Am I Conservative or Liberal?

I stole this from Curious Dave, who rightly observed that it’s completely absurd to pigeonhole yourself as either “liberal” or “conservative” as American culture seems to require people to do. He already commented on the silliness of this as well as I could, so feel free to wander to his diary to read the rant. The purpose of this entry is instead to break down each issue and see whether I’m really more liberal or conservative (although the distinction is stupid anyway).

And away we go!

The Environment – I’d say that penalizing companies for polluting environments is the type of thing that governments are needed for. You can’t just leave it to the “free market” because it’s a tragedy of the commons problem. Companies will pollute the environment if they aren’t forced to face consequences and consumers have no incentive to do so. SIDE: Liberal

Homosexual Rights – I think homosexuals should be afforded the same rights as anyone else. As for gay marriage, I think the very idea of government sanctioned “marriage” is unsavory since marriage has religious overtones and it seems like crossing separation of church and state boundaries. But since we’re obviously going to keep living in a world of government sanctioned marriage, then gay people should have the same right. I have some sympathy for those who argue for “civil unions” and not marriage, but at the very least they deserve that. SIDE: Liberal

Affirmative Action – The whole idea just doesn’t seem very intuitive – we’re trying to combat treating groups of people as inherently different by…treating groups of people as inherently different? I sorta understand the argument that it’s not so much to ask for a race that was once enslaved, but I just don’t feel like the way to combat discrimination is with discrimination. SIDE: Conservative

Drug War – Well, it’s a waste of government resources to start. I also believe an adult should have the right to ingest whatever they want to in their body. Somehow liberals agree with me when it comes to drugs, but approve of other ideas such as banning large sodas. SIDE: Liberal. 

Death Penalty – Although I do strongly believe that punishing criminals is necessary, the death penalty itself does seem a little barbaric and unnecessary. SIDE: Liberal.

Abortion – I think both sides can be pretty bonkers on this issue. Liberals who act as if it is only a women’s right issue honestly annoy me more than conservatives who scream YOU ARE KILLING A BABY, because if anything I think the conservatives are more sane. I mean, at least they acknowledge that there is another life form involved. However, I’m still pro-choice, because I think criminalizing abortion would be a nightmare, especially if you have ill-advised provisions like “abortion is illegal except if you’re raped” and the like. SIDE: Liberal, though begrudgingly.

Energy Policy – Energy policy is another area in which government intervention hypothetically makes sense. This puts it ahead of most government action, however I have no confidence at all that our government could efficiently manage any sort of effective energy policy. But seeing as the future of human existence may depend on it, maybe it’s worth trying? SIDE: Liberal, although I have doubts

Global Warming – Certainly it exists and is very likely human caused, but again I worry about our ability to administer any policy to stifle it. SIDE: Liberal, although I have doubts

Science Policy – Well, Republicans outright deny science much more often than Democrats and often try to prevent it from being taught to children, so it’s hard to side with them. I do think that regulatory agencies that are more liberally supported can significantly delay scientific advances, so I’m not all-in on the democratic side either. But at least they’re trying to regulate science, not deny it. SIDE: Liberal

Health Care – Another case where there are no good choices. I think Obamacare is completely awful, however the prior “system” wasn’t really much better. In fact, the reason that Obamacare is so awful is that it is just changing some of the parameters of a fatally flawed system. If I could choose I’d either pick a true free market system or a true government run system before the fucked up mess that we have that subsidizes insurance companies and distances consumers from their healthcare decisions. And all at ridiculous prices. SIDE: Neither

Taxes – I think taxes are way too high and that government is way too big. I suppose that makes me a conservative on the issue, although it’s not as though conservatives are known for spending much more frugally. SIDE: Conservative, at least in rhetoric
 
Gun Control – This is a weird issue, because I feel like both sides aren’t really that far apart on the issue, they just have paranoia about the intentions of the other side. Republicans are terrified that Democrats are going to completely ban guns, Democrats are paranoid that Republicans aren’t willing to make any concessions at all. Most people I talk to on both sides seem to agree that some reasonable restrictions to access are needed. Outlawing guns is definitely not the answer, but how many people are actually calling for that? SIDE: Neither

Immigration –I believe that we should make immigration much, much easier, but I also believe that we shouldn’t absolve people from the rule of law just because they happened to get here illegally. That said, I find the general attitude of Republicans towards immigrants to be unsavory and I do believe we should at least move towards having more open borders. SIDE: Liberal

Welfare – I do support some level of income redistribution, but I think we do it really poorly and incentivize all the wrong things, such as unemployment and having kids you can’t afford. SIDE: Conservative

Social Security & Medicare – I don’t believe people should be forced to spend their money in any certain way. I also find it ironic that the idea of the Social Security program is that the government is going to save money for people because people are irresponsible and can’t save for themselves, however the government

actually didn’t plan very well and now the program is going broke. It’s a nice summation of how I feel about government action in general actually. Basically, I think governments are run by people and subject to the same follies as individuals are. If people are poor at saving, then people running governments aren’t likely to be much better. Especially since the people making the decisions aren’t the ones who are going to suffer the consequences. SIDE: Conservative

Unnecessary War – Well, both sides have waged lot of unnecessary wars over the years. Hard to pick a side here, but at least the rhetoric of the Democratic party is less pro-war. I still think it’s a disgrace that Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize though. SIDE: Liberal

Deficit – Completely out of control at this point. It needs to be reduced and we should start by taking away unnecessary, wasteful government programs. Also, by the way, there is no evidence that the “stimulus” worked at all. Unemployment rose higher with stimulus than projections suggested it would without it. Of course, maybe it did help and the projections were just wrong, but doesn’t this suggest that we really just don’t know much? And if we don’t know much, shouldn’t the default to be not to put ourselves into massive debt? SIDE: Conservative

Islamic threat – I feel like this is another issue where rhetoric is more different than reality. Democrats talk about being more understanding, but they still seem to take national security and the Islamic threat very serious (and thus have few qualms about invading our privacy). Still, I think liberals tend to be more rational about the issue. I’m not a fan of blind patriotism, which is a well-known conservative trait. SIDE: Liberal

And the final score is: 11-5 in favor of the liberals. This is completely meaningless, especially since I rarely vote for either major party, but so it is. I will continue to vote for 3rd party candidates and “waste my vote” in blind hopes that maybe one day there will be an elected official who isn’t corrupted by power.