mvd  (1000+ posts)       Mon Oct-04-04 11:54 PM
Original message
Poll question: Political ideology poll - what do you consider yourself?

Edited on Mon Oct-04-04 11:56 PM by mvd
With all the new members, I thought it was time to do this poll again. I'd describe myself as a very liberal Democrat based on my positions on these issues:

- Universal health care; everyone has decent coverage. Work towards free care.

- Pro-choice

- Higher taxes for the rich; 50% federal rate for income over $300,000. This is so the budget can be balanced as I want increases in spending. $50-100,000 no change (unless we have a surplus); drops start for under $50,000.

- Limit the outsourcing of jobs.

- More help for the poor who need housing and clothing - and more bankruptcy protection

- Strong separation of Church and State; prefer God be taken out of the Pledge, but it's not one of my big priorities.

- Get rid of the Patriot Act and revamp with the couple good parts.

- Everything should be a civil union under the law.

- Get rid of the death penalty to ensure fairness. I think heinous murderers with no remorse kind of deserve it, but there are other things to consider: fairness, cost, compassion, having the state not be hypocritical.

- In addition to background checks, I favor registration of guns. Also, a required safety course. I also support the assault weapons ban. Bring the ban back while we adjust it to make it less based on cosmetics. Undecided on concealed carry; would have to look at the statistics.

- No privatization of social security

- War as a last resort only

- Go back into the international treaties we broke, including Kyoto and the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.

- Keep a form of Affirmative Action - I'm not big on it, though. I feel it needs to adjust.

- If there are good checks, we can keep immigration at a solid level.

- Strong enviornmental regulations, including protecting our national parks and treasures

So how would you describe yourself based on your political stances?


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=2451528

new_beawr  (1000+ posts)       Tue Oct-05-04 12:51 AM
Response to Original message

12. Hmmmmmmm.................


Health Care - Universal Coverage, single payer system. Still allow private insurance.

Taxes - 50% rate starts kicking in at $1,000,000 annual income for a couple filing jointly. Same rates as now for those earning less than a million. Estate Tax at 50% after the first five million dollars. Tax all money earned and/or kept in the USA, in other words, no Offshore Havens.

Outsourcing - Provide incentives to keep jobs here, BUT recognize that the abundance of blue collar work is gone forever. Pretty much agree with Clinton here, we have to move beyond.

Environment - You pollute - you go to prison. If you kill with your toxins, you go as a murderer. Corporate liability will be turned into personal criminal liability. Encourage Sustainable farming. Strict regulation of all genetic experimentation. Big incentives to get off fossil fuels, take the USA to the next big business opportunity. No more blowing tops off of mountains, close the Nuke Plants, tell the assholes in teh Hamptons that there are going to be wind turbines offshore.

Helping the dispossed - As the economy is shifting mightily, we need to have the sort of public works projects as was done in the 1930's. We need a cleaner infrastructure. Along with that, there needs to be a way of transitioning people from the old to the new economy.

Social Issues - Very Libertarian. Civil Unions as government policy - you would get a civil union license. Marriage is a religious thing - it's your own damn business, but the state must not discriminate. Legalize Soft Drugs. No Death Penalty, Life without Parole, in solitary, for the worst of the scum.

BUST UP THE MEDIA MONOPOLY/OLIGARCHY - A Cable or Broadcast Network would have to be independent, NOT a division of a larger conglomerate. Media outlets must be owned independently from content providers.

War - Not a tool for chickenhawk moneygrubbers to make money. Destroying the Taliban after 9/11 - Good Thing -
Going to Iraq was as scummy a thing as this nation has done. The military is a good thing, it's how we use it that has gone very bad.

Litigation - If you are going to deregulate, the ONLY recourse we have is through the courts. IF, and I mean if, we have strong government protection of the citizenry from unscrupulous businesses, then some appropriate protection could be offered to businesses.

Social Security - I've paid into it for 20 years now, I'm going to want mine when I'm eligible. It is a contract that we need to keep.

Education - More money for college. More money for Head Start type programs. Tax on Video Game equipment to pay for such expenditures.....

The FCC - Tell People to Change the Fucking Channel - leave Howard alone, leave Opie and Anthony alone, leave Janet Jackson alone. If the Bible Thumpers want to live in isolation, let them throw out their TVs and radios.

Abortion - None of my - or the government's - business. I am not a doctor and am not a woman.

I also want the Smithsonian to stay open until 9:00 PM again.

WhereIsMyFreedom  (446 posts)      Tue Oct-05-04 01:51 AM
Response to Original message

23. Very liberal Democrat


But I'm willing to make concessions (with the moderate Democrats) to get things done.

Universal health care is totally the way to go. It should also cover counseling (marriage, family, anger, etc...).

I'm so liberal on abortion that I'd get flamed by most women on this board, and I'm a guy.

Raise taxes on rich, lower on middle class, none for poor. Remove the damn loopholes for the rich and corporations. And NO corporate welfare! Lower sales tax and raise other 'fair' taxes to compensate.

Significant raises to minimum wage. Increase welfare significantly. No one in this country should go hungry or have to sleep on the streets. No one with a full time job should be living in poverty.

Basically, I want a massive shift in equitable distribution of wealth. I'm not sure exactly how to accomplish it but we need it.

Double teacher's salaries, k-12. We need to alter how public education is funded so it is evenly distributed based on children, not local property value. Completely pull religion out of public schools.

Marriage for everyone, but I'm perfectly happy with civil unions for everyone instead.

Totally overhaul our punishment for crime in this country. It is broken beyond belief. Prison should not be for 'punishment' but as a place to keep people while they are rehabilitated for integration back into society (primarily violent offenders). For non-violent offenders community service should be the norm. Drug offenders get rehab (axe the war on drugs). Ken Lay pays his workers' pensions out of his own pocket.

Severe cutbacks on military spending. It's time to foreclose on the military-industrial complex. Our military is for national security. International security should be handled through peace keeping troops led by the UN.

Much stronger environmental regulations. Levy a pollution tax that gets invested in pollution-free research.

De-privatize (or at least regulate) utilities.

Larger investment in nation-wide public transportation.

Those are some of the stronger issues that come to mind at the moment.

go away

mvd, get the sand outta yer vagi

yes, we already know that duh is inhabited by idiots.

What type of fantasy/uptopia world do those folks live in?  What are they smoking?  Wow, just...WOW!

go away
Dude it's not me these are posts from folks at the DU.  

I find it funny that they are liberals but wish to impose their will on others (especially the rich) to fund their pet projects.

I don't really care for rich folks (most of the ones I know are assholes) either but damn a 50% tax wtf.

I love if you polute you go to jail.  This person has no concept of how things work or how items are made.  Hell I just polluted the john at work a few minutes ago does that mean I am going to jail.  With high taxes on companies and crazy environmental policy these asshole would drive industry and jobs out of the US at a record pace.

Quoted: When God is removed from government and society, government and society BECOME God. I'm just on the Christian side of agnosticism, but is is crystal clear that the leftists worship society and government just as the religious right worships God.

God is 50%, ...God is the mob.

Quoted: new_beawr  (1000+ posts)       Tue Oct-05-04 12:51 AM Response to Original message 12. Hmmmmmmm................. Health Care - Universal Coverage, single payer system. Still allow private insurance. Taxes - 50% rate starts kicking in at $1,000,000 annual income for a couple filing jointly. Same rates as now for those earning less than a million. Estate Tax at 50% after the first five million dollars. Tax all money earned and/or kept in the USA, in other words, no Offshore Havens. Outsourcing - Provide incentives to keep jobs here, BUT recognize that the abundance of blue collar work is gone forever. Pretty much agree with Clinton here, we have to move beyond. Environment - You pollute - you go to prison. If you kill with your toxins, you go as a murderer. Corporate liability will be turned into personal criminal liability. Encourage Sustainable farming. Strict regulation of all genetic experimentation. Big incentives to get off fossil fuels, take the USA to the next big business opportunity. No more blowing tops off of mountains, close the Nuke Plants, tell the assholes in teh Hamptons that there are going to be wind turbines offshore. Helping the dispossed - As the economy is shifting mightily, we need to have the sort of public works projects as was done in the 1930's. We need a cleaner infrastructure. Along with that, there needs to be a way of transitioning people from the old to the new economy. Social Issues - Very Libertarian. Civil Unions as government policy - you would get a civil union license. Marriage is a religious thing - it's your own damn business, but the state must not discriminate. Legalize Soft Drugs. No Death Penalty, Life without Parole, in solitary, for the worst of the scum. BUST UP THE MEDIA MONOPOLY/OLIGARCHY - A Cable or Broadcast Network would have to be independent, NOT a division of a larger conglomerate. Media outlets must be owned independently from content providers. War - Not a tool for chickenhawk moneygrubbers to make money. Destroying the Taliban after 9/11 - Good Thing - Going to Iraq was as scummy a thing as this nation has done. The military is a good thing, it's how we use it that has gone very bad. Litigation - If you are going to deregulate, the ONLY recourse we have is through the courts. IF, and I mean if, we have strong government protection of the citizenry from unscrupulous businesses, then some appropriate protection could be offered to businesses. Social Security - I've paid into it for 20 years now, I'm going to want mine when I'm eligible. It is a contract that we need to keep. Education - More money for college. More money for Head Start type programs. Tax on Video Game equipment to pay for such expenditures..... The FCC - Tell People to Change the Fucking Channel - leave Howard alone, leave Opie and Anthony alone, leave Janet Jackson alone. If the Bible Thumpers want to live in isolation, let them throw out their TVs and radios. Abortion - None of my - or the government's - business. I am not a doctor and am not a woman. I also want the Smithsonian to stay open until 9:00 PM again.

These people are absolute dip shits. I love how they want to get us off of fossil fuels and onto other sources of energy, but then they want to close the nuke plants. WTF?

If you want to reduce our dependance on foriegn oil and fossil fuel in general then why the hell would you be against nuke plants? They're more efficient, cleaner, and safer than any of the other power plants we have.

I'm willing to bet this same guy would also be against drilling for oil in the AWR, oh but we still want to stop using foriegn oil. Again WTF? You can't have your cake and eat it too. And if these people are dumb enough to think that it's economically feasable to switch to an alternative source of energy for transportation over night in the US they're just morons. Tell me something...how are the logistics, of telling everyone who owns a gasoline powered car (which is just about EVERYONE in the US) that they're going to have to get rid of them and buy new cars that don't run on gasoline, going to work economically? Hmmmm? I sure as hell don't want to be forced to buy a NEW car and then not even be able to sell my old one because it's now worthless because it runs on gasoline.

And then wind turbines off shore? Oh that's funny! Does this idiot realize how many damn wind turbines it will take to equal the power of one nuke plant? I can just see the navigational nightmares of shipping anything to this country when we've got millions of wind turbines out in the ocean to try and create enough power to amount to a drop in the bucket.

ETA: Oh, and I forgot, all the PETA freaks would hate these turbines anyway because they kill birds when they fly through them .

These people obviously live in an idealistic fantasy world. Someone needs to slap them and make them wake up to reality again.

The biggest problem, on the fiscal side, is that these people have NO CONCEPT.

They have no clue how much it costs to provide for healthcare.

They think they can just tax "the rich" and get all the money they need for their social programs. A never ending trough of cash, just there for the taking.

No thought is ever put into the CREATION OF WEALTH and the disastrous effect their fiscal policies would have on that point.

new_beawr  (1000+ posts)       Tue Oct-05-04 12:51 AM The FCC - Tell People to Change the Fucking Channel - leave Howard alone, leave Opie and Anthony alone, leave Janet Jackson alone. If the Bible Thumpers want to live in isolation, let them throw out their TVs and radios. Abortion - None of my - or the government's - business. I am not a doctor and am not a woman.

The only two statements I have agreed with thus far.

Quoted: These people are absolute dip shits. I love how they want to get us off of fossil fuels and onto other sources of energy, but then they want to close the nuke plants. WTF? If you want to reduce our dependance on foriegn oil and fossil fuel in general then why the hell would you be against nuke plants? They're more efficient, cleaner, and safer than any of the other power plants we have. I'm willing to bet this same guy would also be against drilling for oil in the AWR, oh but we still want to stop using foriegn oil. Again WTF? You can't have your cake and eat it too. And if these people are dumb enough to think that it's economically feasable to switch to an alternative source of energy for transportation over night in the US they're just morons. Tell me something...how are the logistics, of telling everyone who owns a gasoline powered car (which is just about EVERYONE in the US) that they're going to have to get rid of them and buy new cars that don't run on gasoline, going to work economically? Hmmmm? I sure as hell don't want to be forced to buy a NEW car and then not even be able to sell my old one because it's now worthless because it runs on gasoline. And then wind turbines off shore? Oh that's funny! Does this idiot realize how many damn wind turbines it will take to equal the power of one nuke plant? I can just see the navigational nightmares of shipping anything to this country when we've got millions of wind turbines out in the ocean to try and create enough power to amount to a drop in the bucket. ETA: Oh, and I forgot, all the PETA freaks would hate these turbines anyway because they kill birds when they fly through them . These people obviously live in an idealistic fantasy world. Someone needs to slap them and make them wake up to reality again.

It's even worse then that - there is no viable alternative. Get rid of fossil fuel and nuclear plants, and society will go back to the 1800s or so at best. More likely, any attempt to do so would collapse the entire economy. All cars and trucks will stop, which means that the current technique of massive single-product farms that ship their foods around the country will collapse, and most of the country will starve while we attempt to convert back to local farming. Also, no more TV, radio, computers, or internet. Oh yeah, pollution will actually get worse when everyone starts burning wood and coal in open fires instead of modern plants for warmth and cooking. In addition to the destruction here, we'd be easy pickings for any industrialized military power.

These guys want to turn back the clock hundreds of years, but how many of them have gone a day without air conditioning, cheap, widely available food, modern transportations, and modern medicine?

Quoted: - Universal health care; everyone has decent coverage. Work towards free care.

Nice thought, but can only exist in a socalist state.  No such thing as free, it's either paid for by the paitent directly, by the paitent in the form of insurance, or by taxation or unfunded mandate.  

- Pro-choice

 I'm pro choice too, in the respect that I don't believe that abortion should be illegal early in gestation.  This being said, I don't think the practice should be considered 'a good thing', as many pro choicers believe.

- Higher taxes for the rich; 50% federal rate for income over $300,000. This is so the budget can be balanced as I want increases in spending. $50-100,000 no change (unless we have a surplus); drops start for under $50,000.

 This person definatly believes in the transfer of wealth through taxation.  He/She has no ideal how bad this will hurt small business incentive, specifically S-Corps.

- Limit the outsourcing of jobs.

 That can only happen in an managed economy, which is NOT what we have, or what we want.  This person wants to grant the government executive powers over private entities that would turn the owners into mere 'funding parties'.  These types know what they are doing, in that they really don't care about the impact on the business environment, as they really desire a socalist managed economy anyway, and what better way to prove it's necessary than highlight the inability of business to thrive in the 'modern environment' they have created.

- More help for the poor who need housing and clothing - and more bankruptcy protection

 More bankruptcy protection?  Sheesh, people already live in a financial rubber room where they can run head first into the walls and not get badly hurt.    The obvious motivation here is another ding for businesses.  Failure to pay taxes is a Federal Felony, and tax debt isn't erased in bankruptcy.  The government wasn't dumb enough to create a culture of evasion of tax debt repayment, but this person would force that on the marketplace.  I wonder if he/she would be for relaxing IRS regs on tax payments.

- Strong separation of Church and State; prefer God be taken out of the Pledge, but it's not one of my big priorities.

Agreed...

- Get rid of the Patriot Act and revamp with the couple good parts.

I agree in the sense that the less investigative power granted government, the better for liberty.

- Everything should be a civil union under the law.

Psst: Marriage is technically a civil union already.  Government has no bearing on the 'spiritual' aspect already.  

- Get rid of the death penalty to ensure fairness. I think heinous murderers with no remorse kind of deserve it, but there are other things to consider: fairness, cost, compassion, having the state not be hypocritical.

I kind of agree here, in that currently it's way more expensive to put someone on death row, than to simply lockem up for life.  If the death penalty applies, make damn sure the person is guilty, and carry out the sentence quickly.

- In addition to background checks, I favor registration of guns. Also, a required safety course. I also support the assault weapons ban. Bring the ban back while we adjust it to make it less based on cosmetics. Undecided on concealed carry; would have to look at the statistics.

 Notice how he/she reduces civil liberties to "what the statistics tell us'.  That tells us everything we want to know...  He/she is violently against the Patriot Act, which statistics tell us has almost never been used against a US citizen.  Hypocracy, is thy name...

- No privatization of social security

 Again with the transfer payments.  There has never been a 'fund' for SS, it's always taken from current revenues, even though the government has allowed the illusion of an 'account' to pervail.  The SSA even sends everyone a 'statement'.  

It's all part of this persons dream of a cradle to grave nanny state care...

- War as a last resort only

I agree, war should be a last resort, however, we cannot manipulate where the threshold is by compromising the end goal, or dreaming up futile alternatives.  

- Go back into the international treaties we broke, including Kyoto and the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.

 You don't break them, if they were not signed...  This Carteresque unilateral "role model" stuff is beyond naive...

- Keep a form of Affirmative Action - I'm not big on it, though. I feel it needs to adjust.

 AA as an employment program is a big hit with the lefties.

- If there are good checks, we can keep immigration at a solid level.

 Woah!  Is that a Pat Puchannon moment?

- Strong enviornmental regulations, including protecting our national parks and treasures

 Wait a minute, I thought you didn't want to outsource jobs.  

I love these guys who feel that the public needs to fund parks, but needs to 'keep off the grass'.  Not everyone is a birdwatcher you know....