I'm Gonna talk about how i see things now.

[serjykalstryke]

So to start off with, i consider myself pretty socially liberal and fiscally conservative,

so on social issues, i think the government should have as little to do with what we do as possible.

in essence Thomas Jefferson said it best, "it matters not whether my neighbor has 20 gods or 1 god, it neither robs my wallet nor breaks my leg"(that is about what he said, you can look up the exact quote later, i feel like being lazy right now lol )

now, that is a religious statement, but i think we would do well to make that our policy a lot of the time.

Gay rights, sure let them get married, and if it bothers you that much, then make it so they cant get married at your church.
in this issue the free market will decide what churches survive, if people want gays and lesbians to get married, then they will go to the church that allows it, and same for if people don't want gays and lesbians to get married.

Drug policy, as long as it isn't a dangerous drug like Heroin, or Cocaine, then let them be legal, people who use, and abuse them will not last, they will act foolishly and ruin their lives. this can be seen in places like Amsterdam where ALL DRUGS are decriminalized. They have a section of town denoted "heroin park" where all the meth heads and heroin addicts congregate. and the kids are taken to see them on field trips to show what happens if they abuse drugs.

Healthcare, this is a hard one, because i'd like to say there is a perfect solution that is "middle ground" but there really isn't. You have the Hawaii model which is successful, but this is possibly due to the fact that they are isolated, possibly and exception to the rule and not the rule itself, single payer systems sometimes work, but not as well as we might like. and too much free market seems kinda heartless and cold. I'd recommend pragmatic reforms(tort reform, getting rid of the pre-existing conditions crap, and possibly a system for a limited government option that is like unemployment and not meant to be used forever)

The economy. The economy is simple, we already have a section dealing with cutting the budget, and even though i support national security, i think the budget can be streamlined by a lot, thus saving us a lot of money. also, i'd like to keep business and government completely separate. This means that I personally don't want lobbyists making laws to boost profits, and i also don't want Government having anything to due with business, like owning an auto-company(COUGH COUGH)

Terrorism. This is a hard issue to be middle ground on, but i will never support curtailing civil liberties to "keep us safe". This idea is complete bullshit(sorry for the language, but i feel very strongly about this) and is not a strategy i would recommend when combating this type of problem. instead i would say you should reach out to the teens(yes, teens are used as terrorists) and show them what American culture really is. Thankfully we have facilities, and so do other countries that do this that have a 99% rating(meaning that people that go through almost never go back to terrorism) i know this will not help everyone, but notice we have not had another successful attack on the U.S sense 9/11. i believe this is due to more awareness on part of the citizens, not some color chart or spying program. and even if a successful attack is mounted on American soil, i believe that may be the drawback on our free society, we are the greatest nation on earth, and some people don't like it. So instead of taking away our rights, let's kick some ass.

Education is being harmed by it being taken over by the national Government, send it all back to state level. Let states decide what is needed for their schools. DONE PROBLEM SOLVED

Illegal Immigration. This is tricky because on a personal level, i believe for a free market to work, you need a working class, so i would say open the borders. on the other hand, if you don't check everyone that comes through you get into issues like disease control and Terrorism. So i'd propose a system that allows open borders, but everyone must be checked, in other words, build the wall some people want, but let everyone in who can find the door and pass the tests. as they are being checked, they can sign up for English classes and other things needed to be a citizen.

Abortion rights are tricky. i agree with the principles set forth in Roe v. Wade, any other things can be worked out in states.

The Environment. The Environment is important to our nation because we have a large beautiful land that attracts people from all over the world. it's good for our economy, and it just plain looks nice. these things must be protected. we must invest in alternative energy sources and limit fossil fuel consumption in a logical way. we shouldn't let caribou migration stop us from drilling for oil in America if it can stop us from buying it from Iran. On the other hand, whether you believe in Global Warming or not, oil will run out, so it would be stupid not to have another idea of what we want to use to power our lives. America must invest in Solar, Wind, Clean Coal, Tide, Nuclear Fission, and even the far off dream of Nuclear Fusion to power us in the future otherwise we will fail.

Iraq. i think you guys have iraq covered pretty well

Afghanistan. before we get into this situation, we must decide what victory is. what do we want? To save them from terrorists? why? i believe we need to decide what victory is before we start a war. once then, we should not hold back or surrender. we should use the full force of our military arms to defeat our enemies and achieve our goals.

I think that about covers it, tell me what you think

[serjykalstryke]

nobody has anything to say?

[Rob Withers]

I don't strongly disagree with anything you have said. Here is my healthcare proposal for your comment: http://vawhigs.org/dp/County%20Cooperatives.pdf. I am concerned about the amount of bureaucracy that would be created with it, however.

I am not sure what you mean by keeping business and government separate. They remain pretty entwined and I don't know what you could do un-entwine them. Please explain.

[serjykalstryke]

I am a fan of the free market, but Government can mess this up by getting involved. It causes problems like well....ruining an economy(see russia circa 1980's-early 90's)
so i support Government playing a limited role in the economy and in business except in areas where it makes no sence for them not to.(like certain rules for making sure companies can't kill people by dumping toxic waste or putting cheap lead paints on toys, ect)
so almost no Government in Business

Democracy on it's own is perfect, but businesses spend billions every year to send people to washington to influence the direction of policy, their presence there causes problems, the biggest one is that politicians are too commonly bought and are then in the pocket of business lobbies. If a business wants something taken out of a bill, or is not in favor of a law that limits the amount of profits they can make(like the lead paint thing stated above), so let's say Doritos doesn't like a law, so they so the decide the fund a billion dollars worth of laws, and send enough people to washington to fill a stadium, and they have the unique ability to cause laws to change, no matter how it affects common people. I see it as a problem that businesses can lobby int his way.(this is more a problem with lobbiests in general, but business lobbies are a special problem because instead of having some agenda, like say, Greenpeace, they are worried about profits, so my problem here is mainly with business lobbies)

[serjykalstryke]

also, i like your plan for Healthcare, everything gets more logical when you make it more local

[Rob Withers]

There can be problems with government in business like the partitioning of frequencies for broadband market, regulating the airwaves. Government could make it non-competitive if they pass things like cap and trade. On the other hand, many regulations are good.

As far as business spending money on lobbyists to influence legislation, I don't think you can stop it. What is needed is to elect people like McCain or Lieberman who aren't strongly influenced by lobbyists. Legislators who do the right thing are most valuable. I don't see any other way around it.

[serjykalstryke]

you could make government as transparent as possible. if people could see what goes on, i think that either 1) are politicians would clean up their acts, or 2) people would be disgusted with their leaders and elect new ones