Are you left or right? Why?

[Terrapin]

I am of the mindset that what I make should not be taken away by government regulations to be given to people that didn't earn it themselves. I'm not going to pay for your shithead family with all its shithead kids for no reason beyond the fact that they are people too. That's absurd. If I'm working hard to make a living, others should work just as hard to get there. That's as much a life lesson as it is anything else. You shouldn't receive what you didn't earn.

If there's a trend that goes on with my political viewpoints, it's that I feel we need less government regulation in essentially all areas of life. Not more.

[MaryYana]

I am of the mindset that what I make should not be taken away by government regulations to be given to people that didn't earn it themselves. I'm not going to pay for your shithead family with all its shithead kids for no reason beyond the fact that they are people too. That's absurd. If I'm working hard to make a living, others should work just as hard to get there. That's as much a life lesson as it is anything else. You shouldn't receive what you didn't earn.

If there's a trend that goes on with my political viewpoints, it's that I feel we need less government regulation in essentially all areas of life. Not more.

And how are they supposed to be able to work for their money if they can't afford the education required for work?

[Terrapin]

There's plenty of jobs out there that don't require a whole lot of education to perform. They can move up from there however they see fit. I can't afford the education necessary to get the job I'd like right now as well, so I'm going to be working to earn some money in order to achieve my goals. It's a pretty simple concept.

[MaryYana]

There's plenty of jobs out there that don't require a whole lot of education to perform. They can move up from there however they see fit. I can't afford the education necessary to get the job I'd like right now as well, so I'm going to be working to earn some money in order to achieve my goals. It's a pretty simple concept.

I don't want to bring you down or kill your hopes, so I will no longer argue this :/

[Celebrity Killing Spree]

Art is my politics. I consider myself poetically active. Which is to say, I don't really have anything to prove politically and find it sad that so many of my fellow artists are squandering their talents by attempting to do so.

That being said. I've been censored, brow beaten and slandered by more so called activist artists than I ever have any government or institution.

[sayyosin]

I've become pretty apolitical because I think the two-party system in America is an illusion of choice. I think everyone, as in every social class, is going to have to sacrifice something in order to fix the huge problems that we have. I generally think less government intervention in an individual's life is a good thing. Health care and education should be human rights. Corporations are NOT people and they should be more strictly regulated. I believe in unions and I think CEOs make too much money and don't give enough to employees. Teachers should be paid more than they are today. I think taxes for the rich should be much higher than they are, and it should go towards education, health care, architecture, welfare (for the poor who actually want to contribute to society but are being held back by legitimate reasons), and repaying our debt to the world. We need to get rid of privatized prisons and stop incarcerating people for profit. Stop government collision with big business, take on the military industrial complex, cut military budgets, end the war on drugs, and radically change our foreign policy. When it comes to everyone's favorite part of politics (social issues), I say yes to gay marriage, yes to the choice of abortion, yes to more strict gun regulation (I'll admit I'm on the fence with this because of our country's boner for violence), and no to the death penalty.

In my opinion the social hierarchy, while completely necessary in a capitalistic society, perpetuates greed and exploitation as ways of climbing the social ladder. For capitalism to work, there always must be people below the poverty line. With our world soon to be even more over-populated with even less natural resources to support everyone, it seems capitalism is bound to eventually fail. Our priorities as a country are fucked up and our citizens are too distracted to care enough to know what to do about it. Most people just pick their teams and argue about the same social issues over and over again while ignoring the real ones that no Democrat or Republican would ever talk about. To quote the video below, Americans used to say "give me Liberty or give me death." It seems "fuck Liberty, give me an iPhone" is much more aligned with Americans' priorities now. Consumerism has become the biggest addiction in the modern world and nothing Americans place value on can be thought of out of the context of what can be bought and sold. Maybe it's just me, but I find that most people my age are extremely ignorant about world issues and too deluded in their own comforts to care. Convenience is more valued than virtue.

We should get rid of borders and nationalism in general because I think it just creates more division between different cultures instead of uniting us as a society. Multiculturalism could work if people weren't brought up to be so ethnocentric. I think industrialization has accomplished a lot but it's also destroying many old ways of life, animals, and their environment. It's a non-sustainable way of producing goods that will not work forever. I know extinction of species is inevitable in the history of the natural world, but it sucks when humans are responsible for so much death and loss in the name of capitalism. I'm not a huge environmentalist but I think we should use our resources more wisely instead of being so excessive in every aspect of our culture. Like I said in the beginning, we all need to make sacrifices if we want this to work in the long-run.

I don't like to call myself "socialist," "leftist," or especially "anarchist," but those words are probably what other people would call me.

This video by Terroja perfectly sums up my thoughts on politics right now.

[Terrapin]

^I may disagree with some of your points, but very much agree on everything else. I see the need for people to start becoming more apolitical, and focusing in on the real issues facing our country, as a must these days. Nothing is going to get solved, and we are going to forever be digging this deeper hole for ourselves, if we don't grow a pair and start tackling the important issues head on. Instead, we continue perpetuating this bullshit "us against them" mentality. Unfortunately for us, much of the youth are either set in the ways their parents built for them or just don't care about these issues facing us as a nation.

Terroja made some great points in his vid. Either way you look at it with these two candidates, it's going to be another 4 years of getting nothing tangible solved and we will be right back to where we started around the next election cycle. They are far too similar on just about everything that you really are only voting for the party, not the policies. We don't stand a chance against this machine the way the country stands currently.

Seriously, fuck our political system.

[filthytothecore]

I think some form of Fascism maybe in a Socialist manner would describe me although I hate most of the fanboys and the politicians themselves that are liberal and conservative, To me it Really looks to be two sides of the same coin so to speak, Both have no clue WTF they are doing, We should seal the borders until we can get our own shit under control instead of worrying about countries that couldn't give a fuck about ours. We need to rebuild our economy and the way I see it we need to somewhat undersell other markets but not as in a sweatshop manner.

We as Americans need to help rebuild our economy and go in isolation for a while until we can further understand why we messed up in the first place, The two party system has to go, WE need more than just the two party BS and laws should be made to ensure that no radio station or TV station has any bias and instead, Politicians actually have to do speeches, Be one with the people, Not an outsider that act's above the common person but uplift them in comradeship.
-Filthy

[21Faces]

I am a leftist and a partisan. And I am a Democrat, because I am a realist and pragmatist. If there's one thing that pissess me off it's apathetics (particularly on my side of the aisle) who throw their hands up and say "It's ALL bullshit maaaaaaan! The parties are all the same so why bother!?"

Well there's a party on the right side of gay rights, of reproductive rights, of labor standards, and of immigrants- just to name a few issues. These "social issues" are easily written off by people blind to their own privileges as "distractions," but ask a pregnant woman or a gay couple or a 17 year old kid about to get deported from the country he's been raised in since he was five if these issues are distractions. We have a supreme court that ruled money is free speech and that it should be spent without limits and with total anonymity in our elections by any and all who can pay to play the system in their favor. The majority on that decision was determined by judges appointed by ONE party.

Looking for a party that espouses ALL your political views is unrealistic. And if a party doesn't fight hard enough for the values you feel are most important, then what the fuck are you doing about it other than whining? Find other like-minded people within any party that is actually organized and has a real platform, and work to make your values heard from within. Democracy requires participation for it to actually WORK, and it works from the ground UP.

That goes for third party enthusiasts as well. Ground up and something that will likely take a generation to develop as a real influence beyond being merely a spoiler in a two party system. There are many, many smaller state-level positions that would need to be amassed: city councilors, local senators, house members, city mayors, and state governors to develop into a credible third (or fourth, or whatever party). But until then, the absence of a nonexistent mythical dream "third party" is not a valid excuse to abdicate our responsibility and PRIVILEGE to make real choices between the politicians fighting to lead us right now at the highest levels of government.

[Terrapin]

Yes, it is important to make real choices if you want anything of use to come out of the system. That's not the problem here. Why should anyone feel forced to vote for someone who doesn't match their views in the real issues? If someone swings one way economically and the other socially, where does your vote go? It's not all about perceived importance on whatever the issue up for debate is, plenty of damage has already been dealt.

What we face here is essentially the same candidate under different colors. Their differences only lie in the typical liberal/conservative fashion. We then find issues which aren't even being addressed by either candidate, where do these go? What impact are we making on the world? Perhaps a stance that may seem important to you won't seem important to the rest of us since we aren't looking at them through partisan eyes. It's the rest of us, the ones who either swing elections or are at their wit's end with the whole process, who have to continue struggling with this nonsense constantly.

The reason for the "whining" (I'd call it active commentary) is due to such unnecessary, strict, partisanship causing incredible damage with hardly anyone batting an eye. Good policies are ignored in favor of whatever that party platform has voted on traditionally. There is no feeling of cooperation at this point. It's always "us against them" no matter what they say otherwise. Individuals with any common sense are having to endure seeing the country fall to the ground because of blind partisanship politics. How anyone could align themselves with the hypocritical nature of either side is beyond me.

I'm all for being active. Such activity can be promoting others out there, beyond the two parties, who are providing real choices to the people. Will these people get elected? No, but it gives you peace of mind that you acted in accordance to your values. If you already understand it's a lose-lose situation with either candidates running for a spot in any election, why settle for less? Hell, it even provides 100% certainty that you can say, "Shoot, I didn't vote for 'em," when the inevitable happens.