Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
The problem w/ "fiscal conservative" is that the bar for what's "conservative" isn't the same. I'm a fiscal conservative in the sense that I don't want to waste money on nonsense projects and would love to see a cheaper, more compact gov't. But I also understand that a strong safety net is necessary for a country that supposedly thinks it's citizens are the cream of the crop.
I'm a conservative, and agree with a strong safety net too, I just think we give too much power and control of the social welfare safety net to the federal government, when the states should have that money and control.
Every time we cede more power and authority to the federal government over some social welfare program, the feds take more wealth from the states, until the states don't have enough to look out for the welfare of their citizens. Then the desperate state looks to the feds to help, the feds then grab more power, and more money from the state coffers, and on it goes. Eventually the federal government becomes ubiquitous, and controls something as innocuous as local school lunch menus.
I'm left wing, socially and fiscally, yet I think we need to curb our spending big time. So I guess I have some conservatism.
Depends how you look at it.
Look at my home state of Illinois and their budget\spending woes. It's reached the point where it's endangering the pensions of the public workers, teachers etc. I can think of a number of social liberal arguments that support cuts when the alternative is to screw over pensioners from promised monies.
A fiscal liberal shouldn't mean that they spend like a drunken sailor (but they often do), but rather HOW the spending is prioritized. I'm fiscally conservative in that I want balanced budgets and kept promises etc. not just rampant spending to buy votes and leave the mess for someone else.
Running deficits is just "fiscal stupid" because eventually reality is going to show up whether it was liked or not.
I picked the second category from the top since its the closest to a volunteerism philosophy that is strong in libertarianism and classical liberalism. Honestly though, fiscal conservative is a very subjective term, perhaps more so than socially liberal. Some would prefer that the government would refram from spending money on useless projects while others would like government's fiscal foot print to be physically small and out of the way.
On another note, I would argue that being socially liberal is different from socially libertarian from the simple fact that a progressive approach to social issues to utilize a collectivist approach that usually result in a new law for specific group of people. Being socially liberal vs. libertarian seems to only differ when its comes to the approach. A socially libertarian approach would be to see people as individuals with intrinsic "rights". There would likely be laws in place but they would apply to everyone. Take for example gay marriage, from a libertarian perspective ( which varies actually), would simple either have a law that allows any consenting adults to marry or it would be forced to local/state government level, where you'd have a mix of areas that would allow it versus areas that wouldn't, with shades of grey on its permissibility. There would be some issues that would have to be worked out here, of course; such as, how would certain marriages be recognized in areas where its banned. However, this seems to be how gay marriage is being legalized anyway, state by state, so perhaps that's a moot point.
I'm left wing, socially and fiscally, yet I think we need to curb our spending big time. So I guess I have some conservatism.
You think with some rationality, that's all.
Over the past four years we have been spending over a trillion more then we bring in, and writing new laws, regulations, and entitlement programs that depend on that extra trillion. It's pure insanity, and it's absolutely unsustainable.
We cannot continue emergency spending levels like we have, much less sign new federal spending laws that draw from that bubble of emergency spending money. Now we have gotten to the point where the emergency spending was treated as the new norm, and we created new permanent spending programs, and expanded others, that cannot be cut because they require the borrowed money.
It's like the family bread winner losing her job, and running out to buy a new car and a new house, and imposing new monthly payments that equal an additional 40% of the monthly debt that was owed owed when she had a job. It's a recipe for disaster.
What is socially conservative? Is it akin to being a religious conservative, if so, exactly which religion would that be?
I would say it's the belief that the government should have the authority to legally enforce or "protect" traditional and moral values, which in the case of the US are based on Christian doctrine.
It seems that way but I think a lot of people in general are fairly libertarian even if they never called themselves one or even know what a libertarian is. Unfortunately we do not have many libertarians in politics or places of power. I suspect that one of the reasons for this is that a libertarian leader gives up more power to the people than other parties would, and politicians and leaders like power and control. If you're for economic AND personal freedom then theres a good chance that you aren't the personality type that strives to rule over others.
"Socially conservative and fiscally liberal"... Hitler is about the first thing I think of with that combo.
I actually think this Canadian website works really well in generating a holistic, multi-faceted map based on party platforms. It's got a US presidential election Vote Compass up on the main page, but I haven't used it and can't vouch for how good it is.
I just went and took it and scored 82% Romney, 35% Obama. I consider myself to strongly favor Romney over Obama. So in my case the test was pretty accurate.
I'm not sure the one-dimensional 'left vs right' political spectrum encompasses the majority of people anymore. Thoughts?
I answered socially liberal and fiscally conservative. But the things that I am fiscally conservative about are the things that social conservatives are fiscally liberal about like homeland security, military funding, corporate welfare and those kinds of things I think should/could be defunded quite a bit.
I feel that at different economic times money needs to be spent on different things. In these economic times I feel that money could be better spent actually getting America back on its feet than funding even more authority over the people.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
