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Simple- Some people believe, if they are NOT perfect (as he describes self)- as NEVER doing anything wrong-
whatever happens is their own fault-
Many people say: I am a good person" what they mean is-- the rest are shyte-- psych 101
I was raised by my dad, and he was pretty absent throughout my teen years. I kind of raised myself, but I was fortunate to have a couple of good friends to lean on. He was very conservative, and used to vote down anything that would cost money. However, he ended up marrying a woman who was the polar opposite and they were together for thirty years until he died two years ago. I consider myself very liberal socially, but not fiscally. I don't think throwing more money at a problem will necessarily solve it.
Consider myself a moderate. Pro-everything, pro-choice, pro-gun, pro-rights, pro- small government, pro-gay marriage...marry a rock, I don't care.
By very definition I'm neo-Liberal. Then I worked in California and realized "liberal" there is not liberal at all but an enclosed bubble of socialist ideas and the close-minded, none acceptance of anything but.
Where I grew up and how I was raise, who you are as a person and your political beliefs are two very separate things. Two guys could have a blow-up argument in a bar about politics and leave feeling no real hate for each other. Hell, they may very well be best friends. Parents don't determine their children's friends by other parent's political beliefs or necessarily religious beliefs, but by their responsibility and caring nature.
California, people just hate...and hate. One could feed the homeless for decades, but if folks found out they voted for Trump (or what not), they are unable to separate the good person from the beliefs. It's a sickness, blatant to the world but imperceivable to the afflicted.
Me thinks you have similar closed-mind syndrome in many ways...
Or maybe it is just a matter of who you got to know in California, I don't know, but there are nearly 40 million people who live in California, liberals as well as conservatives, many on both sides who are friends of mine. We've had different political beliefs for years, but we're still friends. I have a very conservative father-in-law, however, who lives in Utah, and he gets so upset about those who don't agree with him politically, he can't even talk politics. So we don't. I also have a nephew who is proud to tell me he doesn't have any Republican friends and he doesn't want any. A question of "morality" he tells me, because Trump, for example, represents all the misogynistic and xenophobic tendencies that he has no tolerance or patience for. I can understand this too. Sometimes I wonder if I shouldn't be more intolerant about such bigotry and ignorance as well...
Still, I try to see what good I can in people, and I recognize that so very many Americans have politically misguided notions that can't all be blamed on them. I have a very good conservative/Republican friend, for example, that was raised in a very religious household. As a result, he too is very religious and this is why he can't vote for a Democrat given the pro-gay liberal agenda. I regret that he should feel the way he does for those reasons, but I can't be sure to what extent I should blame him for what I strongly feel is wrong thinking in these regards on his part. So, we're still good friends...
For me, Grandparents and Mother were JFK Dems, but after Johnson and Viet Nam and then Carter and Iran Hostages and scrapping the defense industry (mom worked for Rockwell) they became Reagan Republicans (Reagan Democrats?) and continued voting R.
Reagan was my first opportunity to vote as I had just turned 21. GWB was my last R and now I'm a Libertarian, which to me is about the same as what a JFK Democrat was in the 60s. I have come full circle.
Social moderates and fiscal conservatives would the best way to describe my family.
It isn't all Californians. Keep in mind the state has millions of conservatives and libertarians, but we are held hostage by SF, LA as well as the gerrymandering the Dems have done for 60 years.
This is a state that gave us Gray Davis, and now Moonbeam v.2
"Held hostage?" Oh for the love of heavy loaded rhetoric...
Also the state, rather blue mind you, that gave us the Governator. Remember him? Wealthy, beholden to no political special interests, entertainer, an "outsider," elected to "shake things up in government," spoke his mind...
Sound familiar?
Hopefully things work out better for the country than electing Swarzenneger worked out for California...
I didn't really fit in any of the boxes. My parents were middle-class, churchgoing Republicans. Though my Mom and Dad often loved to discuss politics and argue about various issues. I grew up listening to my entire family discuss politics; I think that is where I learned to love it. My Uncle could make my Mom so MAD! She would go for a walk around the block and then they would get right back into it.
My Grandmother used to tell me when I was really little that "Democrat' was a bad word! I never was sure if she was teasing or not.
I never really thought in very strict terms of Republican v Democrat until I started really paying attention and coming to places like this.
In CD world, I'm a raving liberal. In the real world, I'm a centrist Democrat.
I think I started to learn my own political ideology in college; though I didn't spend much time in political courses. But being a psychology major I took a lot of philosophy classes - that really taught me to THINK about all sides of an issue. There isn't always one right or wrong.
That eventually led me to the Democrat party which is more gray in their thinking for the most part; while I find more Republicans more prone to strict black and white thinking.
That's the political road I walked. I would like to see us all identify less with our respective parties and concentrate on issues . There are things I don't necessarily agree with Democrats on; but I don't dare say that on CD because it's so . . . black and white.
See you conveniently left out LBJ? The vast majority of people who came home in boxes did so under Democratic Reign Didn't Nixon get us out? You guys have Alzheimer when it comes to history.
Is this a call for education?
Throughout the conflict, American Presidents were unwilling to see South Vietnam conquered by Communist forces, and thus each of them made the same commitment to forestall a Communist victory. Presidents Truman and Eisenhower had commenced American involvement there by sending military advisers. Kennedy had begun assigning Special Forces military personnel to Vietnam, ostensibly in an advisory capacity as well, and there were about 20,000 there when he was assassinated in 1963.
For Johnson, the decision to continue the Vietnam commitment followed the path of his predecessors.
Johnson's decisions were based on complicated political and military considerations. LBJ steered a middle course: The "hawks" in Congress and in the military wanted him to engage in massive bombing of enemy cities, threaten to use nuclear weapons, and even threaten to invade North Vietnam. This might have led to Chinese entry into the war, as had happened in the Korean War, or even Soviet engagement. "Doves" in Congress, the State Department, and even Vice President Hubert Humphrey wanted Johnson to negotiate with Hanoi for a "neutral" South Vietnam and eventual reunification with the North. The President's "middle way" involved a commitment of U.S. ground forces, designed to convince the regime in Hanoi that it could not win, and some punishing bombing campaigns, after which serious U.S. negotiations might ensue. One of Johnson's major problems was that Hanoi was willing to accept the costs of continuing the war indefinitely and of absorbing the punishing bombing. It would do so until the United States decided to give up its commitment to aid the South. McNamara and his "war game" analysts in the Department of Defense failed to account adequately for this eventuality.
Your poll is flawed. I'm a moderate democrat so how am I supposed to vote. And I'm sure there are still many moderates on both sides.
I can agree with many of these criticisms though I don't usually have a hard time knowing where I stand when it comes to most things politics. In fact I tried a similar poll/thread with the use of a questionnaire/survey that helps people determine where they stand politically...
This survey has its flaws as well, but there are others to help people find their proper political moniker, for those inclined to do so. Many people reject such a label in the first place, but ultimately I believe if anyone were to thoroughly go down the list of issues/questions that define what makes for a liberal vs a conservative, Democrat vs Republican (or other), everyone would ultimately land on one side of the political center or the other.
IOWs, Independents, "fence sitters," are simply people who don't know enough about the various political platforms to know where their position actually fits most appropriately within the political party choices. Also for example, people think they are one side "socially" but another "fiscally" as if you can't be Liberal for both social and fiscal reasons.
I have thought about developing an extensive/thorough matrix to help people better understand where they stand politically speaking, but I'm not sure I have that sort of time any more than anyone else does...
As most political maps are, that's hardly telling the whole story. Should we put the populations into each of those plots? Needles vs San Diego, for example?
You are correct, but the population does not matter one iota, not one jot and tittle. This is why the left are now whining about the electoral college, and now they want CA to secede. Remember how the left called Texas conservatives batsht crazy for wanting to secede? Welcome to the loony bin.
Quote:
Originally Posted by LearnMe
"Held hostage?" Oh for the love of heavy loaded rhetoric...
Also the state, rather blue mind you, that gave us the Governator. Remember him? Wealthy, beholden to no political special interests, entertainer, an "outsider," elected to "shake things up in government," spoke his mind...
Sound familiar?
Hopefully things work out better for the country than electing Swarzenneger worked out for California...
You don't live here, do you? How myopic of you.
Actually, he was a decent governor (and far better than Davis) who was more liberal than conservative. He's basically a Kennedy for God's sake! The CA congress is to blame for obstructing anything good he tried to do as well. Like the Pres, a Governor can have his hands tied.
I chose what was closest, which is liberal/lenient, but I don't really think that covers it. I grew up in as an early gen-xer, which in simple terms means I raised myself. We were, after all, the original latch-key generation. My parents were both raised in blue collar families with the union memberships to prove it, but they both went to college and pursued professional careers in medicine/health care. Because both were very successful and worked long hours, my siblings and I were on our own quite a bit. That said, I also grew up in a neighborhood that housed a lot of military officers, so there was a conservative undercurrent and a lot of extra eyes watching for nonsense. My siblings and I knew where the boundaries were and were careful not to cross them. Even so, our parents were fairly hands off. Today, I am moderately left-leaning with a healthy respect for the armed forces and a patriotic (although not nationalistic) streak. My husband grew up in a similar environment, and he, too, characterizes himself as left-leaning.
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psych 101 
Didn't Nixon get us out? You guys have Alzheimer when it comes to history.
