Political Bias

[Sukerkin]

I know that for a lot of us who have been here for a while it is perfectly clear what our politcal affiliations are.

But I thought that it might be an interesting excercise in mutual understanding for us to post up either links to, or descriptions of, what the party we currently support 'stands for'.

Altho' I was born into the poor Working Class (natural Labour 'territory'), I am a Liberal Democrat by natural inclination, as I think an awful lot of British people are. Sadly, it is a party that has been squeezed by the contraction of the Left and the Right towards the Centre over the past thirty or forty years. That has resulted in an unfortuate drfit towards the same partisan split into two squabbling camps that so blights (in my view) American politics; this has until recently rather pushed the Liberals out of the 'game'.

As I've noted before on these pages, British Liberalism is a different animal than the American species. Indeed I have maintained that America doesn't have any left-wing or liberal politics - it has the Far Right and the Really Far Right :lol:.

So, waffling aside, what does the Liberal Democratic Party in Britain stand for? I'll let them speak for themselves:

http://www.libdems.org.uk/home.aspx

For comparison, here is a peek at some old-school Liberals (in the Northwest of England):

http://www.liberal.org.uk/

Bear in mind of course, that no one party will ever have the 'basket' of policies and views that matches your own exactly - so you are always, in a sense, picking the party that offends you the least .

EDIT: I should just point out that the Liberal Part and the Liberal Democrat Party are not the same thing, tho' they came from the same root. The division was a relatively recent occurrence (during the late '80's if I recall correctly).

EDIT 2: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberal_Democrats

 

[Bill Mattocks]

I grew up believing myself to be a Republican. I voted in my first national election for Reagan. I was in the Marines when Carter was elected, I wasn't yet 18 when he ran for office and so could not vote. I remember being horrified at how he gutted national defense spending and left us with antiquated Vietnam-era material - even food - we ate Vietnam-issue C-Rations and were educated on how to discard the bulging cans so as to avoid food poisoning. I remember well the disastrous rescue effort in Iran and the hostages they held.

When Reagan took office, things changed quickly, and to me, for the better. That was the last time I can say I was truly pleased with an American president, or that I had no problems with how he led the country. I was young, naive, idealistic, but even looking back, that just seems like a better time to me.

Over time, I lost faith with the Republican Party. Too many of the things they saw as important I either thought were unimportant distractions (flag-burning amendment) or anti-freedom, dangerously dictatorial, and not American (Patriot Act).

I initially went to the Libertarian Party. I found a lot of people there with whom I could make common cause, and I was a registered Libertarian for awhile. However, there were certain party planks with which I could not agree, including legalization of all drugs and isolationism. These ideas seemed destructive and stupid to me, and the argument that I should hang my hat with them anyway for the sake of the parts I did agree with did not sit that well with me.

I made a brief attempt at calling myself a Republican again, but really, Republicans just piss me off; not as much as Democrats do, but in the same way. And this gets to the heart of what you're saying here, I think.

I could not buy into the concept of adopting party platforms and beliefs that are not my own, for the sake of getting 'my guy' elected. I won't defend a belief that I'm against just because my party believes in it. In fact, the party 'enforcers' make me ball up my fists. Want to bully me into toeing the party line? Come get some, buttboy.

The Republican Party is not my party anymore. I don't actually think I changed all that much; but the party did. The party of Goldwater and Reagan became the party of the Moral Majority, and then the Neo-Cons and now it looks like it's going to be twisted into the populist Tea Party from the inside out. And I'm not having any of it.

So I call myself a 'conservative'. Generic. I don't think there is anything un-conservative about respecting all of the Bill of Rights - the 1st Amendment and the 2nd. Republicans, Democrats, and Tea Partiers don't know what to do with me. They enjoy it when I agree with them (which I do at times on various issues) but they hate it when I disagree with them, and they usually proceed to a lengthy diatribe against the party they ASSUME I am a member of.

I understand the concept of choosing a party that most closely resembles one's own belief system and then cleaving unto that party with might and main. I cannot do it, however. It's just not in me. It never will be.

And so, I will be seen as an anti-American, a race traitor, a religion-traitor, a pro-or-anti-union thug (depending on who is hating on me at that moment), etc, etc, etc.

And I don't really care much. I have always gone my own way. I make my own mind up, I refuse to be told what to believe. I do my own research, and I hope - I really do hope - that my mind is open enough to be swayed by persuasive evidence and facts and science. I know that I have changed my opinion on several major issues in the past, and I please myself to think that this means I have an open mind. However, whatever I decide, that's what I will say and defend. I will not bow to any party, no man, no religious dictum. It means I make everybody angry at one time or another, friends as well as foes. Life goes on.

Political bias? I am biased to the conservative side of things; but not to any party that I have ever found. None of them appeal to me.

 

[jks9199]

I loosely align with the Republican Party. And I stress the loosely; the current GOP pays lip service at best to some of my beliefs. And the Libertarians are too loose for my taste.

Basically, I'm a conservative libertarian. I believe that government should be no larger than absolutely necessary, that it should be fiscally responsible, and that, in all honesty, we really need to pay more attention to ourselves before we try to fix all the other countries. I'm a lead by example sort more than impose my view on others -- and think that's the way the US can best change the world.

 

[Twin Fist]

i dont consider myself a republican, but rather an issue voter.

my views tend to be all over the map.

 

[Blade96]

I'm a leftist and always knew i was one. But I have voted every which way in my life. Liberal, NDP, Progressive Conservative (when they still existed) I have never belonged to any party. I like to vote for who i think is the best at the time. i don't like to be tied down.

 

[elder999]

I grew up with really liberal-which was in no way a bad word back then-Democrats for parents. They nearly disowned me when I drank the Kool-aid that was trickling down from Reagan.....I think one has to remember that the economic plans and policies of the President so many lionize today were called "voodoo economics" by his soon to be VP and successor, and a man who knows a thing or two about economics, George HW Bush-who I also voted for, only to have to cash out an IRA when he wound up giving us new taxes, in spite of his promising not to.......because he had to. All of which says nothing of where I stand on the issues, but lots about my frustration with American politics, particularly at the national level. Like others, I tend to vote issues, or with my wallet-though I support some policies that would only lead others to insist that I'm a liberal, I support a many others that only lead others to insist that I'm conservative.My parents liberal sensibilities rubbed off, and I do believe in tending to the least of us, through taxation as necessary, but that's no longer really an option, as, even if we were to go to a flat 25% income tax, we'll be paying off our ridiculous debt for a long, long, long, time-debt that is largely the monstrous creation of a Republican administration.

In the end, I just don't care anymore: I'll never have an abortion, or another child.They'll never take away my guns. I grow my own food, make my own wine, beer and mead, and, if worse comes to worst, I can afford to get to my boat in Mexico, even if gas gets to $10 a gallon. Doesn't really matter who's in office or what they say they stand for; they stand for Monsanto, and ConAgra, and ATT, and GM, and Goldman Sachs, and if you aren't at least as well off as I am, you, the USA, and the rest of the world are well and truly ****ed.

And maybe even then....

Hands in his pockets he began to walk aimlessly down the sidewalk runnel. And, each minute, feeling more and more scared and desperate. Everything was falling apart around him. And he seemed helpless to halt the collapse; he could only witness it, completely impotent, snatched up and gripped by processes too powerful for him to understand. -Phillip K. Dick, Clans of the Alphane Moon

 

[Bill Mattocks]

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in the sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

-- W. B. Yeats

 

[WC_lun]

I'm an un-apologetic liberal or progressive. I think that the US is a great country that could be better. I am not a Democrat, however. Too many times Democrats have taken a strong stance only to let it become watered down before any opposition arguement can be made. Like the Republican party, money has become the driving force, not any particular political belief. So when asked I say I'm an Independant voter. I do think the government should be much more responsible for spending, but realize that after that, more income might be needed. I also tend to look at long term effect of fiscal issues, which I don't think a lot of people do. As far as social issues, I tend to lean toward letting people do what they want unless what they want to do can be proven to have a negative effect on society. ie, child molestation is bad, gays being a part of society is not bad.

 

[Carol]

My passion is fired up the most by state-level politics. I think what we have in New Hampshire is better than anything else I've seen in the country, and arguably the world.

It is a true civilian legislature. Pay is $200 per year plus mileage to the capital. There are 400 Representatives in the General Court. There are approx 1.4 million people in the state, that means we have one rep for every 3300 residents. A citizen has a better chance of winning public office in New Hampshire than they do anywhere else in the nation. Is there any democracy anywhere where the people are that well represented? Removing the money and scarcity of power from representation also does a lot to reduce corruption.

The 400 representatives do not sit with their party and instead all sit among one another in five sections, with 4 aisles leading to the floor instead of just one. While all maintain a party affiliation, there is no "aisle to cross" when discussing issues -- literally or figuratively.

Seating is pre-assigned. Its a bit cozy when the House is in session. The reps have to (gasp) talk with one another, and (shock) be reasonable with one another.

 

[K-man]

As Superkin said, the rest of the world looks at American politics and we would class the Democrats as right wing and Republicans as further right. In Australia, politics has gravitated to the middle ground. In practice there is not a great deal of difference between our leftist Labor party and the conservative Liberal party. We now have fringe parties which have moved out and the so-called Greens are left wing and the One Nation party or what's left of it is out to the right. Both of these parties have some policies popular with the masses but if either ever really got control I'd even consider moving to the US.

Personally, I'm comfortable slightly right of centre. Philosophically I have difficulty supporting the Labor party as it is more or less dominated by the unions. Despite that I have given them my vote on several occassions when I believed a change of direction was warranted. :asian:

BTW Carol ... your system does sound good.