Left-Center-Right

[GwynnInTheHall]

There's been a lot of talk about issues and parties and far left and far right and what it all means. So, to kind of get a grasp on who thinks what is what, why not list some issues based on where you believe the sit on the spectrum.

It's safe to say (or maybe not) Free College for everyone is to the left, Teaching creationism in Public Schools is to the right and fixing the Tax system is in the middle (though HOW might veer right or left)

It would be interesting to see what those of you who lean one way or another think is an identifying issue or platform for you and your life and where you place it on the Left-Right scale.

I have a feeling we identify where issues sit on this scale differently and knowing this difference might help in the disconnects within some of our discussions.

[chancellor]

Free college - based on your definition, I'm far right. IMO, we have far too many unqualified students in college today, providing it for free will merely make that problem worse.

Free expression - it used to be that my point of view here was leftist, but now it's neither - it's a pure libertarian belief. I'm appalled at what's happening on college campuses today.

War on drugs - left. I think. And even that looks to be changing. I find drug laws to be a waste of time, resources, and skills that could be used much, much better elsewhere.

Federal programs - hard right, likely. I find the Feds to be the most useless, boneheaded, arrogant, elitist buffoons. Almost everything they touch has good intentions that are merely paving stones on the road to hell.

[baldgriff]

Free College is NOT the answer. Rethinking what we value as jobs or "good jobs" is. Mike Rowe did an interesting piece on this a number of year back. At some point in the education process, labor jobs became a lesser valued job. Students were being indoctrinated to "work smarter" than "work harder". There are jobs out there in the trades that kids graduating from high school dont consider because they are not as valued. There is no such thing as FREE Education - it would just become some other government subsidized program that would be paid for by - yup taxes. There are plenty of people that dont have kids, that should have no responsibility to pay some tax for someone else's post high school education. Also - we need to stop teaching kids to some test score criteria and actually get them to leave high school with some real life skills. All to often graduating seniors have no idea what is actually going to happen to them when they get in the real world.

Freedom of Expression - I am, like Chance, very concerned about what students are being taught in college about the freedom of expression. I said this before in some previous threads - I may not agree with something you say, but I will die to protect your freedom to say what you think.

Drugs - This may surprise all of you - Legalize and tax all of it. Portugal has essentially decriminalized drugs and treat it as a public health issue rather than criminal issue. It seems that our "war on drugs" has been ineffective would be an understatement. Change the paradigm, and legalize/decriminalize it.

Social Welfare Program - We as a people have turned over our responsibility to helping our fellow man to the government and they just dont do it well.

Term Limits - Fully endorse term limits for all branches of the government including the judicial.

[Moonlight J]

Free college, but if your GPA falls below a 2.5, you pay a tax on that. If it falls below 2.0, you lose all funding.

[Gregg]

Free college, but if your GPA falls below a 2.5, you pay a tax on that. If it falls below 2.0, you lose all funding.

Pay for your first full year of credits. Maintain a 2.50 GPA, then the second year is paid for. 2.50 second year, 3rd year is paid for, etc.

[gcstomp]

Immigration, this country was founded by and for immigrants. I appreciate what many countries do, such as Canada, and Australia, where you have to score a certain positive value to gain entry, so for instance if you had medical or technical degrees, or have secured employment, or have family already living in country that you clearly can help, then you can gain entry. So OPEN borders, assuming you score an entry, in effect earning your way in. L/R score:The qualifying part I think makes this a centrist view.

Free education, absolutely we must have free college and trade school for the areas where we have massive crucial need, the STEM, science, tech, engineering, and math fields. You want to be a radiography tech, or a field electric engineer, or an urban school math teacher, you need to score a certain hard to get score on an entry exam, you need to maintain a certain GPA, and then you must commit to a year of public service, to pay back the country that is investing you in. If you want to major in art history or french lit, fine, go crazy, but you pay full tuition. L/R score: free school is hard left, the qualifying part makes it centrist

Legal drugs, I dunno. I am odd in I have never even tried any kind of illegal drugs and have no desire to. But so much is spent to criminalize someone who is a user, rather than treat that person as someone who needs help is hugely wasteful. The prisons are full of drug related offenders. L/R score: Guess I am lefty, as in I dont want them legalized, but the wasteful spending on war on drugs is crazy

Term limits: Yes, we should have term limits. L/R score: ??

Social protections, as in the LGBT community, they need to be hardlined protected. They should be able to legally marry each other with all the rights and protections offered by that union. If you have your gay partner dying in hopsital, you are damn straight that you should be allowed in as family, or to be able to make health decisions for your partner, just like any married couple. L/R: Hard left

Right to choose, of course a woman (and her doctor)should have freedom to make decisions as they see fit, with no govt interference. What decade are we in? L/R spectrum: left

Separation church and state, this is crazy pants that we have so many people who want religion any where near school.. You need to weed out people who think science is a belief structure on equal footing as religion, and you get to pick what is true. It is also crazy pants we as a country cannot elect the best and brightest minds to higher office as we need to have someone who is a self described christian, who has regular worship. Nothing is a greater disqualifier than being on the record as an atheist. L/R: off the L/R spectrum, as religion is big on both sides, its just out the window at this point to consider just getting the best without the religion component into elected office.

[bryanbutler]

economy: tax the wealthy (and businesses) - i don't believe in trickle-down; regulate businesses; i don't mind having a deficit (and don't think balancing the nation's budget is anything like balancing your own personal budget - those are apples and oranges).

healthcare: everybody should have it, and it's a governmental responsibility to provide it.

immigration: path to citizenship for current "illegals;" not open-door, but allow some level of new immigration; deport criminals.

education: massive influx of money should come to the entire system - it's woefully underfunded (including better teacher pay); oppose a massive shift to private education, including charters (de vos is a de saster); don't believe in completely free post-high school education, but don't mind with rules (like certain GPA) - we have this in NM for NM residents and it's a fantastic program.

abortion: all women should have access to it.

gay/transgender rights: all for them, what are we living in the 50's? mixed views on transgender bathrooms though, i have to say.

gun rights: ban handguns (i oppose concealed carry and all its relatives) and all automatic/semi-automatic weapons except for exceptional reasons. at the very least, background checks and limited numbers of shells in magazines.

size of gov't: too big currently. i'd be happy if trump did drain part of the swamp, but there seem to be no real indications that that's happening.

size of military: too big currently.

climate change: it's real. duh.

i guess i consider myself middle-left in the left-right spectrum.