At the outset, a distinction needs to be made. There is a difference between categorizing people's beliefs by their views on many different issues and categorizing people based on their core philosophy. Using the former method, conservatives can be arranged into three distinct groups: social conservatives, economic conservatives, and foreign policy/military conservatives. (I would qualify as all three. Take the poll on the upper left hand side of this blog!)
However, each person must decide their stance on these issues according to some central philosophy, and mine would be classified as federalist republican and liberal. The first term has to do with how I think government should be constituted and the second has to do with my stance on specific issues taken up by the government.
By "federalist republican" I mean two things. First, local and provincial/state governments should have much more power than the national government; that's the "federal" part. Second, all citizens should have representation in every government that has authority over him; however, citizens should not be voting directly on issues. So, for example, I do not support the ability of citizens to initiate recalls, referenda, or ballot initiatives. I also support the electoral college and want to return to the days when U.S. senators were elected by state legislatures, not by the people directly. This arrangement, concentrating power locally rather than nationally and favoring representation and a slow legislative process over quick action and direct democracy, suffered serious blows under Teddy Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Roosevelt, and Lyndon Johnson.
Now, to take up the question of what our constituted government should do: Liberalism is a commitment to individual freedom with extremely limited intervention. This is confusing for Americans, because the people we think of as liberal are in reality from two separate philosophies. They are either socialists or social democrats. Socialism is very nearly opposite to liberalism; social democracy, while it shares capitalist roots with liberalism, is also very different. As a liberal, I support legalizing marijuana, eliminating Social Security, welfare, Medicare, and Medicaid, eliminating the estate tax, the corporate income tax, the capital gains tax, and all tariffs, and stopping all corporate welfare and other subsidy programs.
Tell me what you think! I may write more later; the topics of foreign policy, immigration, and national security remain untouched as yet.
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