My Political Views

I am bothered by the hateful and extreme views of others.  I wish more people would take the time to listen to other views and find the common and win-win possibilities between what seems like polar-opposite views.

I also hate labels, like conservative, liberal, democrat, republican, capitalist and socialist.  I like to think of myself as a conservative liberal, democratic republican that is a socio-capitalist.

Let's tackle one of these at a time...

Conservatives don't want big government and don't want to be responsible for the actions of others.  Liberals want plenty of rules to keep people from hurting others and want to make sure there is a safety net for those who fall on hard times.  To me, these can be both complimentary and, in cases, balanced between the two.  Depending on your position in society, the extra rules of government can be seen as hurting you; and, it's often hard to see how those rules are protecting others in society.  As for the responsibility piece, I used to think I would never need a safety net (i.e. Social Security, Medicare/Medicaid, unemployment insurance) as I was a hard worker who did on-going education and was financially frugal.  However, after the 2008 financial meltdown, I was in a very bad position as I had been working for the financial industry.  I was laid off and couldn't find a job for 9 months!  Since it affected so many others, doing self-employment wasn't very successful either.  Would a conservative have me lose my home, my transportation, etc.?  By the time this occurred, I had two kids.  I thought I was so responsible by waiting until a point in my life where I was in a good financial place before having kids, but 2008 happened!  I didn't just sit around, though.  I got out and volunteered everywhere I was allowed.  I delivered food for the local food bank and helped at Habitat for Humanity.

Democrats want everyone to have a vote.  Republicans aren't as big about majority rule.  Looking at history, I don't know of any country that was successful without considering the needs and desires of its people.  Thus, I think there's a balance. Majority rule can be scary when the majority is ill-advised and lack education.  The majority can also be swayed by propaganda, whether that propaganda is from their own government or individuals that have the power to get people's attention.  Thus, my opinion is that only people that can prove they have appropriate knowledge should be able to vote.  It should not be an age thing.  I also think that voting can be more efficient with technology than it was in the past; thus, there is less need for representatives to vote on all the issues for us.

Capitalists think that everything would be OK if we just let the free-market decide everything.  We can all vote with our dollars, right?  That works until a single entity ends up with a monopoly on a market.  Socialists want everyone to be taken care of.  Where's the carrot to go to work?  Forget about money for a minute.  I know it's hard, but just imagine we didn't have a medium of exchange.  What would need to occur for people to be taken care of and prosper?  Until we have robots that do everything for us, a certain percentage of people would need to perform duties a certain percentage of their time.  Thus, there needs to be an incentive to work; however, not everyone is employable either.  Do we make the workers take care of their unemployable family, neighbors, etc.?  What about people that don't have anyone like that?  I like socialism in certain areas where it affects everyone (i.e. roads) and regulated capitalism in others.  There are some areas where it's particularly difficult, such as healthcare; but that's at least a separate paragraph.