Navigating the Political Spectrum

              As this blog is intended to discuss civic ideas and politics, readers should know what my broad views and biases are within this spectrum.  From a social standpoint, I am fairly liberal.  I believe that a person’s rights end once they begin to infringe upon others.  If two men want to get married, go for it; there is not enough love in this world as it is.  I do have a problem forcing a business to enter into a contract against their beliefs.  To turn the usual argument around, would you force a gay pizza store owner to cater a Westboro Baptist Church “God Hates Fags” rally?

                The best economy is one that is in balance.   An economy needs to benefit all involved from the biggest corporation and the highest paid CEO to the lowest paid worker.  Current economic policies have been catering to big business and the upper class and have robbed the economy of money.  Most economic theory spouted by politicians are based on unrealistic ideal.  Republicans want to take more money out of the economy (see Kansas and Louisiana to see how that worked out).  Democrats want to spend more by giving out freebies.  Both will just make things worse.

                I try to look at the world as it is, rather than as I wish it to be.  Many people have an issue distinguishing what is real.  When a person has a strong belief or point-of-view, they view everything from that perspective rather than re-evaluating the foundation of that belief.  For instance:  Climate scientists all over the world have overwhelming evidence that climate change is real and mostly caused by man.  However, a person who does not believe in climate change would rather believe in a global      conspiracy of “everyone else”, including their grand-daughter, rather than be wrong.

                As a politician, I would be labeled a flip-flopper; I change my mind about issues when the data shows otherwise (I have a recent example about gun control).  A favorite quote of mine (I have tried to source it a few times, but to no avail, I think it is classical Greek) went something like this: “A Fact that cannot be proved false is an opinion.”  It means that every fact must have some underlying logical proof.  If at some time the proof is shown to be false, then the conclusion must be re-assessed.  If there is not a logical proof that could be proved wrong, then the “fact” is meaningless. 

                I will touch on a lot of these subjects later in the blog, so keep reading and let me know what you think in the comments below.