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What I am saying is that liberal has nothing to do with left-wing or right-wing, conservative or progressive. The first line of wikipedia for liberalism is: "L

What I am saying is that liberal has nothing to do with left-wing or right-wing, conservative or progressive. The first line of wikipedia for liberalism is: "Liberalism is a political and moral philosophy based on the rights of the individual, liberty, consent of the governed and equality before the law. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but they generally support individual rights (including civil rights and human rights), liberal democracy, secularism, rule of law, economic and political freedom, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of religion, private property and a market economy." I sincerely hope that is something we can come together and agree are important in the US. Even though it sounds like you and me have very different political views it also sounds like we agree that all of these are good. That means we have a wide array of items we agree on, but that are in danger at the moment. It seems to me there is a common platform most of us could agree to, but both parties have been to some degree hijacked by extremist so both of us to some extent are supporting illiberal candidates when we really don't agree with that.

mrkstu 5y ago
I've been voting Libertarian since the Republican Party decided to decamp into MAGA-land. Which is also not much of a home, since it generally is inhabited by non-serious people- but at this point at least I can morally live with a platform of you stay out of my way and I'll stay out of yours. The other options have too many compromises right now.
- kmonsen 5y ago
  The US badly need more than two political parties.
  - api 5y ago
    Look into ranked choice voting. That could help.
  - astrange 5y ago
    Political parties in the US aren't very strong; instead of having more names of parties, we just replace the insides of the current ones in primary elections. It's not like the UK where you actually have to do what they tell you or can literally get fired. Replacing FPTP with RCV would elect more centrists, but without proportional representation there'd still be two parties I think.
    - kmonsen 5y ago
      Yes agree with the current voting system it will not make too much difference. Need proportional representation. I think the problem is not that the parties are too strong, but that are too weak to strong interest groups.

mrkstu 5y ago

I've been voting Libertarian since the Republican Party decided to decamp into MAGA-land. Which is also not much of a home, since it generally is inhabited by non-serious people- but at this point at least I can morally live with a platform of you stay out of my way and I'll stay out of yours. The other options have too many compromises right now.

kmonsen 5y ago
The US badly need more than two political parties.
- api 5y ago
  Look into ranked choice voting. That could help.
- astrange 5y ago
  Political parties in the US aren't very strong; instead of having more names of parties, we just replace the insides of the current ones in primary elections. It's not like the UK where you actually have to do what they tell you or can literally get fired. Replacing FPTP with RCV would elect more centrists, but without proportional representation there'd still be two parties I think.
  - kmonsen 5y ago
    Yes agree with the current voting system it will not make too much difference. Need proportional representation. I think the problem is not that the parties are too strong, but that are too weak to strong interest groups.