Newbies of 2004: Where are you politically?

[LittleClarkie]

Poll question: Newbies of 2004: Where are you politically?

To those of us who never paid much attention before this election:

Where do you stand? How would you describe yourself politically?

[Undercover Owl]

1. Liberal, but can't afford to give a check.

I don't know where you got the "here's my check, I have a club to get to". I don't have anything to spend!
I'm more like "power to the people", except I didn't actually attend any protests.

None of the above, I'd have to say.

[LittleClarkie]

3. The tags are facetious, put yourself where you think you belong

The liberal tag is a parody of what people used to think of 60s and 70s liberals when many were going radical. Liberals: writing checks to make the world better.

My impression was that people saw liberals as armchair people who'd rather give money and let someone else protest. It seemed that Liberal was a bad word in some of the books I've read. You didn't want to be a liberal during the protests. You wanted to be a radical.

[Undercover Owl]

4. oh.

That's before my time.
I'm just a left wing liberal.

[Serra]

2. Radical..

I never had the interest or the time to learn much about politics before 2004 or 2003. Now I have learned the stupidity of pretending that politics can't affect me.

[DireStrike]

5. Young, uninvested, and radical!

Partisan? Yeah, I can do that too. Compromise feels great, but sometimes you need dirty work! It's working for the right and nobody is stopping them. We need to do it too.

[Wonco_the_Sane]

6. didn't vote but...

Mild liberal, maybe not a "newbie" but I post like one.

Didn't like Kerry but voted for him for what that's worth.

[Annus Horribilis]

7. Moderate

Bill Clinton or Joe Lieberman probably represents my views the best.

[LittleClarkie]

10. I'm left but with an open mind, so I put moderate

Kerry does pretty well in representing my views. Liberal here, more moderate there.

Moderate represents common sense to me, and not being afraid to support someone if they have a good idea, even if it's someone not of my political persuasion.

[GRLMGC]

8. Pretty damn liberal

Though I sometimes feel moderate but, in reality, I'd say I'm a raging liberal.

[LittleClarkie]

11. Those sometimes when you feel moderate

is it when you're here?

When I'm at the pub, I'm a raging liberal. When I'm here, I'm moderate.

[GRLMGC]

15. Yes

It's a weird feeling

[WebeBlue]

9. Fluctuated between them all, but post B***, firmly radical. n/t

[ZombieNixon]

12. Raging Liberal.

Dean represents my views fairly well, I know he's more of a moderate, but the raging part mattered more to me. I almost put radical; I've attended a few protests, but I realized that I much prefer working behind the scenes, planning and pulling strings. I'm more of a campaigner than a sign-waver.

[Radical Activist]

13. If you ever want a primer on civil disobedience

let me know.

[marcologico]

14. I think I'd be more radical

if this discussion board wasn't so damn interesting!

[DaedelusNemo]

16. Not sure

Maybe i'm a radical moderate, or maybe i'm a green libertarian. Basically, as i see it, the only excuse for government is that it increases and preserves our freedom. Gov't should have its power completely restricted to the domain of people causing other people harm in non-consensual interactions. Government should carefully watch any other large organization that can allocate resources, including corporations, because they are potentially capable of coercion. (I do not see the threat of starvation as any less coercive than the threat of physical violence.) No one should be allowed to shift their costs onto others.

A society that is capable of doing so, without crippling itself, is under a moral obligation to help the truly needy.

We, in turn, had better very carefully watch our government, the most powerful organization of all. Representative democracy is the best and only way i know of to accomplish that, and i would like to see our system evolve further into being ever more representative. The internet opens a lot of possibilities there.

I find that most americans agree on most of the big issues, and i usually agree with them. But the national discussion has been rendered dysfunctional, and most people don't know that.

What label should i pick?

Edit/ transposed words

[moggie12]

17. "Frustrated"

I'm in the "Frustrated" category. The Liberal/radicals are too liberal and radical for me, but the conservatives are way too conservative. But the "sitting on the fence" one deosn't fit me either because I'm very unhappy with the way things are. Are you old enough to remember John Anderson, a third party candidate from long ago? I'd probably go third-party if there was a viable alternative.

[OhioBlue]

18. Liberal - but not a party faithful

I was never very partisan before. Leaned Dem and mostly voted Dem (except at the local level - then who I thought was most qualified) * has pushed me into a party position tho. I have never been so against a pres and so astonished that anyone would follow him. I like some of what the Libertarians and Greens say - I just don't see then as a viable force right now and so I worked for Kerry and will work for Dems in '06 and '08. The Right is way to radical at this point. BTW - I didn't work for Kerry ONLY b/c he was not Bush. I like Kerry.