I didn’t change — and outside of the forum most would still consider me to be a hardcore Right Wing Nut. However, it is the collective of the forum membership that has changed, which has turned me into a moderate in their eyes.
I’m a mixture of hard Conservative in some areas, and hard Libertarian in other areas. I want less government, I want the government to get out of my face and the face of productive business. I want the United States to be a Republic and not a Democracy. Those are Libertarian leaning qualities — but I am also Conservative on some social issues like being anti-abortion, anti-gay marriage, anti-drug legalization, pro-Christian and pro-Israel. I’m in between both camps on the Military. I want a strong one to punish those who come to hurt us (or are preparing to come to hurt us) with a quick and effective strike — but tired of getting involved with people we can’t trust — like any Muslim. I’ve never met one I could trust — as it is a cultural thing with them. I’m for a workers program to legally allow Mexicans (without citizenship, voting rights, or entitlements) to come to the US to make beds, mow lawns, wash dishes, and other home construction — but I am against allowing anyone from the Muslim world into the country. The reasons are we need cheap labor for some of the jobs citizens don’t want to do — yet need to be smart with home security.
I’m tired of entitlements that encourage moochers to become lazy — and punish the earners with redistribution of their efforts to those who made no real effort. I’m tired of the schools, unions, and courts infiltrated with Communists polluting the minds of our kids and the ignorant/apathetic. I’m tired of votes being bought with gift of the public treasury, and all of the cronyism. I want the counties and states to play a bigger part of determining how involved to get — and the Federal government to play a much smaller part of it. That way if you don’t like how your state governs — move.
I think this country has a lot of big problems, the Federal government is taking away our rights at a rapid pace — but that we also have too many Chicken Littles running around screaming that the sky is falling with too many and too far out there conspiracy theories.
I guess this makes me a “Moderate: to some – but only to the ubber-extreme who lack any flexibility to achieve real change back to a Republic.
I was pretty successful in business, and learned a long time that you sometimes lose a couple of battles in the effort to win the war. I’ve learn that you can cut your nose off in spite of your face by being so inflexible that you give the enemy the win every time. I’ve learned that often the war has to be won in manageable stages — or you will lose the war with an all out attack that you couldn’t possibly win because you were unprepared and under-gunned. I’m a fiscal Libertarian because I’m a Capitalist, but a Social Libertarian because social decay has brought down great empires, and has caused the problems we’ve experience in the last 100 years – since Woodrow Wilson. Because I’m not 100% in either camp of the Conservatives and Libertarians — many in the Political forum consider me a moderate. I don’t feel like I fit my definition of a moderate. I know what I stand for, and that hasn’t changed much over the years. It is the Old Hippie membership collective (not individuals) who have changed. It isn’t a good thing — nor is it a bad thing. Just a fact.
Finally — you have to also understand my position as the creator and administrator of this site. I created the forums to be a board with a specific forum to cover any type of discussion — not just US Politics, and more specifically — not just Libertarian US Politics. Regardless of my personal politics — I want a balance not just in politics, and to not to chase away others who are here for more than, or other than, Libertarian politics. I want to be able to have politics reasonably be discussed here — and I know that Politics and Religion get heated — but I also want all of the other topics on some people’s minds (cars, racing, computers, finance, Church, World news, trucks, motorcycles, airplanes, boats, hobbies, … anything) to be discussed. It will always be my goal that those people feel welcomed here too.
That’s my explanation concerning the statement made that I’m a political moderate.
