 | | 
07-08-2009, 03:42 PM
|  | Thus Always to Tyrants! Member #11434  | | Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: Washington, DC area
Posts: 3,321
Thanks: 133
Thanked 194 Times in 147 Posts
Rep Power: 34 | |
Quote: Originally Posted by aDrag 
Quote: Originally Posted by Tech_Esq
The best you can hope from government is that they don't do harm; to expect them to do good is fantasy.
Thanks RodISHI--
Tech_Esq: What about schools and roads? Maybe this is an instance where you and I differ but I don't trust in the ability of private organizations to provide services that offer no direct profit. I think highways are good and the government does that. Hell, I even think the post office is good--you put a letter in your mailbox and for 43 cents a guy will come get it and it will go to wherever you want in two days! The state of public education is atrocious. If it was a good idea at one time to have public education, it has been turned into an abominable failure especially to those who need it most. The US is literally sinking before our eyes in its competition with other industrialized nations.
Highways are one of the things the Constitution sets out as things government should do. They've done them any with notable exceptions, they are not too bad. Other forms of communications have suffered and I'm not sure that is a good thing, but highways are not an instance of government doing something bad in my opinion. Incidentally, here in DC they operate for profit roads. The Dulles Greenway and new HOT lanes being built on the Virginia portion of the beltway.
The post office is a by in large currently unnecessary service that was desperately needed at the time it was instituted. My guess is that we could do away with it and be better off. We'd find a way around the issues created and probably be better for the challenge.
__________________
It isn't that Liberals don't know anything, they just know a lot that isn't so. -- Ronald Reagan
Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. -- C.S. Lewis |
07-08-2009, 04:03 PM
|  | Registered User Member #6709 | | Join Date: Oct 2007
Posts: 21,116
Thanks: 266
Thanked 732 Times in 593 Posts
Rep Power: 211 | |
Quote: Originally Posted by aDrag I'm center-left because I'm more in the center than on the left but more on the left than the right. I'm pro-choice, agnostic, black, pro-union, strict-interpretationist, techno-utopian, utilitarian, in support of UHC, anti-DADT, anti-DOMA, willing to pay high taxes etc., but I also support 2nd amendment rights, a large military budget, limited foreign intervention (conversely), limited government (beyond that) and a bunch of other stuff. I guess I'm a bit of a libertarian who wants government to intervene in good ways. How would you classify me?
In American politics, I think we get so hung up on the divide between the dems and republicans that nobody realizes it's possible to stand somewhere between the two spectra of their platforms.
That's far left, dear.
__________________  A wise and frugal government, which shall leave men free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned - this is the sum of good government.
Thomas Jefferson | | The Following User Says Thank You to AllieBaba For This Useful Post: | |
07-08-2009, 04:06 PM
|  | Yes, I'm just kidding Member #11939 | | Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Little Rock, AR
Posts: 11,167
Thanks: 1,065
Thanked 1,071 Times in 737 Posts
Rep Power: 294 | |
Quote: Originally Posted by aDrag I'm center-left because I'm more in the center than on the left but more on the left than the right. I'm pro-choice, agnostic, black, pro-union, strict-interpretationist, techno-utopian, utilitarian, in support of UHC, anti-DADT, anti-DOMA, willing to pay high taxes etc., but I also support 2nd amendment rights, a large military budget, limited foreign intervention (conversely), limited government (beyond that) and a bunch of other stuff. I guess I'm a bit of a libertarian who wants government to intervene in good ways. How would you classify me?
In American politics, I think we get so hung up on the divide between the dems and republicans that nobody realizes it's possible to stand somewhere between the two spectra of their platforms. I see a problem here: Quote: I guess I'm a bit of a libertarian who wants government to intervene in good ways. Regardless... Welcome.
__________________
"UPS and FedEx are doing just fine, right? It's the Post Office that's always having problems." Obama –attempting to make the case for government-run healthcare, while simultaneously undercutting his own argument, Portsmouth, N.H., Aug. 11, 2009 |
07-08-2009, 04:08 PM
| | Banned Member #19962 | | Join Date: Jul 2009
Posts: 16
Thanks: 0
Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts
Rep Power: 0 | | | What about local government? Police and fire services? Surely we can't privatize that or leave it up to chance. What sort of vision do you have for this country if not 'good government'? I'm just having a hard time interpreting your positions on policies I think.
Edit: Seems like a lot of people agree that less government is better, which is all well and good, but if that's the case who do you support politically and why? I'm being called an idealist for supporting my positions and the party that best exemplifies my ideals--if you guys supported Bush for the past 8 years, how does what he did in any way correlate to your beliefs and desires? Maybe you didn't support Bush, but I don't understand why I'm the idealist for accepting political reality in a two-party system in 2009.
Edit 2: And before anyone asks or misunderstands, I'm not a libertarian, I'm a democrat.
Last edited by aDrag; 07-08-2009 at 04:15 PM.
|
07-08-2009, 04:25 PM
|  | Registered User Member #19967 | | Join Date: Jul 2009
Posts: 3
Thanks: 0
Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts
Rep Power: 0 | | | I think its cool how personal everyone is on the board! Not too many boards full of happy campers...
I am new here and will just say hello from Denver here! |
07-08-2009, 06:46 PM
|  | Hey! Member #18988 | | Join Date: Apr 2009
Posts: 3,193
Thanks: 1,736
Thanked 407 Times in 351 Posts
Rep Power: 121 | |
Quote: Originally Posted by xotoxi
Quote: Originally Posted by aDrag Hey, what's up, I'm Ted, 21 year old...born in Cleveland...
My condolences.
Welcome. I am xotoxi. Yeah, ditto
Just kidding, but "Cleveland Rocks" is a fallacy
__________________ History moves toward freedom because the desire for freedom is written in every human heart
Last edited by PixieStix; 07-08-2009 at 06:52 PM.
|
07-08-2009, 06:50 PM
| | Hey! Member #18988 | | Join Date: Apr 2009
Posts: 3,193
Thanks: 1,736
Thanked 407 Times in 351 Posts
Rep Power: 121 | |
Quote: Originally Posted by aDrag Hey, what's up, I'm Ted, 21 year old student in Chicago, born in Cleveland, ardent follower of politics, staunch center-leftist (if you can be a staunch center-leftist). I'm here for the politics.
...That wasn't very exciting, but I am excited to be here. We got our work cut out for us guys, on one hand we have far left freaks who will further indocrrinate, on the other hand we have those who are right! 
Welcome Drag
__________________ History moves toward freedom because the desire for freedom is written in every human heart
|
07-08-2009, 06:53 PM
|  | Registered User Member #15391 | | Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: The heart of America
Posts: 4,836
Thanks: 203
Thanked 323 Times in 227 Posts
Rep Power: 87 | |
Quote: Originally Posted by SnickyH I think its cool how personal everyone is on the board! Not too many boards full of happy campers...
I am new here and will just say hello from Denver here! SnickyH, you have something hanging down there exposed in your little avatar guy. Are you a "diverse" "libtard"? |
07-08-2009, 07:09 PM
|  | Over 40 Victim of Fate Member #4791 | | Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Albuquerque
Posts: 4,028
Thanks: 191
Thanked 430 Times in 284 Posts
Rep Power: 150 | | | Dayum! aDrag banned on his first day!
__________________
"I am allergic to piety, it makes me break out in rash judgements." - Penn Jillette
"I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with a lot of pleasure." - Clarence Darrow
"The man who invented the telescope found out more about heaven than the closed eyes of prayer ever discovered." - Robert G. Ingersoll | | |
Lower Navigation
| | |
| Thread Tools | | | | Display Modes |  Linear Mode |
Posting Rules
| You may not post new threads You may not post replies You may not post attachments You may not edit your posts
HTML code is Off
| | |
|
| » Site Navigation | | | | » Apple iPad Forum | | | |
