I started gaining interest in politics last year during the primaries. My parents, at least as far as I could tell, have traditionally been Republicans, and many of the people I am surrounded by are Republicans, so naturally I come from a Republican background.
However, I love to think for myself. I was determined to attack the subject of politics from an objective point of view. At first, I was completely ignorant, not knowing what a conservative, liberal, libertarian, or authoritarian was.
After doing some research into the matter, I considered myself a moderate or perhaps a libertarian. Conservatives are for small government, and liberals are for individuality, right? I didn't agree with conservative stances against gay marriage or abortion. On the other hand, I didn't like the idea of a liberal "nanny state". Probably one of my greatest fears in life is the realization of Big Brother and the thought police.
Eventually, though, I realized that the Republican party is no longer conservative. The Democratic party is no longer liberal. Instead, they are largely neo-conservative and progressive, respectively.
Neo-conservativism no longer values non-interventionism or small government. We didn't go into Iraq because of possible WMDs. A large part of why we went was to force them into a democratic government. The war also speaks loudly for how much the Bush administration values small government; if it were a priority, America wouldn't be this far in debt.
In fact, my first impression of the definition of small and big government was an incorrect one. The terms seem to refer the amount of government spending, the amount of government economic regulation, and the amount of government programs, not necessarily individual liberties. Of course, if you take it to an extreme, you could end up like China, censoring criticism on the Internet. Moderation always seems to be the key. The point is that giving NASA a larger budget doesn't necessarily mean that two-piece bikinis are going to be made illegal because they are deemed "too provocative".
As for Democrats, they are no longer liberal. The definition of liberalism is that individual liberties are the most important political goal. It simply isn't anymore. The big issues are not gay marriage, abortion, net neutrality, marijuana legalization, or freedom of speech. The focus has shifted to economy, healthcare, energy, etc. Thus, the Democratic party is now mostly progressive, not liberal.
In realizing these things, I began to realize other things. We seem to be living in a country where corporations operate on capitalism when they are gaining money and on socialism when they are losing it. A lasseiz-faire ideology is no excuse to sit there and watch the economy crumble, especially if the cause is policy gone bad like the Community Reinvestment Act. The policy already existed, and it should have been removed. Lasseiz-faire doesn't mean that you have to leave all the cruft lying around. Someone should have seen the credit crisis coming and done something about it. If it wasn't the CRA, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac, and it was Bear Stearns and the Lehman Bros., we simply should not have bailed them out. It just seems to me that our government has been making all the wrong decisions.
Aside from all the economic blunders, one of my biggest problems with the Bush administration is that they are sacrificing our freedoms in the name of security through means such as illegal wiretapping.
Why are the mega-corporations allowed to treat the American consumers in such a predatory manner? Why are the rich getting so much richer and the poor getting so much poorer? Why is America falling in debt, while Iraq is gaining a surplus? Why are America's education and energy systems being allowed to fall so far behind? These are some of the issues that I want fixed, and these are some of the issues that I believe that the right wing are worsening, not improving.
Yes, I used to think I was a libertarian or a moderate because I thought I believed in both individual liberties and small government. Then I figured out that there are some things that I believe government should be involved in.
Corporations do not get less evil. Trickle down does not work. In fact, the opposite has been true this year. Bad fortune has trickled up. The people who have the money aren't letting go of it. So many companies I despise: Microsoft, most airlines, and most telcos. Other sectors I don't follow as closely have a lot of bad apples, too: banks and oil. Somehow, someone has got to put a limit to their abusive practices.
Energy policy is important, and the reason government is important is because government subsidies on oil are stifling the innovation in alternate power sources such as wind, solar, and nuclear. Republicans don't seem to concerned with changing that.
Government right now is messed up. I guess this is where a conservative would say that we just need to make government smaller, because government never does anything right. Well, there are no true conservatives, and voting Republican doesn't make the government smaller.
My only option now is to vote for the person that I believe will run a smarter government. This time, I believe Obama will deliver that. I heard a quote recently that went something like this: "My fear with Obama is that he might not fulfill all of his promises, and my fear with McCain is that he actually would have delivered on some of his promises."
In conclusion, I now consider myself a liberal. I don't completely agree with a lasseiz-faire economy, since it favors the very rich; and most importantly I believe strongly in individual liberties, as I am opposed to imposing the morals of one subculture onto everyone else.
