Summarize Previous Poster's Political Beliefs

[Oakvale]

Like all decent worldviews, Hash's politics are defined largely by opposition to things - Stephen Harper, Mitt Romney, "small government" trolls, Ron Paul, and those who dare to criticise President-elect Enrique Peña Nieto. Less informed members would doubtless leap to the conclusion that he's a social democrat of some stripe, which I don't think is really true.

To the extent that you can place anyone on an arbitrary political spectrum I'd say he's (groan) economically centrist and socially liberal (I can't believe I just unironically used those phrases) - witness his contempt for the NDP and dogged supported for the embattled Liberals. The real question is whether Hash's apparent cynicism is just that, or a symptom of a greater idealism. I'm not sure. Either way, one of our most valuable posters and best members of the forum by a long shot.

[Oakvale]

Oakvale's got a bit of mystique when it comes to his politics. His economic score certainly is not very reflective of his views, as he is a lot more left wing from what i've seen. His social score seems to imply social libertarianism, but not to the extent that he actually is. All in all, a very standard left winger.

This piqued my interest, since as I recall my PM score's relative moderation was caused by me not clicking any of those "this is a critical issue" boxes. I just re-took it -

Economic score: -1.81
Social score: -4.52

Not a huge difference, but seems more on target.

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[Oakvale]

I'll resist the temptation to go "New Democrat lol!!1", although it's handy shorthand. Scott's certainly fairly moderate on economic matters compared to our average red avatar poster, but he's actually pretty mainstream for the Democratic Party in the real world - note his support of Andrew Cuomo and Bill Clinton, for example. It's worth noting that although he's a Christian he doesn't care much about what Anthony Weiner or Bill Clinton do in their personal lives, and is nonetheless a fierce supporter of same-sex marriage.

He has some positions I agree with, and some I don't - most obviously his libertarian tendencies on foreign policy, and to a lesser extent social policy, too. If he were an elected official he'd make a good Senator for, well, Connecticut or somewhere.

[Oakvale]

It's hard to separate Cathcon's "real" beliefs from his admittedly somewhat facetious forum persona, although arguably it doesn't really matter. Well, he's certainly Catholic, and certainly conservative. I don't think I'd be amiss to say that Cath sees himself as a proud culture warrior, standing bravely against the tide of moral relativism disguised as "progress".

Strangely enough, he's also a proud cynic, contemptuous of the very people who'd vote for him in an election, and, well, admires Richard Nixon for Watergate. An interesting fellow who I rarely agree with, but enjoy talking to.

[Oakvale]

A liberal from Ireland.

(Not serious, just a running joke on the IRC)

Very good.

[Oakvale]

Interesting fellow. I was going to make the joke of quoting his own description of himself as displayed in his signature, but I'm assuming that's already been done.

Nathan occupies a fairly unique position on the Atlas' ideological map - his fundamentally traditional - not conservative, necessarily, I think there's a difference - outlook forming an interesting contrast with more traditionally liberal posters who might reject the very notion of "family" as being good for society. I get the impression that, above all else, Nathan values family and community as being paramount in a decent society, and his politics seem to reflect that - a Republican candidate for office might describe themselves as supporting "family values", but from what I can tell Nathan might see such a claim as ridiculous considering said Republican may well want to destroy the very social safety net so many families - and communities! - rely upon.

I've said before that if he were an elected politician - well, uh, he is, but y'know what I mean - he'd be Daniel Patrick Moynihan, as one of the few academics to hold a Senate seat. Nathan is Daniel Patrick Moynihan if Senator Moynihan studied Japanese poetry and had a large number of lesbian friends.

While it's unfortunate that he thinks someone being involved in politics at a young age is a positive, I suppose such attitudes can't be helped on a political forum.

Regardless of that upsetting belief, Nathan remains by far one of my favourite posters to read bar none, and one of the (few, I'll admit) whose posts I never scroll past when reading a thread, although if it's on a religious topic I'll inevitably have to look up about eight-hundred words in the process. To use the appropriate Atlas lingo, Nathan is an "FF".

[Oakvale]

Sanchez is young, so his earlier links to white supremacy can arguably be excused, and he's slowly becoming a more standard libertarian - albeit retaining some traces of the paranoia and conspiracy theories that inevitably accompany white supremacist ideology. He distrusts "big government", although these days it's more of a traditional conservative stance than because he thinks the UN are going to his guns. The best way I can describe Sanchez is "evolving".

[Oakvale]

In his own way, Yelnoc is one of the most left-wing people on the forum.

Despite this, everyone still assumes he's a moderate hero of some stripe, probably solely due to the fact that he until recently had an I-GA avatar, which means people assume he's an Evan Bayh fan. While Yelnoc would like to see the capitalist system destroyed and replaced, he's still figuring out the best system with which to replace it - that's probably a good thing, since it means he might avoid falling into Stalinism or something. Within the context of the system as it exists he's left of center, but not ridiculously so, which leads to an interesting contrast - if he accepts the current political and cultural paradigm he's just a left-leaning liberal, if he rejects it he's a... syndicalist? He's an interesting guy, and I enjoy talking to him and losing to him in chess.

[Oakvale]

He's undergone a much-maligned shift from your run-of-the-mill Ron Paul enthusiast teenager - goldbuggery, paranoia and small government! -  to budding Young Republican, with the appropriate slate of standard-issue American conservative stances,  although to be fair he's very young so his ideological identity is in something of a state of flux. His  - commendable, much of the time - enthusiasm often puts us at odds, and his new-found set of Republican values can lead to unfortunate cases of political tin-ear from my perspective - posting a grinning emoticon in the Aurora massacre thread in response to an article stating that support for gun control was shrinking kind of jarred me, for example - but at least he's sincere, something some of us doubted when he first shifted from supporting Paul to Romney.

I will say he's quite certainly the only person in the country that listens to the kind of music he does and hopes Mitt Romney will be the next President.

[Oakvale]

True Leftist (TM) mercifully gifted with self-awareness.

[Oakvale]

Ayy lmao