YSG
Posts: 1001
Joined: 8/6/2010
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Musicmystery
"Leftist" is in quotes because any actual leftist is gonna read this and say wtf?
These are my positions. My actual positions, not the ones people continually make up for me. Some of them are left-leaning, if we consider green initiatives (no, not blindly all of them) and social justice (no, not automatically any cause), while others are frankly far to the right of today's version of "conservative," particularly economically.
No particular order, and not an exhaustive list.
1) Obama is a mediocre president. But he comes after a poor president, and given Romney as the alternative, I'll vote for re-election.
Ill cut the guy a small break on account of getting blocked by the repubs on most things, but the fact remains he had 2 years with a Democratic Congress that did very little. Nevermind the fact that he refused to prosecute Bush for war crimes, or Wall St for their bullshit
2) The Health Care law is flawed, but does many things that are long overdue, as is having something in place, finally breaking through that obstructionist barrier. I want this carried through in 2014. The status quo was simply unsustainable, including from the viewpoint of businesses providing coverage inflating at double digit rates.
It doesnt go far enough. It is time for socialized medicine in this country, no ifs ands or buts about it
3) The Supreme Court has decidedly become a partisan vehicle. That's unfortunate. But it's also not the first time in history. It will take time to undo this. Years.
Actually, to my understanding, its basically accepted that one conservative and one moderate justice are going to retire in the next 4 years. Obama being reelected means at the very least a moderately left Supreme court for years to come
4) Women have the right to choose about abortion. It's a medical decision and a private moral decision.
No arguments here
5) We have given up too much privacy in the mania of the Patriot Act and subsequent action. We will regret it.
Or here
6) Sensible regulation is crucial, and worth the cost. Banking, financial markets, energy, environment, labor, air travel, utilities--it's simply necessary.
I would ask what you consider "sensible". Personally, I think every Wall St banker should be in jail for the crap they pulled, and places like Wal Mart should be legally forced to recognize unions, as per the Wagner Act
7) The minimum wage hurts nothing. It's too low to hurt anything--it's below legitimate market rates (except in common areas of exploitation, such as migrant farm labor).
Enough with minimum wage. It is time for living wage, which means you can pay all of your bills and still have a certain amount of expendible income every month.
8) We are not being overrun by immigrants. We do need sensible immigration reform, including a path to citizenship.
Upping the amount of worker visas available would do the trick
9) The Department of Homeland Security is nothing but theater, a wasteful front to pretend to respond to 9/11.
Oh I dont know, I kind of like the feeling of an anal probe every time I try to fly (sarcasm)
10) Globalization is here to stay, and we benefit from it greatly. The same is true of our various free trade agreements--WTO, NAFTA, APEC, etc. People advocating protectionism have no clue what this would mean and how severely it would shut down our economy until we wised up and opened our borders again.
Those who still tout globalization do not seem to realize that it is a continuation of colonization, and that the colonizers and the colonized are still the same.
11) We do, however, need more meaningful international law. That's not going to be easy. One main barrier to that is attitudes and policy from the U.S., which does indeed act as a capricious bully with some frequency.
Good luck getting that to fly with any other country
12) Social security is not in "crisis" -- it easily pays for itself, especially considering lifetime contributions, adjustments of those contributions for inflation, and return over a working lifetime. There are also many more workers--the population of the U.S. has tripled in my lifetime. What *is* a crisis is that those funds were borrowed to cover unfunded expenses elsewhere. That puts the borrower--the U.S. taxpayers--on the hook.
Except the US Taxpayers did not borrow it; Congress borrowed from Social Security to fund two wars
13) Medicare is more of a problem. It needs a drastic overhaul, and both parties know it. They're just reluctant to take it on because (a) it's political risky and (b) they don't know what to do. "Reforms" that are actually cuts are not the answer.
See my answer to #2
14) Fixing the federal debt will require ALL of these--ALL...any part is not gonna do it: (1) cutting defense, (2) adjusting social security and Medicaid/Medicare, (3) raising taxes (on everyone, including the rich--add additional upper tax brackets), (4) cutting spending--but discretionary spending is not enough to cover it, and is a red herring. Waiting to "grow" our way out of this is a fantasy. Not going to happen.
Unfortunately you are correct. However, I would be willing to pay higher taxes if certain things were done to benefit the average person, rather than the top 10%
15) Our current mess is not any one president's or congress' fault at this point, and no one person can fix it. It's a severe structural problem, beginning with the Bush tax cuts and compounded by unfunded wars. We will be stuck here for a decade or two, no matter who is elected. Obama's big mistake was to raise expectations.
To an extent you are correct. The progressive movement has sat on its ass the last 30+ years and done nothing while the right wing has chipped away at every victory won from 1930-1976
16) We can be building buildings that use very little energy, very affordable, and we should be building most buildings this way. This includes houses under $150,000 (higher where values are high).
You could actually power one average suburban neighborhood on just one windmill. Imagine what you could do with that plus solar panels in a major city
17) People are living far beyond their means, especially driving cars they can't actually afford. If they demanded more reasonable cars, they'd get them, but first they have to wake up and realize a 7 year car loan is dumb.
Right, blame people for not having the education, or the resources needed to be educated, on intelligent practices. Also, say nothing of the fact that that IS capitalism, buy buy buy, sell sell sell, consume consume consume. Fact remains, we're gonna be out of fossil fuels in the next 20 years, yet very few people are doing anything to prepare for that.
18) There is always work, or the worker can create work. But people honestly don't know how to find those "hidden" jobs or how to create their own work--not a criticism, as this can be difficult. Training would help.
Americans already work more hours per week than any other developed nation. How the hell is it right that a person needs 2 or 3 jobs just to get by?
19) Most--yes, MOST--business owners know little about business. It's why they flail about when conditions change. Again, this is harder than it looks, so not a criticism. It's hard to tell business people this--they don't want to hear it, preferring to assign outside blame.
The species that survive are the ones that are most able to adapt to change
20) We need a green/local/permaculture/biodiversity revolution in the U.S., in the cities as well as the country--community gardens, green rooftops, container gardens, window boxes, and so forth. Take control of our food back from the petroleum industry. Eat real food, not processed. This plus exercise would help the U.S. obesity epidemic.
Agreed. For every person with obesity though, theres another who is starving.
21) Sensible gun legislation does not violate the second Amendment.
Agreed. I dont see why a backround check is such a bad thing
22) The founders did not intend to orchestrate an armed rebellion.
I find it hard to beleive that they didnt know the DOI was going to start a war...
23) The notion that legalizing pot would prove a tax revenue boon is insane. Honestly--people already engaged in illegal activities are going to start paying taxes on those activities?
Umm... Yes, they did it for alcohol. Besides, who are we to regulate morality?
24) The death penalty is expensive retribution, not justice.
Agreed
25) Unions are not an economic problem. They simply don't have the power to influence wages people believe they have, still being bound by market conditions (see an economics text). The current pension issues are governments who failed to responsibly plan for their fiscal obligations, preferring to spend on otherwise unfunded expenditures and to hope for continual growth to cover their tracks. They got caught, and want to blame unions.
Unions would actually have some power if the Dems would back them up once in awhile. Also, the World Bank came out with a study some time ago that stated that countries with a strong labor movement were actually better off economically.
That's enough for now. Here's a little guidance on generic responses and my replies, to save time.
I. Q - "So what you're saying is __________"
A - Fuck you. Read my actual position, instead of making one up.
II. Q - "Typical leftist _________________"
A - Address what's in the actual position, instead of making one up.
I think you get the pattern.
From there, if you want to make up positions for me, I'm not needed for the conversation--just your imaginary friend.
Enjoy!
I did this little critique to illustrate the difference between "leftist" (aka neoliberals) and "progressives" (actual liberals).
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Our duty is to hold ourselves responsible to the people. Every word, every act and every policy must conform to the people's interests, and if mistakes occur, they must be corrected - that is what being responsible to the people means- Mao Zedong
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RE: Actual "Leftist" Positions - 
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