About Byron

Whenever I read any article or book, I like to know where the author is coming from... liberal, conservative, libertarian, authoritarian, etc. So, out of fairness, I thought that I'd tell everyone where I stand politically. I am a 20 year old college student at the University of Texas at Austin. I was born in San Antonio, but grew up in Dallas, and I consider Dallas my home. I am currently President of the University Democrats at UT-Austin (my term expires May 31, and I did not run for re-election). I am openly gay and involved in gay rights issues. I was raised Presbyterian, and I currently consider myself a non-practicing Christian (meaning I go to Christmas and Easter services, and maybe a few more with my parents throughout the year - I have never felt alienated or uncomfortable in the church, yet it is not at this time a significant part of my life). I am white. I grew up in suburban north Dallas in a traditional family. My mom is a teacher, and usually votes Democratic. My dad is a doctor, and usually votes Republican. I consider myself a pragmatic, liberal Democrat. By that, I mean that I will usually vote for the strongest liberal Democrat in the primary (although in Texas oftentimes our choices are limited), and I vote straight ticket Democrat in the general election. I experimented in voting for some Greens in the 2000 election (although I did vote for Gore), but I have not since, and I have no plans to in the future, as I believe that Ralph Nader and the Green Party is partially responsible for Al Gore not being our President today (I'll go into my feelings about this some other time), and I am still unwilling to forgive them for it.

I consider myself very liberal on social issues. I support abortion rights in any case, gay marriage and gun registration (although on a practical level, I don't see it as an issue that Democrats ought to take on in the near future). I support legalization and government regulation of marijuana, lowering of the drinking age and age of consent to 17, ending all publically funded "abstinence-based sex education" and requiring all public schools to teach sexual education in a comprehensive manner. I strongly support public funding for NPR, the arts and humanities, museums, libraries, etc. I oppose private school vouchers, school prayer, required moments of silence in school, displaying the Ten Commandments in court rooms, and funding of faith-based programs. I support a moratorium on capital punishment, but not because I see it as inherently immoral, but rather because I believe that it is unfairly applied. I have mixed feelings about abolishing capital punishment. I do support maintaining order. I think that disruptive protests should be allowable to a point, but there is also a point where police must enforce order. I have participated in anti-war protests, but I think that the people that try to get themselves arrested are just plain stupid. I believe that civil obedience, while well intentioned often has a negative effect in shaping public opinion.

On an economic level I consider myself slightly more moderate, but still quite liberal. I support rolling back all of Bush's tax cuts, a nationalized health care system (I strongly support the CHIP program), public preschool funding for all children and free college education at state universities for students who have a B-average in high school. I support a state income tax in Texas to solve our budget crisis. I support a federal balanced budget amendment, NAFTA, WTO and expanding free trade, but only if strict labor and environmental standards are enforced. I support a living wage. I support the Kyoto Protocol and believe that the government should offer strong incentives to automakers to make vehicles that use significantly less gas. We must become energy independent in this country. I strongly oppose drilling in ANWR, but the government ought to create incentives to generate alternative sources of energy.

I consider myself a multilateralist on foreign policy. I believe that the United States ought to fully fund our share of the United Nations and work through the UN and NATO to solve international disputes that do not directly threaten our national security (like Iraq). I generally supported Clinton's intervention in Yugoslavia and Bush's intervention in Afghanistan, but opposed Bush's war in Iraq. We should work within the United Nations to rebuild Iraq. The United States ought to engage in a Marshall Plan type rebuilding of Iraq and Afghanistan. I support a two-state solution to the Iraeli-Palestinian conflict, and generally consider myself pro-Israel. However, I also consider myself anti-Likud, anti-Shas and anti-Sharon. I think that the approach that Sharon's government has taken has failed miserably. Even so, I hold Yassir Arafat in even lower regard. Peace in the Middle-East will require three leaders (American, Israeli and Palestinian) committed to peace in the region. Several years ago, Barak and Clinton came very close to that goal, but neither Sharon nor Bush share their predecessor's commitment to peace. Yassir Arafat must be replaced as Palestinian leader in order to achieve a lasting peace as well.

At this point, I support Howard Dean for President. Having said that, I do have some reservations about him, and I will discuss them in future entries. I would be fine with Edwards or Kerry as the nominee, and I have been very impressed with Wesley Clark. I think that Clark would make an excellent Vice President or Secretary of State for any Democrat. I think that Gephardt is old news, even though I liked his health care proposal. Joe Lieberman is a decent Senator, but we won’t beat Bush by running Bush-lite. The rest are a bunch of spares, and aren’t really worth taking too seriously.

So, I decided to take a test to see where others saw me as standing. I think that its relatively accurate, but take it for what it's worth (far left = -10, far right = 10):

The Political Compass

Economic Left/Right: -6.38
Authoritarian/Libertarian: -6.56

And here's what I scored on the Libertarian Party Quiz:

World's Smallest Political Quiz

According to your answers, your political philosophy is left-liberal.
Left-Liberal
Left-Liberals prefer self-government in personal matters and central decision-making on economics. They want government to serve the disadvantaged in the name of fairness. Leftists tolerate social diversity, but work for economic equality.

Your Personal Self-Government Score is 80%.
Your Economic Self-Government Score is 20%.

Update: 4/30/2003 - 10:45 PM
Since Jim included these in his personal political report, I thought that I'd give them a try. I'm a little curious about the Politopia ranking, but its hard to paint anyone into a box. The Pew Research Center ranking seems to fit me well...

Politopia

I am a Southerner - an egalitarian - "which means that you advocate an increased role for the government in the economic realm. You are more or less pleased the government's role in the personal realm".

Pew Research Center
I am a liberal Democrat.

Liberal Democrats:
COMMENTS: Extremely tolerant on social issues. Champion individual rights and a range of liberal causes. Despite steadfast support for Democratic candidates, many Liberal Democrats prefer to call themselves Independents. Most favor having a third major party.
DEFINING VALUES: Pro-choice and support civil rights, gay rights, and the environment. Critical of big business. Very low expression of religious faith. Most sympathetic of any group to the poor, African-Americans and immigrants. Highly supportive of the women's movement.
WHO THEY ARE: Most highly educated group (50% have a college degree). Least religious of all typology groups. One-third never married.

So where do you stand?

Posted by Byron L.