To me it is about acknowledging the next step isn’t going to be far from where we currently are, no matter which direction we go. It’s maintaining that direction that matters above all. There is no way to teleport to the far-left goals I agree with in principle. It would be nice but not in this media environment. If democrats held the house, senate, and presidency for a full decade, showing a repeated rejection of the misinformation and trickery that results in republican victories, the republican party would crack and become centrist, which would free the democratic party to move to the left. This is actually obtainable. Flooding the democratic party with progressives and winning the main elections with every contest is not.
I’m further left than liberal, but I believe politics is the art of the possible, the attainable, the next best etc. and that my preferred governance isn’t any of those things.
There’s also a lot of broad egalitarian “values” things that liberals have (outside of particular policy prescriptions) that I subscribe to.
We should have economic opportunity such that it attracts capital investment, so that we can tax it and pay for social services that befit the richest country in the world.
On the left, I am pro-LGBTQ+ rights, pro-choice, pro-environment. I am also in support of greater access to higher education & free healthcare.
Towards the center, I think I believe in the death penalty (honestly that’s a hard one), and I am pro stricter immigration laws and I’m pro-gun (though I do believe there needs to be reform). I’m also against raising minimum wage. I’m sure that will be controversial on here.
Economically, honestly I don’t know, I don’t have any idea what each side honestly wants. I’m pissed about how they are gutting government programs & federal employees, but I also don’t know what the answer is. I want to go back to a time when it wasn’t impossible to feed yourself and have a roof over your head, and I especially want children someday but that won’t happen unless the economy seriously changes.
I don’t vote up and down the ticket on all democratic candidates or policies. I critically think and try to do research on all issues. I also really enjoy r/askconservatives because I am really open minded and try to see their viewpoints as well.
I think the functions of the state are far more important than markets, but I also think that we cannot presume that every problem can be solved simply by one or the other, nor do I think we can treat them as if they were separate spheres. The state drawing the distinction between the private and public sphere and creating the rules of exchange is the basis of any market capacities beyond crude anarchical bartering systems.
Problems with the state or the market or the broader culture outside formal political domains are thus better viewed as problems with relations between domains in a whole system that falls under the state’s purview even if sometimes the right thing for the state to do is leave some projects up to private institutions.
There is a tendency for people to by default assume all problems are better solved by the state or the market or other private institutions without any further consideration and I just find that completely uncompelling. Not every aspect of life should be up for a political process to determine but not every aspect of life should be allowed to be made transactional.
I do think that the state should provide many things that many centrists would likely rather be (more) privatized. That includes education, healthcare, transportation. I’m not opposed to private offerings of those as alternatives, but I’m opposed to sacrificing the quality of the public offerings to make room for the private offerings.
On the subject of democracy, you need a population that’s raised and educated to be have a civic spirit and self-governing capacities to constructively participate in one. That means you can have too much democracy if the population doesn’t have such. You can’t just rely on the formal systems of voting in elections, people do vote to end their own democracies, including the working class that I think left wing theories sometimes misguidedly romanticize as if they were natural political leaders who could usher in a utopia if only they could break their chains and capture the state for themselves. On the flip side, I don’t think “business leaders” should be assumed to make good political leaders either. I want a political elite that is a distinct political class so I like my bureaucrats and technocrats to some extent.
I’m a bit of a nerd for classical Greek and German idealist philosophy so my very pro-state, Plato/Aristotle/Hegel influences probably factor into this overall understanding, which is not something typical left wing people give much credence to aside from Hegel mediated (heh) heavily by Marx.
I just joined and wasn’t completely sure how to identify myself. Maybe you guys can help me.
I don’t believe in police abolition or ACAB, but I do believe in pretty significant police reform.
I’m pro-choice, but I still struggle to understand exactly how abortion isn’t killing a person. Nonetheless, I think realism is knowing there are so many circumstances in which a person just cannot raise a child, and most people who came into the world unwanted don’t have great lives. When I had an unplanned pregnancy shortly after my second child, and the baby had medical problems, I was unable to consider abortion because it felt like killing my baby (but there again, I was in a fairly good position to keep the baby).
I feel very strongly about LGBTQ+ rights. Literally zero comprehension for why anyone should care if two dudes get married or if someone wants to be referred to in a specific way. Pretty much anything I hear advocating against these kinds of rights just auto-translates in my head as “hateful asshole talk”.
I believe immigration is necessary to the economy, especially amid falling birth rates, but I do believe there should be standards (like, let’s check and make sure people aren’t fleeing a warrant or something). I’m also appalled at how much blatant discrimination is apparently admissable.
I believe in a fairly non-negligible amount of taxes, because what exactly else is the plan? But I believe people with higher incomes should pay more than those with lower incomes (for the record, my family is high income and we pay a boatload of taxes).
I did believe the DOE needed significant reform as well, but getting rid of it is like, wow. What.
So idk. Maybe I’m just REALLY, REALLY left. I really have no idea. I FEEL center left because I live in the Seattle area, where a lot of people advocate for socialism and police abolition. My mom makes me feel like I’m almost MAGA, it’s crazy.
I’m a married corporate lawyer who is raising a family in the suburbs. I’m also transgender.
On the economic policy front, I’m a big believer in the power of the free market, so long as there are appropriate guardrails in place. The way I tend to look at business, and the time I’ve spent in that world, tends to put me to the right of the Social Democrats.
I’m to the left of centrist Democrats primarily on social issues. LGBTQ+ issues in particular are a hill I will die on. And not just because for me they’re actually kitchen table issues, but because it’s what’s morally right. We’re just people, trying to live and work and care for our families. We have a right to live our lives and not be persecuted for being born wired differently.
I’ve varied in how I describe my views over the years and kind of settled in as saying I’m a “left leaning libertarian.” and would say I’m moderate enough not to call myself far left or a leftist.
The government shouldn’t be involved in dictating how people live their lives or policing their behavior, so long as it isn’t overtly criminal, and that’s where the “libertarian” part comes in. You want an abortion? Your business, not mine. You’re trans or non-binary? It’s a free country and that’s your business, not mine. You should be able to live openly as your true self without being treated like shit for it. You want a safe full of suppressed AR-15s? Fucking A’ right, partner, god bless America, that’s your business, not mine, but can I shoot one?
At the same time, I acknowledge that government plays a role and I don’t know if I’d say I want it small or big so much as I want it functional. Taxes are a necessary fact of life and some level of regulation is necessary to keep businesses honest. I also fully support social programs to help out the people that need it. I also support the US led global order, when it’s not being led by an orange jackass, and support doing shit like aiding Ukraine with weapons and intelligence. The complete lack of interest in foreign policy and the desire to gut public works is where I differ with right leaning libertarians.
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And what do you believe that distinguishes you from Centrist Democrats to your right and Social Democrats to your left?
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To me it is about acknowledging the next step isn’t going to be far from where we currently are, no matter which direction we go. It’s maintaining that direction that matters above all. There is no way to teleport to the far-left goals I agree with in principle. It would be nice but not in this media environment. If democrats held the house, senate, and presidency for a full decade, showing a repeated rejection of the misinformation and trickery that results in republican victories, the republican party would crack and become centrist, which would free the democratic party to move to the left. This is actually obtainable. Flooding the democratic party with progressives and winning the main elections with every contest is not.
I’m further left than liberal, but I believe politics is the art of the possible, the attainable, the next best etc. and that my preferred governance isn’t any of those things.
There’s also a lot of broad egalitarian “values” things that liberals have (outside of particular policy prescriptions) that I subscribe to.
We should have economic opportunity such that it attracts capital investment, so that we can tax it and pay for social services that befit the richest country in the world.
I am center-left.
On the left, I am pro-LGBTQ+ rights, pro-choice, pro-environment. I am also in support of greater access to higher education & free healthcare.
Towards the center, I think I believe in the death penalty (honestly that’s a hard one), and I am pro stricter immigration laws and I’m pro-gun (though I do believe there needs to be reform). I’m also against raising minimum wage. I’m sure that will be controversial on here.
Economically, honestly I don’t know, I don’t have any idea what each side honestly wants. I’m pissed about how they are gutting government programs & federal employees, but I also don’t know what the answer is. I want to go back to a time when it wasn’t impossible to feed yourself and have a roof over your head, and I especially want children someday but that won’t happen unless the economy seriously changes.
I don’t vote up and down the ticket on all democratic candidates or policies. I critically think and try to do research on all issues. I also really enjoy r/askconservatives because I am really open minded and try to see their viewpoints as well.
I think the functions of the state are far more important than markets, but I also think that we cannot presume that every problem can be solved simply by one or the other, nor do I think we can treat them as if they were separate spheres. The state drawing the distinction between the private and public sphere and creating the rules of exchange is the basis of any market capacities beyond crude anarchical bartering systems.
Problems with the state or the market or the broader culture outside formal political domains are thus better viewed as problems with relations between domains in a whole system that falls under the state’s purview even if sometimes the right thing for the state to do is leave some projects up to private institutions.
There is a tendency for people to by default assume all problems are better solved by the state or the market or other private institutions without any further consideration and I just find that completely uncompelling. Not every aspect of life should be up for a political process to determine but not every aspect of life should be allowed to be made transactional.
I do think that the state should provide many things that many centrists would likely rather be (more) privatized. That includes education, healthcare, transportation. I’m not opposed to private offerings of those as alternatives, but I’m opposed to sacrificing the quality of the public offerings to make room for the private offerings.
On the subject of democracy, you need a population that’s raised and educated to be have a civic spirit and self-governing capacities to constructively participate in one. That means you can have too much democracy if the population doesn’t have such. You can’t just rely on the formal systems of voting in elections, people do vote to end their own democracies, including the working class that I think left wing theories sometimes misguidedly romanticize as if they were natural political leaders who could usher in a utopia if only they could break their chains and capture the state for themselves. On the flip side, I don’t think “business leaders” should be assumed to make good political leaders either. I want a political elite that is a distinct political class so I like my bureaucrats and technocrats to some extent.
I’m a bit of a nerd for classical Greek and German idealist philosophy so my very pro-state, Plato/Aristotle/Hegel influences probably factor into this overall understanding, which is not something typical left wing people give much credence to aside from Hegel mediated (heh) heavily by Marx.
Centrist Democrats are equivalent to “old school Republican” lite. God help us if the Social Democrats get everything they want.
I just joined and wasn’t completely sure how to identify myself. Maybe you guys can help me.
I don’t believe in police abolition or ACAB, but I do believe in pretty significant police reform.
I’m pro-choice, but I still struggle to understand exactly how abortion isn’t killing a person. Nonetheless, I think realism is knowing there are so many circumstances in which a person just cannot raise a child, and most people who came into the world unwanted don’t have great lives. When I had an unplanned pregnancy shortly after my second child, and the baby had medical problems, I was unable to consider abortion because it felt like killing my baby (but there again, I was in a fairly good position to keep the baby).
I feel very strongly about LGBTQ+ rights. Literally zero comprehension for why anyone should care if two dudes get married or if someone wants to be referred to in a specific way. Pretty much anything I hear advocating against these kinds of rights just auto-translates in my head as “hateful asshole talk”.
I believe immigration is necessary to the economy, especially amid falling birth rates, but I do believe there should be standards (like, let’s check and make sure people aren’t fleeing a warrant or something). I’m also appalled at how much blatant discrimination is apparently admissable.
I believe in a fairly non-negligible amount of taxes, because what exactly else is the plan? But I believe people with higher incomes should pay more than those with lower incomes (for the record, my family is high income and we pay a boatload of taxes).
I did believe the DOE needed significant reform as well, but getting rid of it is like, wow. What.
So idk. Maybe I’m just REALLY, REALLY left. I really have no idea. I FEEL center left because I live in the Seattle area, where a lot of people advocate for socialism and police abolition. My mom makes me feel like I’m almost MAGA, it’s crazy.
I’m a married corporate lawyer who is raising a family in the suburbs. I’m also transgender.
On the economic policy front, I’m a big believer in the power of the free market, so long as there are appropriate guardrails in place. The way I tend to look at business, and the time I’ve spent in that world, tends to put me to the right of the Social Democrats.
I’m to the left of centrist Democrats primarily on social issues. LGBTQ+ issues in particular are a hill I will die on. And not just because for me they’re actually kitchen table issues, but because it’s what’s morally right. We’re just people, trying to live and work and care for our families. We have a right to live our lives and not be persecuted for being born wired differently.
I’ve varied in how I describe my views over the years and kind of settled in as saying I’m a “left leaning libertarian.” and would say I’m moderate enough not to call myself far left or a leftist.
The government shouldn’t be involved in dictating how people live their lives or policing their behavior, so long as it isn’t overtly criminal, and that’s where the “libertarian” part comes in. You want an abortion? Your business, not mine. You’re trans or non-binary? It’s a free country and that’s your business, not mine. You should be able to live openly as your true self without being treated like shit for it. You want a safe full of suppressed AR-15s? Fucking A’ right, partner, god bless America, that’s your business, not mine, but can I shoot one?
At the same time, I acknowledge that government plays a role and I don’t know if I’d say I want it small or big so much as I want it functional. Taxes are a necessary fact of life and some level of regulation is necessary to keep businesses honest. I also fully support social programs to help out the people that need it. I also support the US led global order, when it’s not being led by an orange jackass, and support doing shit like aiding Ukraine with weapons and intelligence. The complete lack of interest in foreign policy and the desire to gut public works is where I differ with right leaning libertarians.