1. Pro-Choice, Pro-Assisted Suicide. I don't want the government involved in personal and family medical decisions, especially ones as morally ambigious as these. People's opinions on these topics tend to be very closely tied to their religious morality and that is outside the area I want government involved with.
2. Pro-Gay Rights. They pay the same taxes and have the same obligations, so they should have equal rights and benefits under the law. I don't care if its called marriage or civil union or whatnot, so long as the practical effects are the same from a financial and legal standpoint. Arguments against this are inevitably based on religious morality, which is clearly outside of the scope of government to enforce.
3. Pro-Gun. Pro-Castle Doctrine. Pro-Fleeing Felon Law. Pro-Stand Your Ground Act (no retreat). Need I say more?
4. Against public school prayer. Public schools are just that: public. There are Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Atheists and others. Whose prayers get heard? The majority faith at the schoo? Most of the people screaming for school prayer would be very upset if it was other than Judeo-Christian prayer. There is really no way around school prayer becoming government-sponsored religion in public schools.
5. Pro-School Vouchers. I do think the government should be in the business of funding education. Universal education is important to both our democracy and our economy. I do not think the government should run the education system. If I had my way, school taxes would be collected at the State level. Every student in the state would get a voucher for the same amount, adjusted only for cost of living in their community. All schools would be private and would have to compete for students. Many would charge the voucher amount, because there would be a huge market at that price point. Some would charge more. The market would decide which schools survived and which did not.
In the absense of this happening, I would like to see school vouchers that allow parents the opportunity to opt out of the failing public school system without going broke.
6. Pro-Amnesty for most illegal immigrants already here, because many have been here for years and are making useful contributions to society. It would also be very difficult and expensive to get rid of them. You also have the issue of children raised here their entire life who are illegal. They are culturally and linguistically as American as most of us.
7. Seal the border and cut off the flow of illegal immigration. Enough said. If we need foreign labor, create a system that allows us to screen, track and tax foreign workers. No more of this nudge, nudge, wink, wink crap that we are doing now.
8. No public services for illegals. If the end up in the ER, save their life, but deport them as soon as they are healthy.
9. Pro-Fair Tax. Replace all Federal Taxes of every kind with a single sales tax on new goods and services.
10. Pro-Tort Reform. Cap the amount of money lawyers can make on contingency and class-action cases.
11. Withdraw from the UN and kick them out of NYC.
12. Stop engaging in any conflict that does not directly impact National Security. Keep our old treaty obligations ala South Korea and Japan, but bring most of our overseas troops home. If someone does attack us, screw this PC crap and make the consequences severe enough that nobody will want to do it again. We are not the World Police and I'm tired of watching the government spend billions of dollars trying to play that role.
13. Repeal the Patriot Act and the Military Commissions Act. I would rather risk another attack on our soil than give the government the power to determine who does and does not get due process.
14. Legalize at least some recreational drugs. Focus enforcement of the rest on importers and dealers, not users. Stop jailing over a million non-violent offenders for no good reason.
15. Legalize prostitution. This would make it possible to regulate the business to the extent of preventing the spread of disease and keeping out under-age girls.
There are probably more, but those are my political positions on a lot of things. These ideas have a lot to do with why I am perpetually disappointed.
