Ideologies, you gotta love em!
For you to understand my political views, I want to give you some background knowledge on who I am (without you being able to track me down, kidnap me, and hold me for ransom). I grew up in a heavily liberal city, where diversity and differences were celebrating in all circumstances. Since I had always been surrounded by liberals, naturally it is what I chose to identify with. I mean, pro-choice, pro-gay and pro-dowhateveryouwant sounds pretty awesome right? And so I sat in my happy bubble, protesting and arguing and being the best liberal I could be.
It wasn't until later in life that I had realized that liberalism, and all other political identities, had layers of complexity to them. And as you got older, it was more about politics than social ideology. This was serious, your beliefs could change the course of a nation. Though I'm a control freak, so the idea of this greatly excited me. I like to feel important, but I also know that to be respected and relevant you have to do some work. I couldn't just walk up to someone and scream about free love, I had to get technical.
So I began to explore the more objective side of politics-- scandals, policies, and dissents oh my! I had gone into this a blank canvas, I didn't want to choose a party while also already belonging to a political party. In my exploration, I took a survey, which had popped out some pretty thought-provoking results. It said that I was a Disaffected Democrat.
What is a Disaffected Democrat you might ask?
There ya go. Nice and laid out for you.
Now I don't 100% agree with this. I feel that I am more a libertarian, which is someone who policy-wise is more Republican but social-wise is more democratic. So yay for less government regulation AND free love! I especially enjoy libertarianism because it is a sweet harmony of both Democrats and Republican views, and I feel that it best aligns with the idea of taking bits and pieces of ideas to combine one, great individualistic idea.
But wait! There's more (ideologies)!
So enough about my beliefs, let's talk about other ideologies. There are two I would like to highlight because they are the everlasting ideologies of politics: liberalism and conservatism.
Conservatives historically have been Republican. Majority of conservatives believe in free trade, limited government regulation, and lower taxes. Social wise they're known for outward homophobia, xenophobia, anti-LGBTQ and align with the pro-choice movement.
Liberals historically have been Democrat. Majority of conservatives believe in more government involvement/regulation, higher taxes (mostly for the rich), and more government assistance to those who need it. Social wise they're known for pro-LGBTQ, the pro-choice movement and consider themselves pretty open-minded.
If that's not enough of a comparison for you, here are some visuals:
If you want to see more statistics, click here!
As you can see, these two groups have pretty differing opinions in almost all aspects! There's also a bunch of ideologies in the middle, what a relief! The great thing about politics is that it is a spectrum, so you don't have to feel compelled to completely align with extremes. Libertarianism is similar to core conservatism in the sense that they think the government is pretty lame and should ease up on regulations; libertarianism is identical to core liberalism in the sense that they are for social issues like gay marriage, affirmative action, and abortion.
To be even more specific, libertarianism is built off of the idea of liberty, limited government, and peace. It is said that "libertarians have a great antipathy to concentrated power"(CATO Institute) meaning that they are not in favor of an overbearing government. Libertarians think the government is best when divided with restrictions, differing from the liberal belief that the government should be more involved in public affairs. Even more so, liberals believe the government should be more giving regarding money to things like section 8 housing and welfare. The reasoning behind this ideology for libertarians is that limited government allows more liberties and individualism for the people. This aligns pretty well with the conservative's point of view on government since they also believe that the government is too powerful, and needs to be less involved in public affairs for the sake of individualism.
Regarding social discourse, libertarianism is more big d Democratic! Liberals are for things like gay rights, abortion rights, and all the other rights that conservatives think are wrong (ha.. get it..) After all, libertarianism is built off of the belief that "each person has the right to live his life as he chooses so long as he respects the equal rights of others." Meaning that they believe in human rights for all, regardless of sex, race, gender or sexuality. The only exception to this being that what someone is doing "violates the rights of others." Sounds pretty tight, right? Liberals have been known to feel that people should have the freedoms to live their life, through doing things like advocating for planned parenthood, an abortion and health services clinic. This is contrasting to the view of a conservative, which is that people should definitely not live a life full of personal freedoms and that there should be some guidelines set in place. Such as gay marriage rights. For the most part, conservatives are against it (moreso because the majority identify with organized religion), and there are those who don't agree with it, but feel that the topic of banning marriage should be a state by state issue. But for a libertarian, everything is peachy keen as long as no one is getting hurt.
This is quite a bit of information, isn't it?
And with all of this on top of applying to college, battling teenage angst and keeping my grades afloat, it's no wonder why I am so restless.
It wasn't until later in life that I had realized that liberalism, and all other political identities, had layers of complexity to them. And as you got older, it was more about politics than social ideology. This was serious, your beliefs could change the course of a nation. Though I'm a control freak, so the idea of this greatly excited me. I like to feel important, but I also know that to be respected and relevant you have to do some work. I couldn't just walk up to someone and scream about free love, I had to get technical.
So I began to explore the more objective side of politics-- scandals, policies, and dissents oh my! I had gone into this a blank canvas, I didn't want to choose a party while also already belonging to a political party. In my exploration, I took a survey, which had popped out some pretty thought-provoking results. It said that I was a Disaffected Democrat.
What is a Disaffected Democrat you might ask?
There ya go. Nice and laid out for you.
Now I don't 100% agree with this. I feel that I am more a libertarian, which is someone who policy-wise is more Republican but social-wise is more democratic. So yay for less government regulation AND free love! I especially enjoy libertarianism because it is a sweet harmony of both Democrats and Republican views, and I feel that it best aligns with the idea of taking bits and pieces of ideas to combine one, great individualistic idea.
But wait! There's more (ideologies)!
So enough about my beliefs, let's talk about other ideologies. There are two I would like to highlight because they are the everlasting ideologies of politics: liberalism and conservatism.
Conservatives historically have been Republican. Majority of conservatives believe in free trade, limited government regulation, and lower taxes. Social wise they're known for outward homophobia, xenophobia, anti-LGBTQ and align with the pro-choice movement.
Liberals historically have been Democrat. Majority of conservatives believe in more government involvement/regulation, higher taxes (mostly for the rich), and more government assistance to those who need it. Social wise they're known for pro-LGBTQ, the pro-choice movement and consider themselves pretty open-minded.
If that's not enough of a comparison for you, here are some visuals:
If you want to see more statistics, click here!
As you can see, these two groups have pretty differing opinions in almost all aspects! There's also a bunch of ideologies in the middle, what a relief! The great thing about politics is that it is a spectrum, so you don't have to feel compelled to completely align with extremes. Libertarianism is similar to core conservatism in the sense that they think the government is pretty lame and should ease up on regulations; libertarianism is identical to core liberalism in the sense that they are for social issues like gay marriage, affirmative action, and abortion.
To be even more specific, libertarianism is built off of the idea of liberty, limited government, and peace. It is said that "libertarians have a great antipathy to concentrated power"(CATO Institute) meaning that they are not in favor of an overbearing government. Libertarians think the government is best when divided with restrictions, differing from the liberal belief that the government should be more involved in public affairs. Even more so, liberals believe the government should be more giving regarding money to things like section 8 housing and welfare. The reasoning behind this ideology for libertarians is that limited government allows more liberties and individualism for the people. This aligns pretty well with the conservative's point of view on government since they also believe that the government is too powerful, and needs to be less involved in public affairs for the sake of individualism.
Regarding social discourse, libertarianism is more big d Democratic! Liberals are for things like gay rights, abortion rights, and all the other rights that conservatives think are wrong (ha.. get it..) After all, libertarianism is built off of the belief that "each person has the right to live his life as he chooses so long as he respects the equal rights of others." Meaning that they believe in human rights for all, regardless of sex, race, gender or sexuality. The only exception to this being that what someone is doing "violates the rights of others." Sounds pretty tight, right? Liberals have been known to feel that people should have the freedoms to live their life, through doing things like advocating for planned parenthood, an abortion and health services clinic. This is contrasting to the view of a conservative, which is that people should definitely not live a life full of personal freedoms and that there should be some guidelines set in place. Such as gay marriage rights. For the most part, conservatives are against it (moreso because the majority identify with organized religion), and there are those who don't agree with it, but feel that the topic of banning marriage should be a state by state issue. But for a libertarian, everything is peachy keen as long as no one is getting hurt.
This is quite a bit of information, isn't it?
And with all of this on top of applying to college, battling teenage angst and keeping my grades afloat, it's no wonder why I am so restless.
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