What is really at root of your belief system about politics? Is it true? Who gave it to you?

Question

I know this is a psychology question but specifically it has to do with political beliefs.

Be honest. I am a liberal/democrat & I believe when I talk about republicans I don't mean my rep. friends. I mean the people at the top of the party. My friends are generous, good people. Yet, I will say reps. are greedy. They only go along with something if it has killing or disabling people involved but never do they want help people live better & be more able.

I believer reps. act like they don't do the same things that dems do. They act like they are more disciplined & moral but they just hide more. They care more about apperences that what is inside. The can't even feel what is inside & dont' trust feelings while dems might see feelings as their inner guidance system. OK, I could say so much but I see reps. thinking dems want sociolism when we want there to be gov. ins. available & let the others compete & let the gov. agency support itself once it gets going. I don't want the books stores to close but I still like the idea of libraries. So I want it all gov. & free market...so why do reps. lie about that...OK, please tell me why reps. say libs don't work. I have my own business & so do many of my lib. friends. Isn't it insane to say libs don't work?

Please don't comment on this if you do not have open mail cause if you say something ridiculous I want to ask your to clarify it & so there is no point if you are not open to that. This site is filled with comments with no explanations. I want real answers this time.

Answer 1

You have a great many misconceptions about Republicans. Look, here is the basic distinction:



DEMOCRATS believe primarily in the virtue of Equality. They see government as the primary means of creating a more egalitarian society.



REPUBLICANS believe primarily in the virtue of Liberty. They see government as the primary antagonist of individual freedoms.



DEMOCRATS are more concerned with the "Collective."

REPUBLICANS are more concerned with the "Individual."



What you see as greed, Republicans see as the result of hard work, investment and future orientation. Republicans would argue that without the incentive of profit, people do not achieve and innovate. This is amply borne out by the fact that socialist states do not make innovative discoveries. An example of this is medicine. Yes, other advanced nations have socialized medicine. But over 95% of all new drug patents in the world are from American Pharmaceutical companies. Those on the left talk about the greed of American companies; but they always forget to mention that most of those greedy profits are plowed back into making new drugs and creating new jobs. If it weren't for those greedy pharmaceutical companies, a lot of European Socialists would be dead for want of the life saving medicines that their own controlled economies cannot produce.



It's not greed to say that I've worked hard all of my life, and I'd like to keep more of what I've earned. It's not greed to recognize basic economic facts that innovation and progress go hand in hand with individual liberty. It's also not greed to recognize that governments aggregate power, and use that power to control people.



Democrats will tell you that we need to be compassionate. But that misplaced compassion has done more harm than good. As the Democrat, Daniel Patrick Moynihan observed, one of the biggest traps the Democrats fell into was the belief that good intentions were enough to justify policies. His study of how Welfare in the 60s actually condemned people top poverty (Maximum Feasible Misunderstanding) is a classic. More evil has been perpetrated by those who meddle and justify their actions because they have the best intentions than anything else.



In short, a "Soft Heart" does not go well if you have a "Soft Head."

Answer 2

My root belief is that in the end, both sides probably have more or less the same values at heart, and the differences in opinion emerge only from minor differences in the way those values are interpreted or balanced against each other. For example, take the whole abortion debate. Both sides value human life, the difference is more a matter of quantity vs. quality (you got me on a bad day for this kind of discussion, when I'm in a more energetic sort of mood I'm able to fine tune it a lot more).



Regardless of whether that theory is correct or not, I stand strongly by the notion that the ideal policy is one that is formed on common ground. As a country I think we can survive just about anything, depression, terrorism, whatever - but look at the tone of political debate in this country, and ask yourself, what are the odds that anything productive gets accomplished when everybody is standing around pointing fingers and trading insults. The democrat's suggestion that they might just "deem and pass" the healthcare bill in unnerving - it seems to completely undermine democracy - but I can't help but think at the same time that it's the insanity of the whole debate that's bringing things to that point.



As for where I got my centrist/moderate view of politics, I guess I can't credit any one person. My parents are liberal, I grew up tending to agree with them, but then later started to question that line of thought. I remember one day we got to talking about affirmative action over the dinner table, and my mom said something along the lines of "I think it must still be necessary, because there are still all these people complaining about it", and I thought to my self "that argument makes no sense". After years of having both conservative and liberal friends and roommates, I've just sort of reached the conclusion that there is good reasoning on both sides, and at the same time also a lot of nonsense.

Answer 3

I think all politicians are douche bags. Only a blind person would call anyone that high up in the food chain "moral". I don't care if they are Republicans or Democrats.



I vote Republican, but I would really love to see the parties tossed out. I want an individual to stand up for what is right, by the people who put his rear end in that position. Not some person that has to vote what his "party" orders him too.



All the two parties do is block the other one from achieving goals, even if the goals are good and helpful to the people. Democrats, control their followers by promising them such a small amount of money come voting time and take the money from the workers and redistribute it to the lazy.



I understand that I am generalizing, and I do believe some of the programs are good, but greatly abused. If the idiots would realize that they would make more money with an honest job, then sitting on their bums producing babies and living in a crap hole this country of ours might retain its greatness. But when politicians buy votes, it will never work, people should vote for what they believe, and lets not kid ourselves. Our politicians do not give us anything to believe in.

Answer 4

I'm a conservative/constitution party. I was raised and taught that I should look after myself. I was taught that if I needed something, then I should learn how to get what ever that was and to expect that in others. You might think it's greedy, but I think that it's great for anyone to think about what they want out of life and then go get that as opposed to expecting others to give you things. When I look at libs...it seems they want to go after business and rich people. My beliefs tell me that business and rich people are the ones that I use in order to get what I want. Not by making business and rich people give me things, but by working for them and then getting paid for what I do. Why would that be considered greedy and wrong? If you want something...then work for it...don't run to mama government and ask for a handout.



So Paris Hilton is rich because a lot of people work at the Hilton....so what? You make it sound like it's immoral or evil that the child of a rich man is rich. He created a useful business that people need and use. He employees many people on planet Earth. Sounds like a very good thing and if he and his children are rich...more power to them. They have my respect and I hope that I can become rich like them too.

Answer 5

Governments want power and will do anything to get it. The democrats are out of control with spending and growing the size of government. And they want to get their hands on your money so that they can bailout big business, payback their supporters and lobbyists with pork spending (i.e. bridge to nowhere) and meanwhile close schools and harm the people that put them in office.



Most big businesses are greedy and will do anything to get your money, even if it means deception, trickery, and unethical behavior. This we see time and again with how the big banks, the insurance companies, the pharmaceutical companies, the airlines, the Wall Street fat cats, etc treat their customers. All take no give.



So big bad government meets big bad business. It's like an irresistable force trying to move an immovable object.

Answer 6

My father was an MBA, my mother's father was a Union organizer. So the root of my political/social/economic beliefs were the many sometimes heated discussions they had. my father eventually conceded that my grandfather had many valid points.



I got a BA in political science while completing my union apprenticeship. Actually it took me longer to finish college. Economics is the driver of society. Religion/morality should provide the organizing principle of society. The political system using the organizing principle should strive to balance the two.



The Republican Party seems to have replaced morality with economics as the provider of the organizing principle of society. our organizing principle seems to be corporate profit. The Democratic Party has either failed to provide an alternate principle or has tacitly accepted it and is merely fighting for scraps for society.

Answer 7

My belief system about politics is that people should do what their conscience tells them and not because they want to keep their popularity. Sometimes it seems counterintuitive, but politicians should be willing to take risks. Those remembered throughout history weren't the ones obsessed with public opinion as much as doing the right thing.

Answer 8

Democrats don't Give.



Democrats Take.



Democrats want the Government to take care of them from Womb to Tomb.



And....in your case your are very bigoted and full of prejudice.



The reason Republicans think you don't work is because you don't sound like a Working Person. You sound the opposite.



I ESCAPED the Democrat Plantation. I hope you do. But you may not ever Escape.

Answer 9

Liberals base their beliefs on feelings and peer pressure

Conservatives base their beliefs on facts and experience.



Liberals are historically greedy. They only want to give other peoples money wealth away.

Answer 10

Today the dialectic is active in every political issue that encourages taking sides. We can see it in environmentalists instigating conflicts against private property owners, in democrats against republicans, in greens against libertarians, in communists against socialists, in neo-cons against traditional conservatives, in community activists against individuals, in pro-choice versus pro-life, in Christians against Muslims, in isolationists versus interventionists, in peace activists against war hawks. No matter what the issue, the invisible dialectic aims to control both the conflict and the resolution of differences, and leads everyone involved into a new cycle of conflicts.

Answer 11

I like simple things, and I dont like being told what to do. I do not have a political philosophy. I think people in power generally abuse it, and most people talk too much. So that makes me an anarchist, if you must label it.



I think people should mind their own business.



As Khalil Gibran put it in his beautiful revelation The Prophet:



Then a lawyer said, "But what of our Laws, master?"



And he answered:



You delight in laying down laws,



Yet you delight more in breaking them.



Like children playing by the ocean who build sand-towers with constancy and then destroy them with laughter.



But while you build your sand-towers the ocean brings more sand to the shore,



And when you destroy them, the ocean laughs with you.



Verily the ocean laughs always with the innocent.



But what of those to whom life is not an ocean, and man-made laws are not sand-towers,



But to whom life is a rock, and the law a chisel with which they would carve it in their own likeness?



What of the cripple who hates dancers?



What of the ox who loves his yoke and deems the elk and deer of the forest stray and vagrant things?



What of the old serpent who cannot shed his skin, and calls all others naked and shameless?



And of him who comes early to the wedding-feast, and when over-fed and tired goes his way saying that all feasts are violation and all feasters law-breakers?



What shall I say of these save that they too stand in the sunlight, but with their backs to the sun?



They see only their shadows, and their shadows are their laws.



And what is the sun to them but a caster of shadows?



And what is it to acknowledge the laws but to stoop down and trace their shadows upon the earth?



But you who walk facing the sun, what images drawn on the earth can hold you?



You who travel with the wind, what weathervane shall direct your course?



What man's law shall bind you if you break your yoke but upon no man's prison door?



What laws shall you fear if you dance but stumble against no man's iron chains?



And who is he that shall bring you to judgment if you tear off your garment yet leave it in no man's path?



People of Orphalese, you can muffle the drum, and you can loosen the strings of the lyre, but who shall command the skylark not to sing?

Answer 12

The belief that something is false and contradiction is our only means for sensing the false. My belief is never turn that off.