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Righties And Lefties; - oh the charges fly
Topic Started: Feb 16 2005, 06:58 AM (203 Views)
bikemanb
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Liberal Conservative
Since in another thread charges of being a Rightie or Leftie have been flung by those whose position is the opposite, I thought I would stake myself out and give a thumbnail sketch of my political philosopy:

Political/National Policy

Term limits for Congress

Single party rule is not good, either Dem or Rep, neither side appears able to control their more base instincts (or should I say their internal demons aka true-believers)

A government employee or member of Congress should not be allowed to lobby for five years after leaving government service.

NOTA(None Of The Above) – allow both candidates to be turned down by the voters and the parties have to nominate different replacements.

English must become the official language of the nation and you cannot get citizenship without being able to read and write same if you are an immigrant, otherwise we will continue to develop our own “Quebec” problem from within.

Illegal immigration must be stopped, that means that those that hire illegals must be firmly dealt with.

Terrorism

OBL must be hunted down and summarily executed

We will occasionally have to take actions which may offend some of our friends and allies but our national self interest comes first.

The War on Terror will be mostly millions of man-hours of investigation followed by an occasionally application of conventional military force but more often by black-ops.

Energy

We must launch an energy independence program on the scale of the Manhattan or Apollo Projects that makes us no longer subject to the whims of those that despise our success.

Coal gasification and tar sand recovery

Build more refineries using the most modern technology

Build current state of the art Nuclear power plants

Build current state of the art coal fired plants that can burn “dirty” coal cleanly

Tell Nevada life sucks and get the waste somewhere it can be controlled

Quit using natural gas to generate electricity

If ANWR is used to facilitate a true move towards independence then have at it, but if it is just more of the same leave it be. If it were our sole source it would last about 1000 days.

Fiscal Responsibility

I can’t spend more that I make forever and get away with it why should the government.

You can have tax cuts or spending but you can’t have both without going deeply into the hole.

Long term deficit spending will destroy our economy and our national strength.

Each tax cut should only be matched by a spending reduction or a firm revenue stream.

Line item veto.

Environment

Environmental regulations came about because industry did not police itself, that once government agencies became involved it would become convoluted, no doubt. How to strike a reasonable balance between legitimate development and environmental protection is as my Grandmother used to say, “the devil in the details.” I know that neither the current nihilistic approach of the Enviro-wackos nor the nothing is/was wrong approach that Limbaugh preaches for the Right are correct.

Rights

Religion belongs on people’s private property and places of worship and not in the public governmental domain.

Gays should have the same secular rights as straights

Abortion should be a woman’s right during the first trimester, after that it is societies right to get involved.

To pretend like the playing field is balanced like many on the Right do, for women and blacks in the workplace is self delusion, quotas are wrong and should be abolished but anyone that denies fair treatment should be vigorously pursued by the full force of the Justice Department. This is another one of those cases where when you don’t police yourself you will get more “help” than you want.

Military preparedness

We must invest the necessary resources to insure we are able to defend ourselves against both conventional and unconventional threats.

Missile defense is an example of a program that is politicized to the point that we are installing a system that can’t even pass tests without have some of the intercept data being faked.

Fighting the wrong war at the wrong place and time even if for good intentions is a waste of our national wealth, both monetary and human.


One esteemed member decided to throw “liberal” at me as a slur, if the above positions define a liberal then I will be proud to wear the moniker.

Bill, Rita and Chloe the Terror Cat

For having lived long, I have experienced many instances of being obliged, by better information or fuller consideration, to change opinions, even on important subjects, which I once thought right but found to be otherwise.

Benjamin Franklin
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DanHouck
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Land of Enchantment NM
Very well thought out and I agree with basically all of it. I'm not too keen on a huge government energy project as government has sunk to the level of incompetence where it can't even handle what it has now. We need to find a mechanism that will spur the private sector to do this job. If today's government tried to pull off a Manhattan project, they'd probably blow us up instead of the enemy.

But why do you view the word "liberal" as a slur? Is the word "conservative" also a slur? Would you say they are equal in the ranks of "sluredom" with "neo-con" which is thrown around quite regularly on this board?

It could be worse--I just got accused of being liberal, left leaning, socialist and authoritarian for the crime of defending a company's right to shut its doors rather than be told how to operate by a union and a provincial government. You've just been accused of being a mere liberal. :)

Nice set of positions. Maybe you should run for Prez, I'd probably vote for you.

Dan
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bikemanb
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Liberal Conservative
Quote:
 
But why do you view the word "liberal" as a slur? Is the word "conservative" also a slur?



Yes both have become so because the noise makers in both political parties have made them that in the last ten years or so.

Quote:
 
Nice set of positions. Maybe you should run for Prez, I'd probably vote for you.


Nope, I think the system has become so corrosive that I would just become another one of the same :( , but thanks for the compliment. :)
Bill, Rita and Chloe the Terror Cat

For having lived long, I have experienced many instances of being obliged, by better information or fuller consideration, to change opinions, even on important subjects, which I once thought right but found to be otherwise.

Benjamin Franklin
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passinthru
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John - Gainesville, FL
Well said; I fall into your general thinking pattern which is a neither left nor right.
Faster horses, younger women, older whiskey, more money...
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cmoehle
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Chris - San Antonio TX
Bill, you and I have know each other too long to even need to read all.

I'm with you on most.

I dare say it represents a fairly typical, modern, middle-American, moderate, mainstream view.


Dan "I just got accused of being liberal, left leaning, socialist and authoritarian"

Throw in elitist in judgments--but the statements addressed your posts as being so, not you as a person.

I could argume with Bill's "Gays should have the same secular rights as straights" and call it social conservative, but it would address it the thing he expressed not him.

I do not do what you do.
Politics is the art of achieving the maximum amount of freedom for individuals that is consistent with the maintenance of social order.
--Barry Goldwater
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DanHouck
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Land of Enchantment NM
Ah, no, the statement was that my "world view" was all that stuff. In any case, mere liberals like Bill are left in my dust by this description--a real work of art and great fiction, I am in awe, Chris. :)

Eat your heart out Bill! LOL!
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pentax
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Kamloops - BC Interior
Where do I sign up for you Party, Bill? :cool:

I particulary like your fiscal position.
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(thumbnail)

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"Kirk to Enterprise - Very funny, Scotty.... now beam down my clothes!"
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sylley2000
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Sylvia, Grand Bend ON
Red, White & Blue

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First there's red from anger

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Which can lead to the blue of a heart attack

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And then there is white and everlasting peace!!!

***

Don't ask me why the righty/lefty skirmishes made me think of that ... it must have been my evil twin that made me do it!!! :floorrollin: :floorrollin: :floorrollin: :floorrollin: It didn't make a heck a lot of sense to me either...but then most of the fights between the two factions don't either!!!! Must be some deep symbolism afoot there that I don't know its meaning! :floorrollin: :floorrollin: :floorrollin:

Sylvia

You're welcome ... just know everyone is really gonna enjoy my 'sharing' this with you!!! NOT!!!
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