I know that RF is overwhelming leaning to the "centre-left" politically, so I wondered exactly what the numbers are for support of Conservative policies (even if they don't identify as conservative). I was not able to include everything in the Poll and I expect people will disagree over whether they are conservative or not, but I thought it was a decent selection.
It is easier to talk about labels, but much harder when you get deeper in to discussing individual policies with all the complexities involved. Our loyalties and identities are consequently more complex in practice than they may appear on paper or even when we vote at the ballot box. Or as Edward Murrow put it in the McCarthy era, "We must not confuse Dissent with Disloyalty". Political polarisation is- outside of a very narrow set of cases- a myth as virtually all Americans support the rule of law, private property, constitutional government, multi-party elections and individual rights even if we have radical divergences on their interpretation in practice. Such disagreements are healthy and are arguably a necessary part of social development as one set of ideas is superseded by another. The number of people who today genuinely advocate political positions that would overturn more than 200 years of the Republican Constitutional government in the US remains very small and most of those who do are not immune to the influence of prevailing ideas about individual liberty even as they argue against them.
Any way, I was hoping to maybe get people thinking beyond the labels and maybe find areas where they agree. Its too easy to get sucked in by the "us versus them" narratives and treat them as absolutes when people still share the same daily experiences such as going to work or school, wanting to meet someone who makes them feel special, trying to bring up a family on a tight budget and try to have a good time. Ideally, we should wear the labels rather than the labels wearing us.
So do you agree with any conservative policies? What policies do you think makes someone conservative? How much do Liberals and Conservatives actually agree on? Do you think the agreements or disagreements are more meaningful or important?
It is easier to talk about labels, but much harder when you get deeper in to discussing individual policies with all the complexities involved. Our loyalties and identities are consequently more complex in practice than they may appear on paper or even when we vote at the ballot box. Or as Edward Murrow put it in the McCarthy era, "We must not confuse Dissent with Disloyalty". Political polarisation is- outside of a very narrow set of cases- a myth as virtually all Americans support the rule of law, private property, constitutional government, multi-party elections and individual rights even if we have radical divergences on their interpretation in practice. Such disagreements are healthy and are arguably a necessary part of social development as one set of ideas is superseded by another. The number of people who today genuinely advocate political positions that would overturn more than 200 years of the Republican Constitutional government in the US remains very small and most of those who do are not immune to the influence of prevailing ideas about individual liberty even as they argue against them.
Any way, I was hoping to maybe get people thinking beyond the labels and maybe find areas where they agree. Its too easy to get sucked in by the "us versus them" narratives and treat them as absolutes when people still share the same daily experiences such as going to work or school, wanting to meet someone who makes them feel special, trying to bring up a family on a tight budget and try to have a good time. Ideally, we should wear the labels rather than the labels wearing us.
So do you agree with any conservative policies? What policies do you think makes someone conservative? How much do Liberals and Conservatives actually agree on? Do you think the agreements or disagreements are more meaningful or important?
Capital Punishment/Death Penalty: I would have supported hanging Nazi War Criminals at Nuremberg and would support it in similar cases of mass murder where people are essentially "irredeemable" by the sheer number of people they are responsible for killing. In the case of the Nazis it was also expedient to get rid of them so their could not be a "Fourth Reich" or a major resistance movement to allied occupation.
The Right to Bear Arms: Giving the government a monopoly on gun ownership does make me a bit uneasy, but I'm comfortable with background checks and limiting what kind of guns can be owned by people so it can reduce how destructive they are when they are used for the "wrong" thing.
Life Begins at Conception and Abortion is Murder: I think abortion should be legal because the government does not "own" a woman's body and should not force them to give birth to a child. However, the question of whether a "person" has rights before or after they are born is somewhat arbitrary so I'd concede the possibility that a fetus has rights, even if it is only a minimal duty of care.
The Right to Bear Arms: Giving the government a monopoly on gun ownership does make me a bit uneasy, but I'm comfortable with background checks and limiting what kind of guns can be owned by people so it can reduce how destructive they are when they are used for the "wrong" thing.
Life Begins at Conception and Abortion is Murder: I think abortion should be legal because the government does not "own" a woman's body and should not force them to give birth to a child. However, the question of whether a "person" has rights before or after they are born is somewhat arbitrary so I'd concede the possibility that a fetus has rights, even if it is only a minimal duty of care.
