Political Leaning: Left, Right or Center

[faither]

I'm trying to gather some evidence to either support or contradict the recent statement that "This forum is populated by and large by right leaning conservatives."

As the original Mayor Daley used to say in Chicago, "Vote early. Vote often."

[whitak24]

i tried to vote often, but it said i had already voted in this poll :bawl:

hmmmm....i wonder if my grandma and grandpa can have user accounts here at g|a? :hihi:


btw, i'm a centerist. i was raised by whacky right-wing parents (i call them whacky not necessarily because they were right-wing. they are just whacky). i was a hard-core libertarian when i started college.

but then two things happened.
1.) the more i leanred, the closer to the center i got. it's hard (for me at least), when i read two very intelligent authors who can take the same evidence and draw two very different conclusions and yet do so logically to say that one is wrong because they're "liberal". basically, i guess i got to the point where i felt like both sides had something to offer to most debates. after all, if there was an easy, cut-and-dried solution to problems, someone would have implemented it by now. fact is, an accurate model of most problems is complex and multi-causal. and the solutions are just as complicated. the people who profess to have an easy answer (as the people of the left and right often do), are guilty of illogical reductionism

2.) i got to know people who i respected deeply yet disagreed with strongly. having been raised to believe that liberals were evil and their ideas were stupid, i just always assumed that people who disagreed with my enlightened view of the world were either ignorant or willfully ignoring the facts. the ignorant excuse worked for my friends in high school, most of whom cared nothing for politics, etc. but once i got in college, i got to know a lot of people, some of whom diametrically opposed my viewpoint. and these were intelligent, articulate, thoughtful people. they were making well-reasoned decisions based on the facts as they understood them. i got to the point where i could no longer disrespect ideas that didn't agree with mine.

i'm rambling here and not explainging myself well, so i'll shut up.

[Cantacuzene]

I don't think center should be in this poll. I'm man enough to admit which direction I lean, but I think a lot of people here who say they are centrists are actually leaning on way or the other, no offense to whitak because he IS a centrist.

Basically, I think having center as a choice on here screws up the original intention of the poll which is to prove which direction people here lean. Even if you are a centrist, 99% of the time you lean in one direction, very rarely is someone split down the middle 50/50.

[kimchicowboy]

i'm pretty center, but definitely lean towards the right.

[speedracer120]

Originally posted by kimchicowboy
i'm pretty center, but definitely lean towards the right.

:stupid:

[Ladogaboy]

I am a moderately conservative liberal.

[blueindian]

lefty here. :wavey:

i sort of agree with Cantecuzene...this poll probably shouldn't have center, since we are talking about what direction people lean.

[Cantacuzene]

Originally posted by Yossarian

true, but many people also agree on issues that are considered 'left', yet also agree on others that are 'right'

I'm liberal, but i own a gun, belive in teh death penalty and support a few other conservative positions, but that doesn't make me centrist. You can be a complete liberal with one or two conservative views or vice versa. A true centrist is someone so divided they often can't make up their mind on the presidential election until they are in the booth. I still contend that even if you define you self as a centrist you still lean one way or the other.

[joe52985]

leaned more right up until latly, now im more in the center-left, just different issues that are totally out of whack(in rhode island at least)

[attgig]

I'm right on social issues (abortion, schooling, etc.)
Left on economic issues (economic laws, welfare - a little cross over to teh social, but i'm left on that, etc.)

so, i'm center..

if i'm included in the right, it's prolly cuz we don't talk much about economic issues

[blueindian]

Originally posted by Yossarian

but just because you lean one way dosen't mean you are totaly commited.

right, but isn't this poll to see if we could garner any support for Cantecuzene's statment that there seems to be an overall slant to the right here.

you don't have to be totally committed to be slanted

[Nija]

I don't know what I am.

I'm not sure which parties I agree with on what issues.

Is there a website I can find out, so I can find out what I am (ok I know WHAT I am, but not what I am in the sense of this poll :P )

[molecularfire]

I put right because I do agree with a lot of their stuff, but I have some opinions that even my lefty friends think go too far. To be honest, (I'm not trying to poop on your thread but this is my opinion) I don't think that left, right or central is a very good way to guage someone's political opinions. Maybe someone might want to have a survey where we ask some of the basic political questions like people's stance on things like welfare reform, abortion, physician assisted suicide, death penalty, specific foreign policy, etc...

:)

[Cantacuzene]

Originally posted by Yossarian

but just because you lean one way dosen't mean you are totaly commited.

I believ ethe thread title is Political Leaning, not Political Affiliation.

[nfarzan]

was center, but I moved to the south and was disgusted by it...so now i'm a leftie...

[whitak24]

i think cantacuzene has a valid point here.

when it comes down to it, either you lean to the left or lean to the right. i guess you could call it your "default political position". if you were presented with an issue that you had never heard of before, are you naturally going to be inclined to come down on the conservative or the liberal side?

for me, my default political position is to the right, because that is the way i was raised (regardless of what people say, i believe there are very few people who were raised with political values who end up completely discarding those values when they grow up. now if people aren't raised in a politically conscious environment, then it is entirely possible that they will end up picking a different political direction). but my point is that i tend to automatically side with the conservative side of an argument. however, as i stated in my earlier post, when it comes time for me to actually formulate a solid opinion, i have a hard time coming down on either side of the issue, because in most cases, both sides have valid points. that's why i usually identify myself as a centerist.

[mojo]

maybe since this is a poll we should let people vote themselves as center if that's what they think. just allow a margin of error instead of trying to define other peeps for them :hehehmm:

remember that you can be left or right of center and not really be right on the dot. without a definition of center here and how far to the right or left it can be, then it has to be left up to the participant. some issues you can be left strongly, and some to the right. placing value judgement on any of those issues would devalue the poll itself since it's subjective...so center is perfectly fair and valid.

[whitak24]

there have been various comments here on how to figure out if you lean left or lean right.

in light of this, i think it's important to point out that the "science" of measuring where one sits on the political spectrum is complex and not exactly scientific.

first of all, there is the confusion of party identity with liberalism or conservatism. this is patently false. republicans are not conservative and democrats are not liberal. both parties have adopted a gingerly constructed patchwork of political ideaolgy to match the views of the interest groups that support them. so one can be liberal on key issues and be a republican (corporate subsidies, anyone?), or be conservative and be a democrat.

as for third parties, greens are liberal on many issues, but conservative on other s (protectionism, etc). libertarians and US Taxpayers could be considered conservative by many observers. however, in many ways their doctrines of freedom and non-involvement by the government run counter to the conservative philosophy (at least one interpretation of it, which would place fascism at the extreme of conservative political thought).

this brings up the fundamental problem with the "left-right" discussion. what is liberal and what is conservative? the paradigm that has developed in this country is paradoxical in that a restrictive social policy and unrestrictive economic policy are considered conservative, and the opposite is considered liberal.

in addition, many would argue that were we place the center in u.s. politics is significantly to the right of where the center is in europe, etc. however, one could counter that europe has more extremists on the fringes of both the left and the right than the united states. i mean, you don't see a fascist party gaining viability in the u.s. (and for those of you who say that the republicans are fascist....well, we're not going there in this debate :hihi: )

my basic point is that the question of "are you left-leaning or right-leaning?" really is not simple and stock answers don't really do it justice.

[eSDee]

Originally posted by Cantacuzene
I don't think *snip*

Stop right there!!!

Exactly :P

[faither]

I had to read it a couple of times but now I'm laughing my heiny off. :laugh:

[Cantacuzene]

Not funny.

[Napoleon54]

Libertarian.

None of the options fits.

[Napoleon54]

Originally posted by Cantacuzene


I'm liberal, but i own a gun,

But how quickly would you hand over that gun if the liberals ask for it? Doesn't matter if you have one or not, what matters is if you'll keep it.

[Cantacuzene]

Originally posted by Napoleon54


But how quickly would you hand over that gun if the liberals ask for it? Doesn't matter if you have one or not, what matters is if you'll keep it.

Well first, liberals are NEVER going to attempt to ban guns. Its political suicide and unconstitutional to begin with.

Second, in Florida we don't have to register our firearms with the government, so the government has no idea, nor should they, that I am armed. The day the government sends armed law officers door to door to collect the nation's guns is the day that its time for the people to think about dissolving the government.

[Napoleon54]

Originally posted by Cantacuzene


Well first, liberals are NEVER going to attempt to ban guns. Its political suicide and unconstitutional to begin with.

There are MANY who seek to do just that. In fact, it has begun. They've already banned "assault weapons" (whatever the hell that term means, and you can be sure they'll redefine it to include anything that suits their whim) and have severely restricted handgun ownership. Politicians have been sheitting on the Constitution for a loooong time.

Originally posted by Cantacuzene

Second, in Florida we don't have to register our firearms with the government, so the government has no idea, nor should they, that I am armed. The day the government sends armed law officers door to door to collect the nation's guns is the day that its time for the people to think about dissolving the government.

Agreed. But I think we're dangerously close to that point right now. Now that the banning has begun, the process has been allowed to take root, and it's only a matter of time until they try to ban everything.

[Cantacuzene]

You're overreacting. Not even the NRA is as worried as you.

[Napoleon54]

Originally posted by Cantacuzene
You're overreacting. Not even the NRA is as worried as you.

I'm looking ahead. Consider the current trends. Where do you think this'll be 50 years from now?

Yah there's not much support for a total ban right now. But a lot of the foundation is being laid NOW. The precedents are being set NOW. There's constant pressure for more firearm restrictions via legislation and several things are passed each year. This trend will continue. People, especially Liberals, love to pass new laws. You'll never see any of these laws repealed. These laws will slowly choke guns out of the hands of the American public. As long as the government doesn't do anything too quickly, the public will let it happen. Just watch. Look back on this thread in the year 2050- You'll see that what I'm saying now will have come true unless this trend is stopped.

[Cantacuzene]

You'll never see any of these laws repealed.

Congress is scheduled to debate to repeal the Brady Bill as we speak. Its funny that with all the problems this country has the first item on the republican agenda is repealing the Brady Bill rather than doign any serious work. I'm not sure how I feel about it.