Thread: CONSERVATIVE/MODERATE/LIBERAL

I am a compassionate conservative with secret liberal tenancies. I believe in big government when it is beneficial to me, but small government otherwise.

I am a cowboy.

Originally Posted by Stubear

I went for moderate ...

I agree with all you say except one thing. In today's climate that all makes you not a moderate but a reactionary, selfish, cold and uncaring, right-wing bigot! Welcome to the cabal. Your hate-speech dictionary will be issued when you pay your dues.

Originally Posted by TexasBob

I agree with all you say except one thing. In today's climate that all makes you not a moderate but a reactionary, selfish, cold and uncaring, right-wing bigot! Welcome to the cabal. Your hate-speech dictionary will be issued when you pay your dues.

I'm aware that some people do see what I think as right wing, but I really dont see how it is? And even if it is, its certainly not extreme right wing!

Surely its common sense to make prison a punishment, to show children boundaries and teach them right from wrong, to make sure that the people we are allowing into our country can contribute rather than just take? I dont see how that is selfish?

I WANT society to function. I want my kids to be educated, to know right from wrong, and to know that criminals get punished, to respect the law and authority and to look out for others.

Surely its a failure to do these things that has allowed the problems that we face in the UK now to grow over the last 10 - 12 years?

When I was at university I worked in an off licence and I was held up, at gun point, by two foreign criminals. The Police told me that they had an idea who they were and knew where they lived, but despite CCTV evidence and allegedly knowing who they were, they were never brought to trial. This happened in 2002, and I said at the time I would testify against them, yet I have heard nothing from the police about it. Is that justice? Surely they should have been locked up and then deported?

If thats all it takes to make me a right wing bigot then all I can say is that the rot has obviously set in deep! I was a victim of a violent crime and I want the criminals punished. I dont see how thats right wing?

The thing is that people are more concerned about the criminals rights and "understanding" these muppets than they are with the victims. All I want to do is wheel them out to Tyburn!

I suppose I can see how that would be a right wing view, just by dint of the fact that its not a left wing view. But its the left wing, idealistic, PC, touchy feely nonsense thats got us into the problems we're in now.

We've had a left wing party since 1997 and theres no way you could argue that the UK is better now than it was before hand?

Half of these supposedly "left wing" MP's have been fiddling their expenses with the best of them, bribing businessmen with peerages and generally lining their pockets as much as possible. I'm not saying that the Tories are any better, but theres been MORE Labour MP's caught out with the expenses than any other party.

Anyway, I digress! I could sit here for hours and rant about this and that, but all I really want is a party thats going to use its brain for once and actually make a decision.

All we get is spin, blame apportioning and taxes up the ying yang with nothing to show for it. Half the time you end up paying twice for things anyway!

Pay tax for the NHS, but its so poor that you end up shelling out for private health care anyway. Did you know that this week 14 NHS trusts were found to be falling short of even the most basic levels of hygiene?

Schools? A growing number of people are shelling out for private schools because their local is so bad.

And the solution? Rack up the taxes and throw more money at it! ARRGH! It makes me so mad!

There was an MEP called Daniel Hannan who gave our PM a total roasting a while back and I think he said it best:

"

Prime Minister, I see you’ve already mastered the essential craft of the European politician, namely the ability to say one thing in this chamber and a very different thing to your home electorate. You’ve spoken here about free trade, and amen to that. Who would have guessed, listening to you just now, that you were the author of the phrase ‘British jobs for British workers’ and that you have subsidised, where you have not nationalised outright, swathes of our economy, including the car industry and many of the banks? Perhaps you would have more moral authority in this house if your actions matched your words? Perhaps you would have more legitimacy in the councils of the world if the United Kingdom were not going into this recession in the worst condition of any G20 country?
The truth, Prime Minister, is that you have run out of our money. The country as a whole is now in negative equity. Every British child is born owing around £20,000. Servicing the interest on that debt is going to cost more than educating the child. Now, once again today you try to spread the blame around; you spoke about an international recession, international crisis. Well, it is true that we are all sailing together into the squalls. But not every vessel in the convoy is in the same dilapidated condition. Other ships used the good years to caulk their hulls and clear their rigging; in other words – to pay off debt. But you used the good years to raise borrowing yet further. As a consequence, under your captaincy, our hull is pressed deep into the water line under the accumulated weight of your debt We are now running a deficit that touches 10% of GDP, an almost unbelievable figure. More than Pakistan, more than Hungary; countries where the IMF have already been called in. Now, it’s not that you’re not apologising; like everyone else I have long accepted that you’re pathologically incapable of accepting responsibility for these things. It’s that you’re carrying on, wilfully worsening our situation, wantonly spending what little we have left. Last year - in the last twelve months – a hundred thousand private sector jobs have been lost and yet you created thirty thousand public sector jobs.
Prime Minister, you cannot carry on for ever squeezing the productive bit of the economy in order to fund an unprecedented engorgement of the unproductive bit. You cannot spend your way out of recession or borrow your way out of debt. And when you repeat, in that wooden and perfunctory way, that our situation is better than others, that we’re ‘well-placed to weather the storm’, I have to tell you that you sound like a Brezhnev-era apparatchik giving the party line. You know, and we know, and you know that we know that it’s nonsense! Everyone knows that Britain is worse off than any other country as we go into these hard times. The IMF has said so; the European Commission has said so; the markets have said so – which is why our currency has devalued by thirty percent. And soon the voters too will get their chance to say so. They can see what the markets have already seen: that you are the devalued Prime Minister of a devalued government."

Says it all!

Originally Posted by Stubear

I'm aware that some people do see what I think as right wing

Pretty much my point.

There was an MEP called Daniel Hannan who gave our PM a total roasting a while back and I think he said it best: ...

I like that guy! He has a knack with words and puts it to good use.

Originally Posted by TexasBob

Pretty much my point.

But why do they? I cant see how that is an especially right wing view? Or is it just right wing because its not left wing?

Originally Posted by Stubear

But why do they? I cant see how that is an especially right wing view? Or is it just right wing because its not left wing?

Exactly, although I do exaggerate a bit. At least in the USA there is a pretty hard-core and sizable left wing that takes that view and I am sure they would consider their views as moderate!

I think there is a big group that simply doesn't pay attention and defines themselves by what the main stream media and their favorite celebrities tell them is the correct way to think. This is not done by simple "command", but more subtly by example and by providing "entertainment" and "news" that is only entertaining or newsworthy if you hold the correct assumptions and point of view.

For example: most of the entertainment and news industries will swamp you with soft, feel-good, stories about how to "go green" or how to become "carbon neutral" (even Sesame Street!) but not even report on the CRU emails. (Because they were private, but that didn't stop them from digging up Sarah Palin's emails to chortle over. The CRU emails were paid for with your and my tax dollars!)

Earlier example: the ACORN people giving advice on how to set up a child prostitution racket and get a tax break while you're it. There were even videos, but the news had to be very widespread on the internet before it was even mentioned by the big networks, usually in the vein of how ACORN was tricked by evil right-wingers that should be brought to justice.

Another example: The New York Times assigned eleven "fact checkers" to scour Sarah Palin's new book and found essentially nothing but reported a few things (basically that she holds views similar to yours) as news of her evil and/or clulessness. They never "fact check" Obama's speeches where he says things like he is the first "Pacific" (ocean) president.

Libertarian

I'm none of the above.

I am hoglahoo

That means you'll just have to wait for my specific opinion on specific events in order to know where I stand

I think of myself as being "right" on the issues. In other words, I am correct, whether or not I am conservative or liberal on a particular issue. Frankly, if policy makers would just come to me first on any number of issues, it would save a lot of time.

I can't be pigeonholed. Much like others, my stance depends on the circumstance. MichaelP pretty much nailed my ideals, with one or two exceptions.

Primarily, "mind your own business" is the way I go. Guns? Go ahead, just don't shoot 'em at me. Gay marriage? Go ahead! Doesn't affect me at all. Religion? Sure, just don't expect me to be receptive to it and/or tolerant of your forcing it upon me. Abortion? While I wouldn't make that kind of excuse for irresponsibility in any circumstance, it's your body so as long as you can sleep at night, go right ahead. Language? As long as you can communicate with me, I don't care what language you speak to somebody else. Pushing "1" on an automated phone service line will not cause me to blow a gasket.

When speaking of government this isn't always possible, but I do believe it's possible more often than in the cases where they care to stick there noses these days. Stay out of my medical affairs. If you want to offer universal life care, allow me to choose it, and don't interfere with my employer's ability to provide something better. National defense is important. National offense is ridiculous. Trial by fire is the way businesses should be run. You shouldn't get a second chance at survival if you were too stupid to figure it out the first time around.