It's interesting that this thread question has actually bothered me for a few days. I keep trying to think about how to answer it and I honestly don't know how. I support markets and free trade, though I think the tax base should be broad enough to enable federal and local governments to make continuous and intelligent investments in education, health care, infrastructure, public safety and the interior, so as to provide for opportunity and a safety net that benefits everyone, and not just some at the expense of others. I believe in a strong and healthy legal system and that the military should be well-provisioned Thread respected by the citizens, but should be called upon quite sparingly. I believe that individuals should be permitted optimal freedom in pursuing their own happiness, but also that public discourse should pay much attention to the importance of an inclusive national community.
Those are broad principles I hold, and I'm not that interested in finding a label that they add up to. It's all too easy to make a list of these principles; it's the detailed work of solving actual specific problems where life gets both more interesting and more tricky. It's like what Frank McCourt wrote about his first day of grade-school teaching when a kid threw his lunchbox sandwich at another kid and it landed at his own feet at the front of the room--that after four years of English and pedagogy classes at NYU, he suddenly realized that no one had taught him how to handle a flying sandwich situation.
You're a Liberal based off this.
