Summarize Previous Poster's Political Beliefs

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Distinctly and seriously committed to his traditionalist Catholic worldview even in the face of social change; follows the doctrine of Alma Mater Ecclesia faithfully as he sees it, which also means that he's more sympathetic to labor issues and certain kinds of social-justice type arguments than many others of his general political stripe. Always willing to engage and doesn't seem shy about doing work with ideological opponents on matters where common ground exists. Nevertheless he's very socially conservative and shouldn't be mistaken for a moderate on the basis of his approachable tone.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Somewhere between Norm Finkelstein and George Galloway.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

A somewhat traditional, yet fundamentally leftist Democrat. One could say he's "Normal for New England".

Nicely done.

You must be logged in to read this quote.

I'm an academic East Asianist so it's what I spend most of my time on. Naturally it creeps into my interactions with others.

____

A Catholic conservative, one should think. Young and with views very much open to discussion and debate but takes his beliefs seriously and you can tell he's given them some thought. Quite attuned to historical context and history in general.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Very conservative, a little paranoid-seeming at times, very Midwestern. Occasionally hard to talk to but definitely has an internal logic to his worldview. If I were being kind I'd call him romantic, if I were being unkind I'd call him retrograde. Has a somewhat odd view on the basis of the Constitution, as I recall, which involves 'natural law' somehow.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Again, I don't really understand how he considers himself to be traditional(ist?).

Agrarian focus, personal attitudes about things like drugs and (on some axes) sex, distrust of aspects of globalization, and obsession with New England history, mainly. Said Vermont/Western Mass environment is like this; it's fundamentally a traditionally rural-leftist environment with lesbians and New York transplants added.

*skip*

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

I'm not sure where he fits within an Australian context but here he's an affable but fairly firm leftist, who seems, as his avatar would indicate, to have environmentalist sympathies. Sorry I can't elaborate more; I don't know him very well.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Generally reasonable, history-minded (which I can forgive a lot for, although definitely not all, see for instance Niall Ferguson), but fairly strident and not really yet fully developed libertarian. Definitely on the right-libertarian end of the spectrum, and like many Americans who align their politics this way his opinions on some social issues I personally think leave a bit to be desired. Pretty standard libertarian orthodoxy on the economic axis, perhaps more paleoconservative and less neoliberal, as it were. He's young, so he's still developing his worldview and he used to hold some fairly unconscionable positions, which he's smart and honest enough to own up to. Politically active at a young age, which is always a plus (says the person who was the youngest elected official in Massachusetts for a while and so is TOTALLY OBJECTIVE.jpg ).

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Maybe he consoles himself by thinking he's on a higher moral and philosophical ground than those tarnished by modernity - a "Burkean conservative" perhaps?

This sort of thinking seems more Maistrean than Burkean to me, honestly.

*skip*

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Blue Tory with a primary interest in (I think?) fiscal/economic matters. Can come across as a somewhat bloodless or heartless technocrat, like many of this ilk, but I think he does care and he's thoughtful about his positions and preferences, even if from my perspective a lot of his preferred policies are less than helpful.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Formerly a libertarian, now an anarchist of highly liberal and distinctly secularist social leanings.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Formerly a libertarian, now an anarchist of highly liberal and distinctly secularist social leanings.

I'm not a liberal, bro.

I was describing your views on social policy specifically.

*skip*

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Both instinctively and politically conservative in something like the old-style Far Western manner, although he might dispute this and many of his policy prescriptions are quite moderate by the current standards of his party. Somehow I can see him either liking Goldwater very much indeed or being seriously concerned about him in '64. I wouldn't describe him as socially conservative in the traditionalist or religious sense at all, except perhaps for some latent underlying assumptions about the way the world works. Something tells me he might also dispute the term 'libertarian', even though I think to an extent it applies, in a 'moderate' sense.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

So close to a decent amoral hedonistic economic vampirism, but alas marred by an offensive Horatio Alger pretense (or delusion?)

I'm willing to accept 'close to decent' and 'marred', and possibly 'offensive' and 'delusion' according to opinion, but the rest of this sentence is wildly off-base.

*skip*

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

So, who's supposed to be doing whom right now?

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

So close to a decent amoral hedonistic economic vampirism, but alas marred by an offensive Horatio Alger pretense (or delusion?)

I'm willing to accept 'close to decent' and 'marred', and possibly 'offensive' and 'delusion' according to opinion, but the rest of this sentence is wildly off-base.

It was of Torie, obviously, guys.

Oh okay. That makes a bit more sense.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

2010s Republican Party hack with grandiose delusions of being an 1860s Republican Party hack.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Socially Liberal Episcopalian Liberation Theologian

Compared to what, specifically?

For Dr. Cynic: Strongly left-wing Democrat with more than slightly populist, strongly pro-labor tendencies informed by his being from Pittsburgh and both knowledgeable and passionate about his city's and region's culture and history.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Very hawkish, nationalistic Republican, who could be mistaken for a Libertarian on most domestic issues. His preferred point of comparison is, obviously, to Barry Goldwater, and towards the end of Goldwater's career at least it fits pretty well.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Defined more by not being on the left than by being on the right in any active sense. Distinctly culturally liberal.