A Look at the ESP Spectrums – Political Part 2

As I did with the social spectrum, I’m going to start this look at the political spectrum by copying exactly from my first post in this series.  From my previous column:

“To narrow it down to what we see in the United States, we have Figure 3, which is the republic portion of Figure 2.  Technically, the United States is a republic, not a democracy.  The difference is mainly in the voting structure.  In a democracy, all eligible voters vote on all matters, but in a republic, eligible voters elect representatives to vote on their behalf on most matters (save the occasional referendum).  Both structures allow for a single executive branch to be elected.  One can easily see how a true democracy is impractical.  In Figure 3, we see darker red/blue as we get further away from the purple center (because red and blue make purple). 

Ultra-Left-Wing	Left-Wing	Center-Left	Moderate or Center	Center-Right	Right-Wing	Ultra-Right-Wing

I’m not going to go into excruciating detail here.  On the left, we would typically expect to see various classes of liberals like democrats, socialists, progressives, and communists.  On the right, we would typically expect to see various classes of conservatives like republicans, libertarians, and social conservatives.”

This is where I’ll go into more detail.  The table below is my quick guide to the lay of the land on political issues.  We have four columns, namely issue, left position, center position, and right position.  These are admittedly very simplistic views on the issues, so they’re more like guidelines rather than hard rules.  You can use this to evaluate your personal views.  It’s the easiest way I could think of to handle this discussion, and could be a useful quick guide for people new to American politics.  Basically, I asked myself how I would go about trying to learn another country’s politics and a table like this would be great.  Note that some of these choices are somewhat binary in nature while others have nuances to consider.

I think it’s a disservice to oneself to make the blanket statement of, “I’m a leftie/rightie,” because there are times when a person may go left/right on most issues, but not all.  I don’t see the sense in towing the party line if you don’t agree with it.  If you’ve read my blog for a while, you know I go left on a few issues, right on others, in the middle on some, and off the spectrum from time to time. 

You’ll also note that my left/center/right spectrum is generalized and we often end up with policy positions that are not at the extremes.  That’s the nature of our system.  It’s also basic negotiation in that two sides start at extremes and work their way inward to make a deal (or they remain at the ends and no deal is made). 

Tending toward the center or left of center would tend to put one in Democrat territory, while tending toward the center or right of center would tend to put one in Republican territory.  We have other parties in the USA.  The far left is where we would find Socialists and Communists.  Libertarians would tend to the left on social issues, but to the right on economic issues. 

These parties outside the duopoly are almost better thought of on the social spectrum, where the Libertarians would claim the center for freedom while the Socialists and Communists would tend toward totalitarian and secular real.  There really isn't a far right equivalent in the USA that would occupy the totalitarian and theocratic realm.

Issue	Left	Center	Right
Gun Control	As strict as possible.  Guns kill people and shouldn’t exist.  Less guns means less killing because people won't have guns to kill with.	Keep the guns out of the hands of criminals while still allowing upstanding citizens access to guns.	As loose as possible.  Guns don't kill people - people kill people.  Guns protect people and more guns mean less killing due to deterrence.
Abortion	Pro-choice in all circumstances.  Abortions always and for everyone.	Let individuals decide for themselves.  Alternatively, pro-choice in some situations (rape, incest, danger to the mother, etc.) and pro-life in others (procedure restrictions, trimester restrictions, etc.).	Pro-life in all circumstances.  Abortions for no one ever.
War (Military)	War is not the answer.  Ever.	War is sometimes the answer and sometimes not the answer.  Alternatively, differentiate between pro-defense and pro-war.	War is the answer.  Always.
War (on Drugs)	Legalize everything.  Treatment for everyone.	Legalize to various degrees and balance treatment with punishment.	Criminalize everything.  Jail time for all offenders.
Gay Rights	Federal law explicitly legalizing gay marriage and equal legal benefits.  It's beautiful.	Let the states decide, but each state has to honor other states' marriages.	Federal law banning marriage and equal legal benefits.  It's an abomination.
Illegal Immigration	Amnesty for all instantly, no questions asked.	Streamline the citizenship process.  Both amnesty and deportation are needed.	Deportation for all instantly, no questions asked.
Death Penalty	Never justified.  Make it impossible to execute.  It's not a great deterrent, it's expensive, and could kill innocent people.	Sometimes justified.  Assess on a case-by-case basis.	Often justified.  Make it easier to execute.  It's a great deterrent, cost can be solved by streamlining, and innocent people aren't killed.
Taxes	Raise them.  The government knows best how to efficiently allocate money.	Lower some, raise others, leave the rest unchanged.  Maybe scrap the entire current tax code.	Slash them.  People know best how to efficiently allocate money.
Defense Spending	$1 is too much.	Spend wisely and as needed.	There can never be enough.
Environment	Save it at all costs.  Man is a plague upon the Earth.	Balance the needs of man and those of the environment.	Who cares?  The Earth is ours to plunder.
Energy Sources	No drilling or mining.  Green energy can do it all.  Fossil fuels and nuclear are dirty.	Don't rely on just one source.  Come up with something that makes sense.	Drill baby drill.  Green energy is bad.  Fossil fuels and nuclear power are great.
Energy Efficiency	We should use no energy ever.	Let's try to be energy efficient to the most practical degree.	Who cares?  If I can pay for it, I'll use it.
Raise Taxes or Cut Government Spending to Fix the Deficit?	Raise taxes.	A mix of both.	Cut government spending.
How to Fix Social Security?	Tax the rich and deny them benefits.	Tax increases, benefit cuts, age increases, means testing, and/or individual accounts.	Privatize it.
How to Fix Medicare?	Tax the rich and deny them benefits.	Tax increases, benefit cuts, age increases, means testing, individual accounts, and/or cost containment.	Privatize it.
Which is Worse - the Public or Private Sector?	The private sector is the root of all evil.	Evil stems from both the public and private sectors.	The public sector is the root of all evil.
Interwebs	The government owns the interwebs.	Nobody owns the interwebs.	The private sector owns the interwebs.
Favorite Presidents	FDR, Woodrow Wilson.	Could be any of them.	Ronald Reagan, Abraham Lincoln.
Regulation	The more, the better.	Do what makes sense for the situation.	The less, the better.
Government Spending	Raise it.	Raise some areas and slash others.	Slash it.
Affirmative Action	It's still absolutely necessary and needs to be expanded.	The need has dropped over the years, but still exists.	It was never necessary and should be abolished.
Labor or Capital?	Labor.	Neither or both.	Capital.
Income Inequality	The most pressing problem in our society today.  No income inequality is permitted ever.	It's a problem when it becomes too excessive, but it's also necessary to ensure a functional society.	Not a problem at all.  Income inequality is good, even in excessively large levels.
Bias in the Media and Academia/Education	There's no liberal bias anywhere, but there's conservative bias everywhere.  Fox News is the sole and ultimate propaganda and deception machine.  The mainstream media and academia are fair and balanced and objective with no agenda.	Fox News has a conservative bias.  The rest of the media and academia have a liberal bias.  Some of the mainstream media lives up to the lamestream media label.  I'll hear them out with a focus on bias and agenda, then decide for myself who's right and wrong.	There's no conservative bias anywhere, but there's liberal bias everywhere.  The lamestream media and academia are the ultimate propaganda and deception machine.  Fox News is fair and balanced and objective with no agenda.
General View of US History	The US has done nothing but rape, plunder, pillage, murder, and exploit throughout its history.  US history is all evil and a blight on humanity.	The US has done both good and bad things, but it has done more of one than the other.	The US has done nothing but improve humanity and has never done anything wrong.  US history is all good and the bright spot for humanity.