What Is Your Political Party?

Hello! I'll be referencing the American one since that is the one I am most familiar with (even though I know it is incredibly flawed). Which of the American political parties do you align/identify with? Which party stances do you agree and disagree with? Please be respectful. I thought about publicizing participants, but realized some people may want to vote, but not say who they are and I respect that. That being said, if you are comfortable, I'd love to hear you answer below. Also, different people may have different ideas/definitions of the same terms, so do keep that in mind. What one person considers extreme, another might not and vice versa.

For myself, if we're going strictly by what they believe on paper, I'd label myself as a moderate conservative by American standards. Not a crazy one that went off the rails, but I usually end up agreeing with right leaning figures, though there are exceptions to that rule. On some occasions, I find myself agreeing with the person on the left more. It depends how extreme (or lack thereof) each side is and what the specific issue at hand is. In practice, sometimes I believe certain Republican figures/politicians take things too far (same goes for the other side too). Basically, I agree with their ideas most of the time, just not quite the way politicians go about them.

I grew up with people around me being very conservative, so that might impact my political leaning. I did go through a period of listening to a lot of left leaning people though, hoping to understand the other side. I know the talking points from both sides fairly well in my opinion and why they believe what they do. I have no problem with anyone being on either side of the spectrum, as long as they do not become hateful of the people on the other side and have valid reasons for what they believe in. Speaking of which, please don't spread hate to any users on here who may have a different political stance. I ask that everyone be respectful and calm discussing this. We did it in the abortion thread, let's hope this one goes just as smoothly. Vote in the poll and tell me your stance below if you're comfortable doing that. Have a great day/night!

Quote from MY-Kwangya

In Australia, we have 2 major parties, Liberal and Labor party. We have an upcoming election later this month and I don't vote for either of them. I don't support any of the major political parties or the leaders of them. I usually vote for the Animal Justice Party.

Wait, you guys have an Animal Justice Party? Aw, lucky, that sounds so cute! I wish we had one in the US. I'm sure not many voters would be complaining.

Quote from russianvelvet

Other, as I'm not old enough to vote!!!

Completely understandable.

Quote from MY-Kwangya

Yes, they fight for animal welfare and rights and seeing as I'm vegetarian/vegan I support them. I know they don't have any hope of winning but they're better than the main parties.

That's so awesome! Yeah, that's how most parties in the US get treated aside from the two big ones. They do exist and people can vote for them, but they almost never win, if ever, much less in the big elections. Then again, depending on the candidates, they can be better options. The sad thing is, a lot of people don't know that because, since the smaller parties win so seldomly, many people don't check out the candidates from them or they barely know them at all.

Quote from TheHeretic

Your spectrum of choices - while commonly taught - does not reflect a true political spectrum because there are totalitarians at both ends. Soviet Communists and their Western allies made a great push in intellectual circles after WWII to put themselves on one side and Hitler's Nazi Germany on the opposite, when in reality the two systems were nearly identical.

Here is a more accurate spectrum - let's call it Up/Down to differentiate from the meaningless Left/Right description - that reflects actual differences in governing philosophy:

UP - AUTHORITARIAN

Absolute Monarchy (Brunei/UAE/Saudi Arabia)

Totalitarianism (Soviet Union, Nazi Germany)

Fascism/Corporatism (China/Russia)

Democratic Socialism (Western Europe/India)

Bureaucratic Oligarchy (current USA - Republican/Democrat parties)

CENTER

Constitutional Republic (former USA)

Libertarianism (No current examples)

True Democracy (very unstable and short-lived - becomes authoritarian quickly)

Anarchy (Afghanistan, some African nations - leads quickly to rule by warlords)

DOWN - LIBERTARIAN

As you move down the spectrum government goes from total to non-existent. All Western politicians are currently above the center - respect for individual economic freedom in particular is at an all-time low.

If you show this chart to an indoctrinated college professor, they will scream obscenities and throw a book at you. That's usually a reliable test to know you have revealed the truth.

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That's...actually a good point. I actually understand very few of these terms though. I don't really speak politics all that well, but I approve! Now I have some homework to do I guess. Just when I thought I could get the summer off. How could you do this to me?

Quote from UnchangingAsOne

Moderate conservative

Awesome! Always nice to see more people like me here.