Where I Stand in the Political Landscape

For a very long time people's political orientation has been placed on a linear spectrum. Are you a liberal? Are you a conservative? Are you Ultra either way? Are you a moderate? How you answer that question determines where on the political spectrum you fall.

However, over the past few decades political experts have created a two axis chart to try to place people in a more accurate category. I've included a simple representation here:

I used this image as it doesn't try to place politicians and other people on a chart. Depending on the organization using something like this, they try to place their favorite person/people in the most flattering place (i.e. as centrist as they can get away with) and people they hate as far to the extremes as they can. So where do I fall on here? Somewhere in the upper right quadrant. Not really sure exactly where, but I can tell you not at the extremes.

Back in college where many people "find themselves" I found that I am neither liberal nor conservative in the stereotypical sense. I especially found this from a class I took one summer about the Constitution.

When I tell people I am fiscally conservative and socially liberal, they really can't understand this. Many think by me saying "socially liberal" that I want the government to "take care of me." That's not really the case. It's more of a situation where I feel people should have the freedom to persue their interests as long as it doesn't harm society. And by me saying "fiscally conservative" that I am a Republican. No. While I tend to share many of the economic philosophies of Republicans, I am not a true Republican.

I am closer to Libertarianism than anything else. Some people think that is a cop out. Others feel that is a refuge of crackpots and confused people. I can remember living in Austin and Houston going to various festivals and seeing these crazies called Libertarians asking people to take their political spectrum test. At the time I found it funny how the test seemed to consistently place people in that Libertarian part of the chart. This was also the first time I had seen a chart versus a linear spectrum. However, I pretty much agreed with where I feel on the chart. However, Constitutionalist is also another tag to describe me. While I may not adhere 100% to that philosophy either, I do agree with most of what Constitutionalists agree.

So what is it I stand for? I'll give a brief and broad description. Free Speech. Privacy. Limited Government. Individual rights. Elimination of personal income taxes in favor of sales taxes. Strong defense. Free Trade with all nations (unless we decide on sanctions for a particular nation). Not allowing ourselves to become subject to another nation's sovereignty (i.e. the UN or NATO cannot act like our Congress). Free markets.

Without getting into more specific issues, the above covers most. I plan on covering more specific topics at a later date.

So basically this means that the candidates left over really don't represent the vast majority of my views. So I'll end up voting Republican again. When a Democrat shares enough of my views I'll vote for them, but I don't see that happening anytime soon. I had a previous post a couple weeks back that kind of touched on this issue of not having a good candidate to vote for, but I did deleted it. I felt it was too much of a rant that I had typed while out at 1AM at a bar. I've included most of it below since it was still in my iPhone's memory:

So I'm at the bar watching Obama trying to spin his loss in Pennsylvania by speaking in Indiana. He talks about helping the common man while having 3 frat boys stand behind him with their A&F t-shirts (Abercrombie & Fitch). 'Nuff said about that.

He decides to bash John McCain and George Bush. Now while they are not saints he then says that all the previous administrations have screwed us. A direct attack against Bill Clinton and then Hillary via guilt by association. So he is going to fix that? I haven't heard any of the 3 remaining candidates give me concrete plans.

This will be yet another election of the lesser of two evils. And I will again vote Republican, though I think The Party has lost its way right now.

I long for the day that a Dem is moderate enough to get my vote. Actually I long for the day that a candidate from either party shares enough of my beliefs to really warrant my support. Right now it's McCain.

While typing this a couple guys from a Central European country come in and bash Obama. The one person who supports him speaks up. Good for her. Except that she quickly resorts to name-calling as in calling those guys "gutter snipes." Hey, Liberals, if you want some respect in debates, then don't resort to name calling towards those you are trying to debate. That makes you look stupid. Funny thing, she left instead of trying to defend Obama other than saying, "I used to know him." OK, I like cheese. BTW I was trying to point out the hypocrisy of what I mentioned above and she ignored it.

Hillary is not going to win the nomination. And America is not ready for either a Black or woman President. We're close. 2012 or 2016 it can happen. The divide in the Democratic Party is too great right now. And that's the only reason the Republicans are going to win. Otherwise the American public would vote in a Dem.

Comments

[Josh]

Apart from tears, only time could wear everything away. While feeling is being processed by time,conflicts would be reconciled as time goes by, just like a cup of tea that is being continuously diluted.rolex datejust