea.
Campaign Finance Reform: No limits.
Term Limits: Strongly support Ted Cruz's term limits amendment. Necessary to drain the swamp of people like John McCain and Sheldon Silver.
Automatic Registration: Nay
Early Voting: Much as we love it in North Carolina for the data it gives, I am opposed on principle.
Primaries: Shorten schedule to one month, with Iowa going the first week, New Hampshire the second, South Carolina the third, and the rest of the country fourth. Convention happens the following month. Support states deciding their own delegate allocation rules, but like the simplicity of Winner-Take-All.
Puerto Rican and DC Statehood: I'd sooner support annexing British Columbia and Baja California. So, LOLNo.
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parochial boy
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« Reply #1194 on: February 23, 2017, 05:10:48 PM »

The problem with a "summary of political beliefs" is that there is a difference between what I think is politically realistic, and what I actually think would be the ideal way of running things.

For instance, I would quite hapilly abolish the concept of private property, but in practice, that isn't something that is realistic - so I go for nationalisation of key industries, universal basic income, worker councils and things like that.
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heatcharger
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« Reply #1195 on: February 26, 2017, 01:12:41 AM »

Mine is kinda long so I'll break it into three parts...
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« Reply #1196 on: February 26, 2017, 01:56:37 AM »
« Edited: February 26, 2017, 04:11:25 AM by Old School Republican »

Economic Issues: Solidly Conservative


Taxes:

- Support cutting income tax massively and would bring the overall code down to 0,10,20,30 percent.
- Support cutting corporate tax rate down to 25%
- Support Raising capital gains taxes to 27.5%
- Oppose carbon taxes at federal level, would support at state level if income taxes are cut by same amount
- Oppose of shore tax havens and would require them to be disclosed
- Oppose sales tax
- Support cutting property tax rate by 50%


Regulations:

-Support creating an independent advisory board to do a cost/benefit analysis on every new regulation proposed  and  require all regulations proposed to be approved by the board or the house only after that cost benefit analysis is released publicly .

- Support massively  cutting regulations on small business

- Support reinstating Glass Stegall

- Support moderately cutting regulations on other businesses

Minimum Wage:

- Support raising min wage to 10.50 an hour and indexing to inflation
-Oppose totally 15 dollar wage


Healthcare:

- Allowing insurance to be sold across state lines
- Allowing medicine to be imported from Canada

Social Security:

- Support Raising retirement age to 68

Welfare Benefits:
 
- Support transitioning welfare to workfare(though basic benefits such as food stamps will still be provided like now without work requirement but others will require it)

- If you do not want to work you will have to do a job training program to get welfare

- Welfare money cant be spent on drugs/alcohol

Budget

-Support across the board spending cuts on everything expect VA benefits and infrastructure  

- Support a Balanced Budget Amendment except in times of recession and war

- Support auditing any department what receives more then 50 billion in the federal budget

- Support cutting all pork-barrell spending from the Budget

- would expand reagan mexico city policy too all international non profit organizations


Labor:

-Support Right to Work Laws
- Support Taft Hartley
- Believe striking against public safety should be illegal
- Support 8 hour work day, banning child labor , work safety regulations
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crazy jimmie
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« Reply #1197 on: February 26, 2017, 07:26:48 AM »
« Edited: February 26, 2017, 07:33:20 AM by Jimmie »

Abortion: From a policy perspective abortion needs to remain legal. Sorry guys, hangers are to hang clothes up with not to perform medical procedures.

Same-Sex Marriage: Strongly support. At first I was for civil unions until people are okay with gay marriage Hehe.

Drugs: Marijuana should be legalized for sure and perhaps most drugs. I am not a huge fan of government intervention in these issues as it is pointless and a strain on law enforcement. However I do support punishments on use of drugs if they contributed to an accident or crime. That would place Alcohol on par with weed.

Death Penalty: Opposed except in the most egregious circumstances. Seems barbaric.

Gun Control:  It is an issue that is unwinnable. It is not like everyone will just turn their guns in just because they are made illegal. Plus the Second Amendment protects our gun rights.

Affirmative Action: Unfortunately it is a necessary evil.

Immigration: A nation does have a right to restrict who can and can not come into their country. However immigration is a plus for our nation, not a minus. While we advertise ourselves as the nation of opportunity I am not fight against illegal immigration. If your car breaks down in the middle of the night a Mexican is likely to be the one who comes to fix your car. Plus Muslim immigrants and refugees are trying to escape terrorism not bring it with them.

Minimum Wage: I am opposed to a federal minimum wage. Circumstances and cost of living vary wildly throughout the United States, though I could be talked into a 10.00 per hour minimum wage nationally. A 15/20 dollar per hour minimum wage could create economic chaos in the rural Midwest.

Welfare: Very few people actually oppose all welfare. Even if the right can make compelling arguments against welfare programs, we can not be a developed nation without them. There are people on hard luck, have mental illnesses, or unskilled due to circumstances beyond their control.

Healthcare: No ObamaCare. We must have medicare for all. It is the only practical solution and replacement to ObamaCare.

Trade: Yea yea yea, I concede it is true that trade agreements like NAFTA have accelerated job losses in the Rust Belt. That contributed to Donald Trump's victory. But here is the kicker, dismantling all free trade agreements will not bring those unskilled high paying jobs back. We must embrace the new economy. I am not a Luddite so I strongly believe new positions will be created and some positions that can be automated are not practical to automate. Free trade has helped keep inflation and our cost of living low.

Deficit/Debt: Deficit spending is good in a recession of course. We must close most tax loop holes to contribute to keeping our national debt from getting out of control. National debt is not necessarily bad but it is bad when it exceeds GPD and you are borrowing from social security.

Unions: We must gut all public sector unions. I am okay with unions in the private sector.

Energy: Sorry coal boys, green energy is the future. I am not one to want to end all fossil fuel usage over night but for the sake of our climate we must transition to green energy. I do not know if conservatives get high off coal or gasoline but we need to embrace the future not the past.

Taxes: I mirror Mitt Romney. Keep the rates lower but close most of the deductions and loop holes.

Foreign Policy tl;dr DOVE. Bush is the reason why I usually vote Democratic.
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heatcharger
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« Reply #1198 on: February 26, 2017, 11:49:41 AM »
« Edited: February 26, 2017, 12:11:41 PM by heatcharger »

Following SATW's format:

Economic Issues: Fiscal Liberal/Economic Neoliberal/Political Pragmatist
Taxes:
- In favor of a more progressive tax policy with higher tax brackets, but not across the board increases.
- In favor of increasing the estate tax from 40% to 45%.
- In favor of implementing a carbon tax and other sin/luxury taxes.

Healthcare:
- Support the Affordable Care Act
- In favor of a public insurance option.
- Supporting raising the Medicare age to 67 and implementing necessary reforms to save the program.
- Support minor to modest cuts in Medicare, if needed, but opposed to Ryan-esque measures.

Social Security:
- Supporting raising the retirement age to either 67 or 69.
- Support a partial privatization at a very modest rate.

Minimum Wage:
- Oppose granting a $15 minimum wage.
- Support a federal minimum wage indexed to inflation yearly to end this matter for good hopefully. States would still have the ability to increase their minimum wage if they feel necessary.

Welfare and Unemployment Benefits:
- Support the current state of welfare.
- Interested in the idea of a universal basic income, but needs more time to become politically salient.

Education:
- Strongly against voucher programs.
- Strongly in favor of universal pre-K education. Not only is early education vital for the development of kids of all socioeconomic backgrounds, but parents who work have one less thing to worry about, which can be a godsend for many.
- Strongly support after-school programs.
- Somewhat opposed to teacher's unions. There's a little too much room for foul play.
- Support raising teacher's salaries via federal or state funding. Teachers play a pivotal role in making sure our young people are ready adults.
- Support Common Core standards, but some measures need to be tweaked.
- Skeptical of charter schools and mostly against, but see the value of some of them especially in inner cities where public schools are neglected.
- Opposed to the idea of free college, but support initatives seeking to reduce the student debt burden (basically Hillary Clinton's plan).
- In favor of making community college tuition-free.

Free Trade:
- Strong supporter of free trade policies and oppose protectionism. "Buy American, Hire American" would hurt the middle-class the most, as they spend a larger proportion of their income on consumer goods.
- Strong supporter of NAFTA and TPP.
- Support job retraining programs for former manufacturing workers and others affected by globalization, and these programs should be funded both through federal funding and by private companies who would be given incentives to do so. However, this is ultimately a futile endeavor in the long-run. This is why a UBI may eventually become necessary.
- Want to make sure that the United States stays the dominant trade superpower in the world. By leaving the TPP, we are allowing China to gain foothold in global trade and potentially surpass us.

Immigration:
- Amnesty should be given to undocumented immigrants already living in the United States.
- Support a less draconian e-Verify system.
- Against a stupid and wasteful border wall.
- Support deporting illegal immigrants who commit violent crimes.
- Support the DREAM Act.
- Support slight tweaks to the VISA system.
- Opposed to an unconstitutional Muslim ban.
- Understand that we already have extreme vetting for immigrants and refugees.

Deficits and Budgets:
- Balancing the budget should be a goal, but not a requirement.
- Support cuts to national defense spending.
- Support cuts to Social Security, and Medicare, as reducing the debt is vital if not for the growing interest we pay on it.

Environmental and Energy Issues:
- Support the idea of a carbon tax, although would be fine with cap-and-trade as well. I'm willing to hear the arguments for both, but ultimately I favor a carbon tax more as generating government revenue from this would be a boon.
- Support Obama and his EPA's tyrannical war on coal. The advent of natural gas is the reason coal is dying, not the EPA.
- In favor of phasing out fossil fuel as the main energy source.
- However, I seek American energy independence in the short-term, which is why I'm not completely against the Keystone XL pipeline, mostly for geopolitical reasons in the Middle East.
- In the long-term though, clean energy should take precedence, and am in favor of public funding of solar and wind energy.
- Climate change is obviously real, and the issue of climate refugees, particularly in Bangladesh, Florida, Netherlands, etc., will become a major crisis soon enough. Fighting climate change will require global cooperation, and that starts with maintaining the Paris Agreement.

Other:
- Against auditing the Federal Reserve. Rand Paul and Ted Cruz have no business being involved in that.
- Support reinstating Glass-Steagal. I'm generally in favor of regulating Wall Street but not to a detrimental level.
- Economic populism is a threat, especially when delivered by charlatans like Donald Trump and to a lesser extent, Bernie Sanders.

I'll post social and foreign policy issues later.
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heatcharger
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« Reply #1199 on: February 26, 2017, 12:09:29 PM »

Social Issues: Progressive

Abortion:
- Pro-choice. I probably would be fine with a third-trimester ban, but otherwise, women have the right to do what they want. I don't want mothers raising children when they're miserable doing it.
- Also, whether a fetus is alive or not is all semantics. Women will get abortions anyway, so let's work to make sure they're safe.
- Support maintaining Planned Parenthood.
- Support repealing the Hyde Amendment.
- Opposed to how Republicans use abortion as a wedge issue. I'm also fine with personally-pro-life politicians but not if they actively make it harder for women to get abortions.

LGBT Equality:
- Tolerant of same-sex marriage.
- Support the ENDA.
- Highly skeptical of transgenderism and believe there is no such thing as gender fluidity, but ultimately, "bathroom" laws are a giant smokescreen by Republicans to distract from things that actually matter, and so people should use whatever bathroom they are comfortable with. However, I have many concerns about the logistical problems that arise by allowing people to identify with either gender.

Drugs:
- The War on Drugs has been a failure, unless of course, the goal is to incarcerate more minorities.
- Marijuana should be rescheduled and made no longer a federal crime whether it be the use of or distribution of the plant.
- Support the legalization of medicinal marijuana and support the further research of the drug.

Voter ID Laws:
- Against voter ID laws simply because it's a waste of time and money. Voter fraud is not a real problem.

Gerrymandering:
- Support switching to a parliamentary system with proportional representation. Geographic representation was an issue in 1789, but in our highly interconnected world, politics is not that local anymore.
- More realistically, I support switching to nonpartisan, software-generated districts based on average distance to the center of their district. Basically this guy's proposal.

Congressional Term Limits:
- I'd be fine with a 4-term limit on Senators and a 12-term limit on Congressmen just to get fresh blood.

2nd Amendment:
- In favor of universal background checks.
- Support bans on suspects listed on a terror watch list.
- Support an assault weapons ban.
- Opposed to how Republicans use guns as a wedge issue. The NRA has way too much influence. However, Democrats should be a little more ambivalent on this because there are many people who agree with their policies except for the rhetoric on guns.


Vaccines:
- Anti-vaxxers are a threat to society.

Death Penalty:
- Support the death penalty in only the most severe cases.

Law and Order Issues/National Security:
- Strongly opposed to stop-and-frisk.
- NSA does some good things and doesn't get any credit for it, but they should attempt to be a little more transparent although not to a fault.
- Police need new hiring protocols to weed out bad apples.
- Support body cameras.
- Support ending for-profit policing.
- Strongly against private prisons.
- Support our nation's law enforcement, but not when they are actively breaking down communities. However, people need to learn to respect the rule of law, and when injustices are committed, they should work within the system to prevent further incidents.

Affirmative Action:
- Could use modifications, but still a good policy on balance.

Civil Rights Issues:
- Black lives matter. Whether the movement is an annoyance or not, the message should be universally supported.

Freedom of Speech and Political Correctness:
- Political correctness is a made-up issue.
- Don't care if anyone burns the flag because it doesn't matter.
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