Poll: Liberal or Conservative?

[kawligia]

I put Other. I'm a Libertarian.

Libertarian: A believer in a political doctrine that emphasises individual liberty and a lack of governmental regulation and oversight both in matters of the economy ('free market') and in personal behavior where no one's rights are being violated or threatened.

Same.

Both liberals and conservatives promote some liberties while restraining others. Liberals often push for socialism and paternalistic government. Conservatives often disfavor those who don't comply with what is "traditionally acceptable" and sacrifice rights in the name of national security.

Both of them use censorship as a social engineering tool.

 

[Obama Osama Llama Diorama]

You want proof of what? Socialism not working? Cause the ideology basically speaks for itself: every major socialist power ever to exist has died out or adapted.

 

[Shoqiyqa]

Oh, yeah, every country with "Socialist" in the name has failed so socialism sucks. How's the Deutsches Democratisches Republik doing these days?

Hmm. The US has been very right-wing for eight years and various factors, particularly unregulated financial practices favouring big business by allowing it to exploit the poor, have caused a huge crash. The UK has been drifting towards the US for twelve years and has been thumped hard by the same problem. Other, less capitalist countries, have coped rather better. France gets socialised healthcare twice as good as the US.

Here, take a look at this chart on gapminder [http://graphs.gapminder.org/world/#$majorMode=chart$is;shi=t;ly=2003;lb=f;il=t;fs=11;al=30;stl=t;st=t;nsl=t;se=t$wst;tts=C$ts;sp=6;ti=2004$zpv;v=0$inc_x;mmid=XCOORDS;iid=pyj6tScZqmEcjeKHnZq6RIg;by=ind$inc_y;mmid=YCOORDS;iid=phAwcNAVuyj2tPLxKvvnNPA;by=ind$inc_s;uniValue=8.21;iid=phAwcNAVuyj0XOoBL_n5tAQ;by=ind$inc_c;uniValue=255;gid=CATID0;by=grp$map_x;scale=lin;dataMin=19;dataMax=74$map_y;scale=lin;dataMin=23;dataMax=86$map_s;sma=49;smi=2.65$cd;bd=0$inds=i76_t001995,,,,;i156_t001999,,,,;i239_t002000,,,,;i249_t001993,,,,] comparing life expectancy and inequality index in France, the Netherlands, the USA and Vietnam. See a trend? No?

Now try Public healthcare per person as %GDP [http://graphs.gapminder.org/world/#$majorMode=chart$is;shi=t;ly=2003;lb=f;il=t;fs=11;al=30;stl=t;st=f;nsl=t;se=t$wst;tts=C$ts;sp=6;ti=2005$zpv;v=0$inc_x;mmid=XCOORDS;iid=pyj6tScZqmEeWlt4U9WfbBg;by=ind$inc_y;mmid=YCOORDS;iid=phAwcNAVuyj2tPLxKvvnNPA;by=ind$inc_s;uniValue=8.21;iid=phAwcNAVuyj0XOoBL_n5tAQ;by=ind$inc_c;uniValue=255;gid=CATID0;by=grp$map_x;scale=lin;dataMin=0.0429;dataMax=19$map_y;scale=lin;dataMin=23;dataMax=86$map_s;sma=49;smi=2.65$cd;bd=0$inds=i76_r,,,,,,;i156_r,,,,,,;i239_r,,,,,,;i249_r,,,,,,] versus life expectancy. That look more like a trend to me. Something's clearly wrong with ... East Timor, Lesotho, Malawi, Micronesia, Maldives and Sao Tome & Principe. Gee, low life expectancy in East Timor and Lesotho? Singapore appears to be getting something right. The Netherlands and the USA are pretty close together, but the Netherlands are on the "more years for your Euro" side of the curve. Isn't Europe generally left of the USA?

Here's another trend: GDP/cap is higher in countries with literate young women[url]. Maybe not relevant, but hey, it's interesting.

Somewhere there's a rant about what socialism is and isn't.

Meanwhile, perhaps you'd like to express pride in some achievements of a totally non-socialist nature, like taking care of disabled people or making sure all children get at least a basic education, or eradicating smallpox or polio or ... erm ... well, that's a really nice yacht that guy's bought ...

 

[Ken_J]

A pritty straight forward question, I recently found out that I'm not as alone as I thought with my politcal opinion but I want to know what the majority of my fellow escapist are.

Oh and explain your answer please.

Well in Aus our Liberal party are actually Conservatives.. so like with everything else, it's kinda backward.

I'm in america so politcal stuff from america is going to be weird to people in Australia (hopefuly that's what you mean, bad at abreviations).

I realy have no idea how other countries political system works, that may make me sound a bit xenophobic but I see it as I should learn my own countries politcal system first.

 

[Aedrial]

Heh, I know a little about American politics, due to the fact that it's widely accepted across the globe to know little bits.

Our (Australia's) political system is rather simple.
Admittedly most citizens know more about world politics than they do our own.

 

[lovinglifeboston]

It seems to me people miss the point. Parties mean nothing. This is common. Most people are ignorant of politics.

In the US, socially liberal and fiscally conservative is most common. It is called Libertarian. All true US Americans are libertarians. Our fore fathers were.

The federal government should not dictate social norms but should be conservative (not interventionist). The US Constitution is clear. Stay out of my life. Deal with foreign entities, protect civil liberties and that's it.

The state governments can do whatever the people want. Build your state the way the people want and maybe destroy it in the process. We can lose a state but not the country. Unfortunately, we are destroying the country by trying to normalize all of the states and hence all of the people. That is socialism. It will fail.

The founding fathers built a Republic at the federal level not a Democracy--I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with truth and justice for all.

They built democracies at the state level. That is why we have the electoral college. That is why Bush won. Gore lost. People don't understand our own constitutional structure--this is why our federal government is lost.

The fathers were very weary of parties and party loyalty. Voting for a group, for the sake of the group, against your own values is stupid and dangerous. They were right. Look at us. When we vote for parties, the people are ignored, controlled and oppressed.

There are two types of people: control freaks and freedom lovers--give you a fish or teach you to fish. Control freaks will lie to you and freedom lovers expect you to control yourself.

Now, pick your candidate!

The real question is: Are you a socialist pig or a capitalist pig? Then pick a state and go there, better yet, if you are a socialist, pick another country.