[quote=@Penny]
[@mdk] I'm not trying to suggest that you are a racist or a sexist and I apologize if I came across that way. A person makes a political choice for their own reasons and those are always going to be nuanced.

Things I like about the left.
When I stop to think about it, it is surprising how many things I have to define as better than the GOP position.

Healthcare universal healthcare is a left wing idea in America. The democrats aren't really committed to it (maybe Sanders and a few others) but at least they are somewhat active in expanding things like Medicaid. I deal with people everyday who wouldn't be in the dire straits they are if they could afford regular preventive care. I'd personally like to see a system like Australia or Canada use. I don't think it will happen in my lifetime.

Women's health. Every time I see an attempt to make access to women's healthcare services more difficult it is always the right doing it. Access to these services including abortion services is important to me and the left is the one not tearing it down.

Social programs ditto. I know we would all like to be in fantasy land with 100^ employment but I don't think the threat of starvation is a good motivator.

Protections for lgbtq. Again nothing doctrinally prevents the right from being more supportive of this but it seems to me that harmful bills more frequently come from this quarter.

Globalism I want America to play a leading role in the world. I like free speech and other such American notions. This means engaging with allies, NATO, not threatening to defund the UN ect. Globalism is a literal dirty word on the far right and I worry about a retraction of American influence. For all the hype bout Islam being a threat to the west I'm much more concerned about a collapse in china because the government can't satisfy the expanding middle class and opts to invade Taiwan for jingoistic reasons. 
[/quote]

Awesome -- those are some sound positions. Clearly I've been overreacting about propaganda. You're no pushover, and you've done your homework. That's fantastic. [i]I disagree with (almost) all of it lol[/i], but that's not the point.

Healthcare -- this is where personal experience is gonna play, which makes it a non-productive conversation. My disability was directly caused by U.S. government-controlled healthcare (VA, TriCare), and that's pretty much going to prevent me from ever supporting anything remotely similar in the US. I mean government healthcare literally ripped me apart. So...... no, not for me. But I respect the other side of the argument -- it's pragmatism and not politics for me. The U.S. is too big and too geopolitically diverse to support NHS or single-payer. State-level care is a whole other beast (think RomneyCare) -- it's reasonable to think a system could be devised that works for Rhode Island, but unthinkable that this exact same system will work in rural Wyoming. Anywho. This won't go anywhere -- my experience leaves me rather unflexible on this account. Turning the page.

Women's Health -- well I'm certainly not qualified to speak to that'n. My position begins and ends with "don't make people do things they don't wanna do." That includes both carrying a pregnancy to term and funding contraceptives. That [i]kinda does[/i] mean that I wind up supporting a lot of those GOP bills about funding PP or whatever -- but I'm not the sort that believes in banning stuff either. It's a weird line and doesn't feel like anyone important is on the same page with me, so I don't wind up voting along this issue. 

Social programs -- it's embarrassing how little they accomplish compared to how much they cost. Speaking broadly. We should be allowed to talk about reducing fraud/waste/abuse, but folks like Rep. Maxine Waters -- living in a multi-million-dollar mansion on a "government salary wink wink" -- won't let us have that debate. Gosh I wonder why.

LGBTQetc -- all about personal freedoms over here. I mentioned at one point earlier that I hate the whole "pro/anti" parentheticals that seem to entrap [b]the entire field of politics[/b], and the LGBT issues are a major reason why I feel that way. Anybody can call anything "anti-LGBT" and [i]instantly[/i] summon an army of boycotts, protests, and death threats. See for reference: soon after the SCOTUS decision on marriage equality, the lobbying machine decided to make bathrooms the next benchmark and [i]immediately[/i], if you were a drunk 23-year-old in a nightclub suddenly made nervous about going to the bathroom, you were a horrible bigot. Little kids were fair game. It was fucking disgusting to me, and it was all possible because "ANTI-LGBT" is just a damned successful brand. 

....that's a rambling response aint it. The point is I'm thrilled that people finally got the freedom to be themselves, and depressed that seemingly immediately it turned into "anyone who doesn't do it our way is evil." Like it flipped. That. Damn. Quick. How is that possible? Whatever.

Globalism -- yeeeeeeaaaaaah that's a hairy one. See the GOP at-large is ALL ABOUT globalism. The new wave is very much not. Interestingly the democrats of 12 years ago were very much not, back when a Republican was the one dropping the bombs (and I expect if Trump drops a few more, the pendulum will flip again). Internationally, I'm more of a "what's in it for me" type -- I'm not interested in World Police, unless I'm getting something out of it. And I think that's fair.


EDIT: more added! Standby.

Economics: You will certainly find regulation on the left, you are correct in that assessment. 

Global Warming: Well........ I mean that's a whole thread. I don't believe there's ANY AMOUNT of regulation of US emissions that would make a dent -- partly because I don't trust the predictive models (they've never been correct), partly because I think the man-made influence is righteously overstated, but mostly because nothing and I mean NOTHING we can do will put a dent in global emissions when you take into account emerging economies. STILL -- if/when clean alternatives come around, let's adapt. They're not good enough yet.

Immigration -- I want a big, beautiful wall with a big beautiful door. Illegal immigration is hurting legal immigrants in the job sector; when you look at living conditions and wages [i]it's practically slavery[/i] for those who come here illegally; and of course there's the gang and drug violence that exploits that (and other) misery to make big bucks. We're allowed to have control of our border. That's [i]literally the defining feature[/i] of a nation.