Sunday, May 14, 2006

How liberal am I?

Joe posted Atrios's list of issues that he believes liberals will "have a fairly clear consensus on," and disagreed with quite a few of them. Justin's response pretty much echoes my analysis. But here goes anyway:


  • Undo the bankruptcy bill enacted by this administration: I don't think the new bankruptcy laws are bad. Of course, I've only ever represented creditors.
  • Repeal the estate tax repeal: Yes.
  • Increase the minimum wage and index it to the CPI: Yes. Ditto Justin's response, big time.
  • Universal health care (obviously the devil is in the details on this one): Yeah, it's a good idea.
  • Increase CAFE standards. Some other environment-related regulation: Yes.
  • Pro-reproductive rights, getting rid of abstinence-only education, improving education about and access to contraception including the morning after pill, and supporting choice. On the last one there's probably some disagreement around the edges (parental notification, for example), but otherwise: Definitely yes.
  • Simplify and increase the progressivity of the tax code: What? They want to put tax lawyers out of work? Simplicity is bad for the accounting/tax law business. But, yeah, definitely something needs to be done about making the tax system more progressive.
  • Kill faith-based funding. Certainly kill federal funding of anything that engages in religious discrimination: Amen.
  • Reduce corporate giveaways: Again, bad for business. But good in theory.
  • Have Medicare run the Medicare drug plan: Eh, not so sure about this one. If someone else can do it more efficiently and less expensively, they should do it. Currently, I'm not sure they've proven that is the case.
  • Force companies to stop underfunding their pensions. Change corporate bankruptcy law to put workers and retirees at the head of the line with respect to their pensions: Yes, companies should be forced fully fund their pensions. And the excise tax on underfunded pensions is not a real solution. But changing priorities in bankruptcy is not a solution, either.
  • Leave the states alone on issues like medical marijuana. Generally move towards "more decriminalization" of drugs, though the details complicated there too: Yes. Duh.
  • Paper ballots: I don't think so. We're heading towards a paperless future.
  • Improve access to daycare and other pro-family policies. Obiously details matter: Yup.
  • Raise the cap on wages covered by FICA taxes: Yup.
  • Torture is bad: Again, duh.
  • Imprisoning citizens without charges is bad; Playing Calvinball with the Geneva Conventions and treaties generally is bad; Imprisoning anyone indefinitely without charges is bad; Stating that the president can break any law he wants any time "just because" is bad: Yeah, we get it. The president is a bad guy. The administration is dangerous. Blah blah blah. (But, for the record, love the Calvinball reference.)
  • Marriage rights for all, which includes "gay marriage" and quicker transition to citizenship for the foreign spouses of citizens: Yep, that's good too. Not gonna happen, but it would be nice.

    I guess I'm pretty liberal then. But we knew that. And this new test agrees:


You are a

Social Liberal
(70% permissive)

and an...

Economic Liberal
(25% permissive)

You are best described as a:

Democrat




Link: The Politics Test on Ok Cupid
Also: The OkCupid Dating Persona Test

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