Identity Crisis
February 1, 2008 on 3:21 pm | In Main, Oddball, Race for Prez |
Or, as Adm. Stockdale famously said, “Who am I and why am I here?”
* * * * * * * *
Just the other day my wife ran into a regular reader of this blog who said he thought he had me figured out. I am really a Republican in independent’s clothing, he insisted. So rather than become offended, I thought that with the presidential race upon us I would conduct an unscientific survey of myself to determine what I am. You know, sort of the political equivalent of checking yourself for ticks.
Since I left the Democratic Party as I entered grad school in 1988, I’ve been unable to identify with either party enough to actually bring myself to enroll in one of them. In the last few years I have described myself as “a hybrid who leans libertarian.” Alas, since I am unaffiliated, I will be unable to vote in either of Connecticut’s Feb. 5 primaries.
Nonetheless, the reader’s observation got me to thinking. If the presidential race boiled down, for example, to a contest between a middle-of-the-road Dem and an equally middling GOPer, both of whom were personally acceptable to me, for whom would I vote? It’s not a question I could answer without giving it some thought.
I have picked 13 issues off the top of my head that are considered important, that I am passionate about and, in some cases, are very relevant to the presidential campaign. Some are hot-button; some are not. I have ranked myself as honestly as I can, according to contemporary political standards.
Like the former teacher that I am, I have used letters and a system of pluses and minuses. For example, R means mainstream Republican; D- means leaning Democrat; R+ means right-wing nut and so forth. Two of my responses (education and life issues) defied categorization. So I designated them non-classifiable (NC).
I’m sure I’ve left out some important topics that also deserve analysis, but this is a highly arbitrary and subjective exercise, so please bear with me. The topics and brief explanations are written in note form using sentence fragments and abbreviations (that’s the recovering English teacher part of me!).
This survey is not as easy to take as some that let you check a few boxes and have the results tabulated for you. Be that as it may, take the test, if you dare, and see how you rate:
(R+)
1. Economy — Pro-growth, favor supply-side economics and tax cuts to stimulate economy and create jobs. Free trade is generally a good thing. Notwithstanding our class system (and John Edwards’ reminders to the contrary), I believe there is really one America that, above all, wears liberty on its sleeves.
(D-)
2. Iraq — Dreadful idea from the get-go. Believe Bush admin cherry-picked intel to build public support to make war in the Middle East and scare terrorists (not to seize oil; that’s ridiculous). But have changed my mind about quick withdrawal. Admit surge has helped.
(R-)
3. Civil liberties — Agree w/ ACLU probably 50% of the time. Believe strongly in 4th amendment protections against unreasonable searches and seizures. Against gov’t censorship initiatives such as the Communications Decency Act of 1996. But think that in the global war on terror we have to cut the gov’t a little slack. Serious questions about FISA warrantless wiretapping and some aspects of PATRIOT Act, but OK w/ financial monitoring programs such as Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) and Terrorist Finance Tracking Program. The notion that we are slouching toward fascism strikes me as terribly overwrought.
(D)
4. Free speech — Am staunchly pro 1st amendment, but media should be subject to same laws as others when it comes to publicizing classified info. Flag burning laws proposed by politicians and veterans groups are thinly veiled attempts to suppress political speech.
(R)
5. Judges — I’m not sure what a “strict constructionist” judge is, but I believe (except in rare cases like civil rights) that the states have the power to regulate whatever is not set out in the Constitution as the province of the feds.
(R)
6. Government spending and intrusiveness - we should err on the side of restraint
(D+)
7. Prayer in schools — Putting organized prayer into public school classrooms is a horrible idea. If only we threw the fear of God into kids, they’d behave like we did 40 years ago, right? It’s a clear violation of the Establishment Clause and profoundly naive. The religious right irritates me to no end.
(NC)
8. Education — Solidly pro-private school vouchers. But favor moving away from public school funding dependent on local property taxes on the grounds that it’s grossly inequitable. Favor gradually increasing state aid to the point that state funds K-12 entirely. Property taxes would be cut 2/3 but state taxes would be raised accordingly to pay for it. (I don’t know how to categorize this; your guess is as good as mine)
(NC)
9. Abortion/life issues — I think Roe v Wade was flawed judicial reasoning. As even some pro-choice advocates concede, to argue that the right to an abortion is grounded in some sort of unwritten Constitutional right to privacy is a real stretch. Let the states regulate abortion. If I had to write the law, it would allow abortions for birth control purposes up to the point of viability outside the womb. At that point, I consider it infanticide. But to argue, as staunch pro-lifers do, that life begins at the moment of conception is ludicrous. Fully support adult and embryonic stem cell research for medical cures, so long as research is performed on embryos that would otherwise be discarded, not created just for research. This issue also looks like a philosophical wash.
(R)
10. Funding of political campaigns — Adamantly opposed to McCain-Feingold on free speech grounds. I still cannot believe SCOTUS upheld it, albeit narrowly. It bans broadcast ads that name a federal candidate within 30 days of a primary or caucus or 60 days of a general election, and prohibits any such ad paid for by a corporation or non profit. It’s an outrageous abridgment of free speech and I can’t understand why liberal groups did not oppose it on those grounds. Philosophically, I don’t think you can ever mitigate the influence of money in politics unless you ban all political contributions, which (inconveniently) would also pose serious 1st Amendment problems.
(D)
11. Gay rights — I think gays should be treated like everyone else. I am pro single-sex marriage and, inasmuch as it’s a civil rights issue, think they should not be discriminated in hiring or in the workplace. If we can encourage gay partners to stay together and have stable relationships and families, then I am all for it. Gay marriage doesn’t threaten my straight marriage one bit. See #7 on God-mongering.
(R)
12. Healthcare — I agree we need to move aggressively toward universal coverage but am not convinced that having the government take over anything is a good way to control costs. Indeed history has shown us otherwise. I favor a plan similar to what Massachusetts has. Couldn’t that be done on the national level?
(D)
13. Immigration — Rounding up 12 million illegals and deporting them is impractical and foolhardy. I favor securing the borders while providing a path to citizenship for the illegals currently here. Call it amnesty if you will, but I think it’s the right thing to do.
So let’s look at the results:
1. R+
2. D-
3. R-
4. D
5. R
6. R
7. D+
8. NC
9. R
10. R
11. D
12. R
13. D
The D+ and D- cancel each other out to form one D. Ditto with the R+ and R-. So we are left with:
5Rs
4Ds
2 NC
My presidential votes since I was old enough to vote:
- 1976 - Carter
- 1980 - Anderson
- 1984 - Reagan
- 1988 - Dukakis
- 1992 - Clinton
- 1996 - Perot
- 2000 - Bush
- 2004 - the Libertarian candidate. I am embarrassed to admit I don’t recall his name.
Charlie, I guess you are right. You have outed me. I am narrowly Republican, but I still can’t bear to enroll. Jake, help me out here. Give me a good reason to go down to town hall and beg the GOP registrar to sign me up. Or Al Ginouves, if you are reading this, maybe you can convince me to join the party of Curtis Rand and Hillary Clinton. Then again, maybe not …
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You said it yourself, Terry. Primary voting. Otherwise you disenfrancise yourself. So pick the party where your vote has more impact and switch later. No other reason I can think of.
Comment by Tim Abbott — February 1, 2008 #
How about the capital punishment and gun control?
Comment by Peter Halle — February 1, 2008 #
Well, Terry, you’re not such a bad guy after all!
Comment by Geoff Brown — February 1, 2008 #
Geoff,
Thanks, I think …
Peter,
I knew I left out some important issues. I am against capital punishment. I think it’s barbaric and I’ve seen no evidence that it’s a deterrent to homicide. It’s worse even than the murder itself because executions are state-sanctioned. So, for that matter, are taxpayer-funded late-term abortions. Score me a solid D on capital punishment.
As for gun control, I addressed that subject on this blog after the Virginia Tech massacre. Click here if you’d like to review it. I believe the framers intended that the 2nd amendment protect our right to bear arms. I guess I would rate an R or R+ on that one.
Comment by Terry — February 1, 2008 #
I think you miscategorized yourself on the abortion issue - you sound very mainstream DEM to me on that one. If that’s the case, then you’re solidly - neither!
Comment by Jenny — February 1, 2008 #
Jenny,
I think you would be hard-pressed to find a mainstream Dem willing to go on-the-record as saying Roe should be overturned and the power to regulate abortions returned to the states.
That’s typically a pro-life position. I think it would be the kiss of death for a Dem presidential nominee (or a Dem congressional candidate in solidly Dem district or state.
Good luck with your show and tomorrow’s reception. I will be skiing with my kids and unable to attend.
Comment by Terry — February 1, 2008 #
but if we left that up to the states… we could end up having people from CT crossing into NY (or vice versa) just to skirt the law.
But I guess the same could go for ANY decission left to states like that.
No beer on sundays?
Comment by fred — February 1, 2008 #
Looks to me like you should register as a Republican.
I consider myself a mainstream Republican and only differ significantly on one issue (the war). That’s a big issue of course, but you do seem to support winning now that we are in. That would differentiate you from the Democrat party and should be marked as an “R-”, in my opinion.
On schools and abortion you are much more in line with Republicans than Democrats. The first should be an “R+”, the second should be an “R” or “R-”. Immigration should be an “NC” or an “R-”/”D-”. You are basically offering the Bush/McCain-Kennedy position.
I would question the way you have described the “Free Speech” debate. Virtually no one questions the right to free speech. The left has made an attempt to roll up a number of disparate issues under a “free speech” rubric, but that would seem to be more for political expediency than intellectual honesty. My view is that it’s probably better to consider each item individually. That said, none of the positions you take under this “free speech” category would necessarily put you at odds with many in the Republican Party (certainly they don’t me).
I agree with your rating of everything else. With my changes, you are clearly more heavily weighted toward the Republican Party. You would appear to be well within the “fiscally conservative” branch of the Republican Party, the part of the party represented in this cycle by Mitt Romney (what a surprise!).
You are also not so far from the platform of the DLC Democrats either, though they probably wouldn’t be as stridently anti-Iraq as you. They also seem to be missing in action in this cycle.
Clearly, however, you would be least comfortable with the more partisan extremes of either party - positions like those of George Bush in the last cycle and Barack Obama (most liberal voting record in the Senate) in this one.
Comment by Jake — February 1, 2008 #
I get that you are thinking about our national election, but what about local? Registering one way or another has benefits, but issues as well. In some local towns when a position such as tax collector, a board of ed spot or whatever has needed to be filled candidates have swithced parties or registered (changed from independent) to get a party endorsement. There have even been dem endorsed by rep in small town elections. Vote people not party!
Comment by Dawn — February 2, 2008 #
Jake,
Thanks for the analysis. I knew my rating system wasn’t perfect but I will look at what you say and evaluate.
Dawn,
I didn’t say anything about local issues because my experience has been that the farther down the food chain you get (feds, state, county, municipal), the fewer differences there are between the parties.
In covering several municipal elections in NY and CT, I have yet to see significant differences based on party affiliation. Typically, the differences are more within the parties themselves (e.g. Salisbury GOP in 2005 and Amenia GOP and Dems just about any election year).
There’s an old maxim about parties in local politics that I think holds true: “There is no Democratic or Republican way to fill a pothole.”
Comment by Terry — February 2, 2008 #
Sorry to be late to the party, but I’ve been busy and hadn’t gotten to read this until now. Kudos in any case Terry for the introspection. My comment was made in a rather off-hand way, and didn’t involve nearly as much analysis as you’ve obviously put into responding :-]
I feel obligated now to take up your challenge, so here goes:
1. economy I’ll give myself a C here (for Communist, I’m so far beyond a D+ here that it’s really not enough). It’s not that I don’t think capitalism is an efficient mechanism, rather it’s “too” efficient, and inherently breeds corruption (because it concentrates power). With respect to some other issues (like the environment and natural resources), the cost is so high, that it’s really necessary to have very strong government/community controls to offset the “natural greed” in humans that causes us to pollute our water, air and earth and not think intelligently about how individual daily choices effect the legacy our offspring (and their offspring) will inherit.
2. Iraq I’m going to call this a D+ — that is I’m at the position that I feel the Democrats *ought* to be at. I can still remember vividly Robert Byrd’s impassioned pleas to stop this folly long before the war (when the Senate was discussing whatever resolution drastically increased the powers of the executive branch to handle this mess before we really officially got embroiled in it). To me it’s sad that so many democrats are hiding behind the “we need to support the troops” nonsense. I support the troops too, which is why I want them all to come home as soon as possible. I no longer buy any argument about how the US forces leaving Iraq would leave some sort of “hotbed breeding ground for more terrorists”, which is just insane. It couldn’t possibly do as much as the G. W. Bush policy has around the world to marginalize muslims and other poor folks into following the crazed path toward violent struggle against us and suicide bombing, etc…
3. Civil Liberties I’m in favor of more of them than we currently have (I was of the same position before 9/11, but the changes that have happened since then (pushing things much farther in the other direction) mean that this is now a “hot-button” issue with me. I’d have to say that this is sort of NC in 2008 (because by now, the Democrats and the Republicans have both completely abandoned huge chunks of the constitution in the name of “security theater”, which just drives me crazy, because it basically means that Osama Bin Laden won this round (I honestly believe that he knew the acts he directed on 9/11 would essentially close down our previously much more open society)).
4. Free Speech I guess I’m a D+ here (anyone should be able to say anything, anytime they want).
5. Judges D+ — I’m in favor of judges who aren’t corrupt and I am not against racial quotas in some circumstances (which is a rather left-leaning unpopular position at this point in time I think).
6a. Government Spending D+ I’m in favor of lots of government spending on infrastructure, education, arts, and wherever else “needed”. What I’m not in favor of is bloated bureaucracies that are inefficient and/or corrupt. (and I realize that the status quo rather resembles the latter, but I can dream (and work towards that dream becoming a reality)).
6b Government Intrusiveness R or R+ Sorry Terry, I’m not going to let you get away with lumping two completely unrelated issues together :-] I’m basically a libertarian when it comes to Government Intrusiveness (except where it comes to children’s welfare, in those cases, I think a proactive, efficient system capable of intervening whenever abuse, neglect, etc… is present is an obligation of any civilized society).
7 Prayer in schools D+ I’m with Terry on this one (or maybe even farther over). If I were ever to live anywhere that tried to institude prayer in schools, I’d be right there vigorously arguing for the rights of devotees of the Flying Spaghetti Monster (affectionately called Pastafarians) and those who worship the GoatOnAPole.com
8 Education D+ I’m for charter schools and lots of other options. I’m not really so in favor of religious schools getting the same options though, as they really seem to be a different sort of institution, with a different goal (IMNHO).
9 Abortion D+ I’m with ex-Senator Allen Simpson (a Republican, I believe) who once said something like: “I don’t even think that men should be allowed to vote on women’s reproductive issues.” It’s 2008 for FSM’s sake, isn’t it about time that our society(ies) can stop institutionally repressing women?
10 Campaign Financing NC I’m in favor of money being less of a factor. I don’t really care how we get there. If someone proposes a ban on all private money in campaigns (and can figure out how to enforce that) I’d probably be for it. It’d really be great if elections were about issues instead of spin.
11 Gay Rights D+ This one is a no brainer. In may opinion if you’re actually against gay rights (in any way), you’re either a psychopath or a homophobe (or perhaps both). And for those of you out there proud of your intolerance, get a damn clue. GLBT folks have been discriminated against forever, almost always by small-minded people with irrational fears.
12 Health Care D+ I’m in favor of universal health care. I’m also quite opposed to the current system (which incidentally treats me and my family just fine, but also is incredibly wasteful in the way resources get allocated).
13 Immigration D+ I’m very liberal on immigration because of my certainty that our economy would collapse (or at least suffer huge pains as resources were re-allocated) if we were to kick out all the current illegal immigrants in this country that are doing much of the work that current (legal) USians are too lazy or stuck-up or proud to do for anything close to the wages that hungry immigrants are willing to work for. In the long run, I do think that the solution is to try to have everyone earn a fair wage for a good day’s work (whatever the work is), and that we should definitely work towards a long-term solution to the continuing problem of illegal immigration, but we’re nowhere near being able to implement it.
By the way, I voted for Edwards in the Democratic primary (I’ll vote for either Hillary or Barack in the general election against any Republican except Ron Paul (in the unlikely event that Ron Paul were to win the Republican nomination, I’m not sure what I’d do, but I probably won’t need to make that decision)).
Comment by Charlie Derr — February 9, 2008 #