Musicmystery
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Joined: 3/14/2005
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"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.
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.
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.
4) Women have the right to choose about abortion. It's a medical decision and a private moral decision.
5) We have given up too much privacy in the mania of the Patriot Act and subsequent action. We will regret it.
6) Sensible regulation is crucial, and worth the cost. Banking, financial markets, energy, environment, labor, air travel, utilities--it's simply necessary.
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).
8) We are not being overrun by immigrants. We do need sensible immigration reform, including a path to citizenship.
9) The Department of Homeland Security is nothing but theater, a wasteful front to pretend to respond to 9/11.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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).
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.
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.
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.
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.
21) Sensible gun legislation does not violate the second Amendment.
22) The founders did not intend to orchestrate an armed rebellion.
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?
24) The death penalty is expensive retribution, not justice.
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.
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!
< Message edited by Musicmystery -- 6/11/2012 8:30:25 AM >
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