My Political Leanings

2004-2-8 04:02:00

A while back Ron asked me about my political leanings. Am I conservative, liberal, in between or what? I have briefly commented on this in the past, but it has been a while back.

I'm sure that because I have been writing in favor of the death penalty that some new members may look upon me as a right wing extremist, but then in the past I have written on items that made some think I am a liberal.

Actually there is no political party that I am completely at home with, but the closest overall is the Libertarian. The reason is that all my political beliefs are centered around the principle of freedom. That which allows for the greatest exercise of freedom for the greatest number is that which I support. In most areas the Libertarian party goes along with this, but then in others it does not.

For instance The Libertarian Party is usually anti war, even if a successful war will bring liberty to millions. Many Libertarians believe that every war, save the Revolutionary War, The United States has fought was wrong. This includes The Civil War which freed the slaves, World War II that overthrew Nazism and the Korean War. I, on the other hand, would go to great extremes to overthrow a tyranny that suppresses the liberty of the human spirit. Doing what is necessary to establish and preserve freedom is number one in my book.

Members of the Libertarian Party are somewhat split on the death penalty. I support it for heinous crimes as it not only gives greater long range freedom for the criminal, but it frees the victim from the fear of ever meeting up with him again. It also frees society the concern over his future crimes if released or if he escapes.

I am against abortion overall, but support a woman's right to choose. I use the Drano principle here in explaining my view. I am against the drinking of Drano, but not support the creation of a law making it illegal. If people understand the harm then they just will not do it. I am against late term abortions (except where the life of the mother is at stake) for two reasons:

(1) The woman has already had plenty of time to make a decision.
(2) The soul is strongly enough linked to the fetus to blur the differentiation between it and a regular term baby.

Instead of making more laws of questionable value there should be complete freedom to teach young people the pros and cons of the matter. As it is right bow both sides want to shut the other side up and stifle their freedom of expression.

I take the same stance with drugs. I agree that most illegal drugs are harmful and should be avoided, but prevention should be stressed through education and not law enforcement. If we took half the money it cost to fight the war on drugs and the incarceration of those who are in jail because of drugs and spent it on rehabilitation and drug education for the youth we would have must fewer problems than we do today plus a much freer society.

I support limited government - a bare bones government as a matter of fact. Government should only do for the people what the people cannot do for themselves. Insuring national security and the protection of individual freedoms should be the main job of government. I believe that private enterprise can take care of almost all of our social needs.

Low Taxes. With limited government our tax bill should not go over 10% except in times of national emergency.

I see the direction of the civilized nations going toward higher taxes and greater socialism as a disease that will cause great problems within the next generation. These problems must be resolved for the world to continue its progress. The time will come that the most oppressed nations in the past will have more freedom than the United States and Western Europe and set an example for us.

The public figure most in harmony with my philosophy would probably be John Stossel of 20/20.

Overall, my political philosophy is simple. I weigh the pros and cons of the matter and put the freedom benefits to the whole and individual on one side and those ingredients which diminish freedom on the other. If the scales balance toward freedom then I support it, but if they lean toward enslavement I am against it. Many issues have ingredients on both sides of the scale so one has to be non dogmatic, look at the whole and make a judgment if he follows my philosophy.

There is no error so monstrous that it fails to find defenders among the ablest of men.
Lord Acton

I know you're out there. I can feel you now. I know that you're afraid. You're afraid of us. You're afraid of change. I don't know the future. I didn't come here to tell you how this is going to end. I came here to tell you how it's going to begin. Neo - The Matrix