My Political Views (for the sake of transparency)

I realized that I have never posted my political views in the sense of how one would conventionally evaluate political views in U.S. politics so I thought I would post those views today in the name of transparency.

I tend to think of myself as a moderate, however, in the U.S. I would most definitely be seen as a progressive.  The reason for this is that for me a moderate means being in the center.  So if I were to take friedmanite free market capitalism on one side, and socialism on the other side, I would be in the middle.  Which in U.S. politics unfortunately puts me probably a little bit more than center left.

I think it is important to use the wealth of a nation to alleviate poverty and hunger and such.  I also am probably "radically left" on most social issues.  Although, as I explained in another post, this is really the moderate position.  Because if you were to choose between the two extremes of one group having more or less power, then the middle is of course power equally distributed between groups.

I am also a pragmatist, and I feel that the left in the U.S. is more into pragmatic solutions to problems rather than utopian visions of a perfectly functioning market system.  Basically, the left in the U.S.'s extremes are substantially less extreme than the right's extremes, which makes me feel more comfortable being a member of them. 

I also feel that the very discourse of U.S. politics is slated towards the direction of the right.  Which makes it difficult to evaluate what the true middle ground is.  Anyway, I think that covers my viewpoints as much as is necessary for the sake of transparency.  If you have any questions, just ask.