Are you centrist or leftist?

[PresidentObama]

Poll question: Are you centrist or leftist?

Seems to be an issue to debate right now, so have at it!!

The poll question is simple. Which one are you??

Leftist here.

Not much else to say, and expand off of. So here we go...

:hi:

EDIT: If you care to tell everyone why you voted the way you did, so be it. ;)

[napi21]

1. I guess I'm a centrist because I don't like extremes on either side.

I'm certainly left of center, but not radicaly.

[PresidentObama]

2. What issues specifically make you still away from the extreme left?

Anything specific? Just wondering...

[napi21]

17. Several that I can think of.

I disagree with those who say pull all the troops out of Iraq immediately because I believe WE screwed up that country so bad, we owe them more than that. I think a timeline that would show them THEY must get their butts on the line real quick, because we're leaving. I think, up until now, the Iraqis have held back because "Hey the Americans will do the fighting and dying."

I disagree with granting amnesty to anyone who has entered the US without the proper authority, or has overstayed their visa (which I understand is quite common.) It sounds to me like the Immigration & Naturalization Dept. is a terrible mess, and THAT must be fixed, but to just ignore the laws we have is not the way to do that.

I hate the death penalty laws we currently have, but I think there are situations where it IS appropriate. It should never take 15 to 20 years to carry out a sentence. There should be 3 appeals allowed, but that should not take THAT LONG!

I know there are many more, but that gives you the idea.

[Warren Stupidity]

12. Which would put you on the left.

Why does 'left' mean 'extreme left'?

[napi21]

18. I don't think the question was are you on the left or right.

It was are you a "leftist" or a centrist. To me, leftist means to the extreme, or radical.

[Warren Stupidity]

31. Well the right would like that to be the choice - wouldn't they?

What has happened is that the non-existent center is far to the right of where moderate republicans were thirty years ago. The 'far left' seems to include anyone who doubts that the patriot act was a good idea, or who thinks that single payer universal health is an excellent idea whose time is overdue by several decades. Why we allow them to set the terms of the debate is beyond me. I ain't talking about chairman mao you know, and I don't want a revolution.

[Nimrod2005]

3. I know for sure I am not a centrist...Not sure how left I go

[MethuenProgressive]

4. "The poll question is simple." But the question isn't!

By *my* lights I'm a leftist.
Perhaps the question should be "do you see yourself as a ...?"

[PresidentObama]

7. I wanted to leave it as simple as possible.

DUers are free to expand, and justify why they lean one way or another!!

[Warpy]

5. The problem is this: who gets to define the terms?

A recent poll said 87% want the minimum wage hiked substantially. This is where the center is.

A recent poll shows a majority think Iraq was a mistake and want out. This is where the center is.

Recent polls have indicated people want universal health insurance, are outraged by skyrocketing CEO salaries and increased offshoring of US jobs, and think Stupid should be impeached. This is where the center is.

Most people are alarmed at the erosion of civil rights, the increasing difficulty presented in traveling, and the far right's tentacles reaching into every area of life. This is where the center is.

Most people, if presented with this list, would declare it LEFTIST.

So who really is defining the terms here? How do you define them?

[Bjorn Against]

11. Thank you, that is an essential point

Sometimes the position that is labeled "centrist" is well outside of the mainstream, I hate the term centrist because it really does nothing to show where the center of public opinion is it just suggests how much a Democrat may act like a Republican. I mean come on, does anyone honestly believe that Joe Lieberman sits right in the center of the political spectrum?

[paulk]

6. I'm not a leftist

but I don't consider myself a centrist.

You're presenting a false choice.

[PresidentObama]

9. Not really.

I'll add the option of other, and you're free to expand any further.

[paulk]

16. the real problem is that everyone has a different definition

for both "leftist" and "centrist".

For instance - I used to think of myself as a leftist, and compared to the people I worked with and lived around (which was over a 4 state area, an area (WY,CO,UT,NE) which is, admittedly, conservative), I was always the furthest left. Then I found politics on the internet, and DU specifically - where I've been called a centrist, a vichy Dem, a Republican, and a few other things that I won't print...

I think of myself as a moderate liberal who is pragmatic enough to understand that it takes compromise in order for a democracy to function.

[marmar]

8. If we were looking at a map of the continental United States.....

I would be on one of the islands off the coast of Washington state.

[Warren Stupidity]

10. The folks in the center are generally clueless.

They are either confused or simply can't be bothered to collect information and sit down and figure out where they stand politically.

That said, 'left-right' is a simplistic dichotomy. The four poled left-right/authoritarian-libertarian compass is a better discriminator: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_compass

Left-libertarian here.

[HappyWeasel]

22. Ummmm...I don't know. Maybe you can help me out.

Let's see-

SEX-
I am pro-choice. I think the federal law on late-term abortion is about right, I support parental notification, but not parental consent or spousal consent/notification. I also oppose "informed consent" and waiting periods. I believe that emergency contraception should be made free or over-the-counter and cheap. I believe in absitnece-plus education. MDs and PharmDs that are too conservative to provide a full range of health care services should have to tell the public that though they may still be able to refuse, they must put a sign in front of their business. I will not stand in the way of the reconginition of homosexuals. I believe there should be civil liabilities for unintended fetal injury and death, but not criminal.

SCIENCE-

I believe that evolution should be taught in science class and that creationism should be taught in liberal arts class. Students should also be told that the two ideas can go hand and hand and that they don't have to discredit eachother. I think we should restore federal funding for all stem cell research and that we should get behind Bush's space plan. I think there should be no restrictions on genetic engineering at this time.

AFFIRMATIVE ACTION-

I beleive that AA should be reformed to protect all people from disadvantaged families and only those who are disadvantaged. AA should be for anyone who is poor, not for wealthy minorities.

FAMILY VALUES IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS-

There should be no prayer inside of classrooms of public schools. The pre-Cold-War pledge of allegance should still be recited at the beginning of the day, though. Students and teachers should still be able to hold prayer and other religous functions in their own clubs at school....on their own time.

HEALTHCARE-
I think that some of the revolutionary plans that are being considered at the state level should be given even broader consideration. Maintain an anarchic health care system, but with help for those who can't afford it. (The Mass. plan)

SOCIAL SECURITY-
Maybe we should be more upon to privatization so we can pay for the expanded role of medicare/medicaid.

PUBLIC SCHOOLS- Funding should be maintained but we should be open to other expirements with a seperate amount of funding. States should be in charge of setting standards, not the feds.

DEATH PENALTY- It feels too much like human sacrifice to me. Abolish it with the exception of genocide.

CRIME- we should really go back to rerhabilitation....we MUST deal with prison over-crowding in a more constructive way. Three strike laws or over-zealous and maybe we should consider letting sex offenders off the hook in exchange that they are surgically castrated...or maybe the criminal justice system is not where they belong...invest more into mental health in combating crime.

GUN OWNERSHIP- I oppose most gun restrictions. Concealed hand-weapons and high capacity rifles should be legal, but municipalities over 1,000,000 should still have the right to ban everything but single-shot rifles.

Taxation- Bring back the taxation of top-bracket earners to 45% and another bracket for employees making more than 1,500,000 to 60%. Make exceptions for businesses with revenues under 50 million and raise the estate tax threshold to 5 million but no abolition of estate tax.

Immigration- More should be done to assimilate immigrants than to deport them.

Free Trade- Free Trade is a good idea, but it only works when we having something unique to sell. We should invest more in developing new industries by putting a brief hiatus on free trade until we have new industries that can contribute to making free-trade work. (see the Leap Frog model of global development)

PATRIOT ACT- Fuck the patriot act.

MILITARY SPENDING- No more increases

ETHICS/CAMPAIGNING- Implement the new Ethic bills in toto. Support McCain-Feingold.

IRAQ/IRAN WAR- Out by the end of the year, give independence to Kurdistan, direct negotiations with Iran. Work with international community to attack Iran if and only if they invade Iraq or detonate a nuclear bomb.

ENVIRONMENT- Oppose drilling and sign onto Kyoto, but allow snowmobiles into park....work with states on wolves and water. Start building a new infilstructure for new alternatve energies.

[Warren Stupidity]

30. generally a moderate left libertarian

Whoever said you had to be consistent? You certainly aren't a centrist - that term is meaningless, politics has no center. You have positions that you could chart on the four quadrants of the compass I pointed you at, and for the most part you are on the libertarian side rather than the authoritarian, and the left side rather than the right.

[demnan]

13. The older I get

the further left I get. I think I'm approaching socialism now. Do they take suburban fat middle-aged women in socialism? :)

My main exercise is peace marching!

[PresidentObama]

24. My favorite type of marching!

;)

[nevergiveup]

14. I am a radical

moderate. I use the word "radical" because the likelihood of me ever becoming a political conservative is remote. The one thing that keeps me from being a leftist is my willingness at times to compromise when you know the cards are stacked and you can't have it all.

[Prophet 451]

15. Define the terms

By pre-1980 terms, I'm center-left. By 1990 terms, I'm extreme-left and by modern terms, I'm a dangerous radical. The Reagan-Bush admins shifted political debate so far to the right that what an American might describe as centreist or centre-left (the Democratic Party for example) would be center-right here (England). Thatcher tried the same trick here but didn't have the same kind of success.

[LeftishBrit]

34. Thatcher did have this effect on the Labour Party

Blair is to the right of some of Thatcher's Tory predecessors.

And I do think that Thatcher has left a certain mark on British social and economic attitudes, which time has not erased: competitiveness is good in itself; entrepreneurship and rapid 'change' in response to 'market forces' are highly desirable goals; people need to be made insecure in order to achieve; tenure and job security are bad for people.

However, I agree that the political spectrum here has not been pushed to the right in the way it was in America: e.g. being anti-war was the mainstream view here from the beginning.

[Prophet 451]

38. Conceded about Thatcher

Thinking about it, you're right but we both agree that Thatcher didn't have anything like as extreme an effect.

[More Than A Feeling]

19. Proud Left-winger here!

I believe that gays deserve everything straights get, minorities deserve everything whites get, women deserve everything men get (and have the moral capacity to make their own choices about when to give birth), and workers, everything that management, the stockholders and the CEO gets. I am a strict secularist (I believe that public policy can be supported based on religious ideals, but that non-religious reasoning should be privileged.)

I know that in this day and age, none of those goals has been fulfilled. I know that government must be part of the solution to all of those problems, and that the citizenry must collectively take back ownership of our politicians.

I will not support any war that I am not willing to fight in myself.

[Greyhound]

20. Leftist, mostly, depending on issue and definition. n/t

[Unvanguard]

21. Hardcore unabashed extreme leftist.

Because I hate capitalism, the market, the state, and class society more generally.

[nytemare]

23. I am left center.

There are some values that libertarians and some republicans claim, that I would agree with. Not that they have acted on them, as Clinton did.

I think the government should not be wasteful, and should keep its hands off of state rights. The Bush administration has totally gone against these concepts. It is all about corporate welfare, and Terry Sciavo.

I don't believe the death penalty is a valid deterrent. If people want to murder, they are going to. I do believe, though, that some people really just don't deserve to be breathing the same air. John Cooey, the absconded Sexual Offender who buried Jessica Lunsford alive is an example of that. That asshole really just does not deserve to live.

War is sometimes necessary. Had we really gone after Al Que-da in Afghanistan, that might have been a good thing, as opposed to just using it as a precursor to Iraq. We have a volunteer force, yes, but our volunteer soldiers took an oath to uphold the constitution, as did our president. They should not be subject to just becoming mercenaries to be used at the whim of an emperor. I hope Congress steps it up in this Iraq debacle, and curbs the Iran talk. Iran will not be a cup of tea, and Ahmadinejad would never have been elected if not to counter Bush's pomposity.

There should be a universal health care, maybe subsidized by employers to keep up quality, because I hear in Canada, it is difficult to get seen by a doctor.

Education sure the hell needs to get better. Science has fallen by the wayside.

Ok, I am worn out now, but you get my point.

:D

[gulliver]

25. I'm antiunidimensionalist.

I'm against concepts like left/right. They are worse than useless.

[DeepModem Mom]

26. My preference is "liberal." I'd like to see the term rehabilitated. nt

[Forkboy]

27. Can a centrist lean either to either side?

If you're right down the middle that must make things just to either side of you look palatable.

If things on the right don't look good,at least somewhat,than I don't see how one can be a centrist.And if things on the right DO look good....well,if one is comfortable with that I can't imagine anything I say reaching them.

[Daylin Byak]

28. I am a centrist

Mostly on social issues like for instance although I am pro-choice I am for many restrictions on it. I am againist gay marriage(but not for a admendment to the constitution banning it) I am againist all forms of gun control. I'm for drilling in ANWAR.

Those are some of the issues, if you want to ask me my stances of other issues just ask.

[rep the dems]

29. I'm a leftist. No doubt. nt

[AtomicKitten]

32. I am a Democrat.

I've always clung to the label of liberal particularly since the wingnuts have worked overtime to marginalize and demonize that word. However, in this particular case at DU I think choosing up sides of the spectrum of DEMOCRAT is a disservice and perhaps not intended to divide but does that very thing. And we need that as a party like a hole in the head with a presidential election looming on the distant horizon.

[AnOhioan]

33. Proud leftist

Sorry to those who profess centrism, but centrism has damn near killed the Democratic Party.

[NV1962]

35. Social Democrat here

A proud lefty I am! :)

[LeftishBrit]

36. Centre-left by UK standards; very left by current American standards

[Bright Eyes]

37. Im so far on the left, im going to fall off [end]

[NoPasaran]

39. I'm a centrist

But I'm a MILITANT centrist, dammit!

[Jackeen]

40. Slightly left of centre here.

Fiscally to the left, but sharing a lot of the ideology of the right to include issues like gun control and capital punishment. Makes voting rather tough around these parts. Anyone who I might consider voting for on fiscal issues also tends to want to ban my favourite hobby.

[Hippo_Tron]

41. By today's Post Reagan era standards I'm a crazy leftist commie

By any other standards in the civilized world I'm slightly left of center. I also think of myself as somewhat of a technocrat because my opposition to many policies, the Iraq War from particular, stems not only from ideology but from doing what is practical.

[Clarkie1]

42. I have no idea what those words mean. nt