| sc94597 said: Most Republicans are as liberal as Democrats are (per its classical definiton.) Hell many republicans are as progressive (they take Wilsonian democracy as a tenent since the 50's.) My issue with how Republicans approach free-markets are that they are selective. They are much more pro-business than they are pro-market. And often markets and business combat each other. For example, when a Republican tries to privatize something, they think it should be essentially given to the highest bidder. As a libertarian who believes in lockean property rights, I believe it should be private, yes, but it should only become private through the homestead principle. And private property doesn't necessarily mean only one individual owns it. There is such a thing as collectively owned private property. The private part just means it is excludable. That is just one example of how Republicans wrongly approach the issue of private property rights. Conversely I have found the Democratic stance on free-speech and gun rights to be alarming. How can one call oneself liberal if they don't support these crucial liberties? While the intentions of Democrats might be pure, that doesn't mean they aren't still creating institutions that will certainly be abused by future leaders. That is why these protections are there in the first place. Overall, I don't think ideology drives much of politics. It is mostly about convenience. Even among voters this is true. Voters have bought the myth of "the lesser of two evils" and "sides against eachother." Recently Rand Paul had a reddit post that echoes his father. "People look at bipartisanship the wrong way. Too often in Washington bipartisanship means a handful of people make backroom deals where they "compromise." Real bipartisanship is being open and finding areas where we actually agree and pushing those issues forward. I've worked hard with my colleagues on the left to reform the criminal justice system: https://www.randpaul.com/issue/criminal-justice-reforms" I think this is an extremely critical position to take. We need to resolve the issues we all agree on before we approach the ones that are in dispute. |
Very well put and in line with the thought I had earlier today: people need to start electing candidates that have representative platforms and corrobative records and stop toeing party lines and/or trying to define a political archetype.
