What sort of Republican as a Brit?

Democracy 1 & 2 Political Debate
1

I choose to post a new thread rather than post in ‘what’s your politics’ thread as its a bit of a tangent.

I’ve been wondering what I would be if I was an American. In Blighty I’m a pretty straight down the line Tory. And what with the US being the superpower it is I’m exposed to quiet a lot of US political stuff. I know that my views translate pretty neatly into the republican party, since I agree with them about 100% on foreign policy, economic policy and largely on domestic policy.

There are however a few differences.

I while I agree on Nuclear, I don’t agree just pumping more oil without diverting substantial resources from the tax on that petrol (gas) to renewable production, and I certainly believe in setting emission standards for vehicles and businesses.

I read the 2nd amendment, including the first line. I think it has been grossly misused in modern America. While I think its too late to ban all weapons, I would ban quite a lot and place a lot more restrictions on sales of the rest.

I am pro-choice.

I don’t really care about gay-marriage, but would not attempt to stop it.

I don’t believe in God. Or even if there was one, I have my own moral code and would not be beholden to that child abusing mass murdering genocidalist of the old testament. And Jesus seems nice enough as hippies go, but then I don’t do what hippies tell me to do either.

I figure that I would be practically unelectable on any one of those points if I say, tried to run for office as a republican in the states. But I’m definitely not a Democrat either, I used to sit swearing at the screen watching The Left Wing … Sorry, The West Wing

I wonder if genuine Americans might figure out what I would be on your political spectrum?

2

Sounds like you would reluctantly vote republican to me. I’d probably reluctantly vote Democrat, but the thought of only two parties is scary. Although the LibDems arent likely to win an election any time soon here in the UK, they can at least force some issues onto everyone’s agenda (such as the environment, or scrutiny of laws that affect civil liberty).
The US badly needs a third party, and some curbs to corporate sponsorship of parties.

3

Sounds like you’d be a disaffected “Goldwater Republican”. Very conservative but also highly disturbed by the influence of the religious right in the GOP. Whether you’d vote Republican, Democratic, or not at all depends on how important social policies are to you and how well you could tolerate the party’s base (and by extension, its agenda).

4

You have a lot of strong points that counter the current Republicans, mainly the Relgion, the Abortion Issues, and the gun issues. You would be a Goldwater Republican.

My views:

Pro Choice

I care about Gay Rights, since I am Gay myself.

I believe in God, but do not follow any set Religion. I agree that the Bible which advocated the murder of women and mass genocide should not be used as a popular religious book!

If there is no doubt that a person is a violent offender, he should be executed.

However, I believe everyone has the right to own a weapon with no restrictions to Protect themselves. The Police can’t be everywhere at everytime.

Our Military should be strictly a self defense force using prevention rather then counter invasion as a foreign policy.

Churches shouldn’t be taxed, like how it is now. The only reason I believe in this is because if they were taxed, they’d have representation in the Government, which they currently cannot have, since they are not taxed. The moment churches are taxed means the church becomes apart of the state, requiring representation.

You have the right to believe whatever you want to believe in, religious wise or anything else, as long as it does not harm or damage anybody or anything.

Any country who wants Nuclear should be able to have it, with rare exceptions.

The Government has a responsibility to care for the poor, but only if they return the favor and allow certain restrictions. Such as random drug testing if you’re on welfare or Government housing, no having children while on welfare or in Government housing (Hey, if you can’t afford to pay for yourself, why bring a child you can’t afford?), and any other restrictions like this as well if you’re using a Government healthcare system.

We should have more Police and use CCTV Television like England does. Since there would be more CCTV Television, you could have another Agency monitor it, and nobody would have to worry about Police Abuse, since they would be monitored by it themselves, but not the ones regulating it. They should carry more Automatic Weaponry as a standard weapon. Even a decent M1911 can’t fight off a guy with an AK.

Police should be randomly tested by lie detectors and should work on protecting rather than prosecuting. The motto is “To Protect and Serve” not “To Prosecute and Serve Papers” like it is now.

The UN is completely useless, the only thing they’re good at is pushing papers and sending “Strongly worded” letters which do absolutely nothing.

I believe in Progressive Taxing, to an extent, as well as some Corperate taxing.

In some cases, I seem very conservative, and in others, like a complete liberal. There’s no black or white, only shades of gray.

5

I disagree. many people assume the UN achieves nothing if there is not a UN task force that barges in to sort things out. This is not the only use for the UN. The UN acts like a giant international meeting room. It’s a framework for big superpowers to talk to each other on neutral ground. The UN is the first point of debate and discussion over international events. It might seem that all that happens at UN meetings is a lot of talk, but tbh, that’s one of it’s best features. it’s far better for nuclear superpowers to be slagging each other off in a UN conference than it is to be fighting proxy wars against each other in third world countries.
The UN is like ACAS, the UK service where unions and employers can meet on neutral ground to argue :smiley:

6

Your stances sound so far out of the Republican mainline that I don’t understand why people are telling you that you’d be a “Goldwater” Republican. You rejected the Second Amendment! That’s pretty vile. You sound much more like a Democrat. You’d probably be called a fiscal conservative, but the Republican base would reject you if you tried to run under their banner, whereas if you focused on social issues rather than economic ones, you could probably wring support out of the Democratic base.

7

Rejecting the right-wing revisionist “individual rights” interpretation of the second amendment is not the same thing as rejecting the amendment itself