Exploring my political views

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Maybe I'm just too much of a details person. Anyways, I would guess most people care most about a specific set of issues anyways- I rarely meet anyone who is actually really into conservative philosophy- I meet pro-life people and I meet people who want to get rid of welfare. I don't meet people who care about liberal ideals, I meet people who are pro-gay marriage or want to expand government aid to the poor.

There are too many details to be detail oriented, unless you are a policy wonk.

Well, a lot of voters are single issue, and a lot of voters go with their guts about a set of issues, however, I consider most people to be idiots and often with self-contradictory ideals, so I wouldn't follow their example at all.

Depends on what details you choose to look at. We've reversed this debate in the past, with you pushing details and me pushing big picture.

That's kind of an ad hominem; the fact that stupid people do something does not necessarily make doing that thing a bad idea. Further, there's not really that much solid justification for why being single-issue is wrong; if that issues is what is important to you then why not be single-issue? For several years I honestly just did not give a damn about the gay marriage issue one way or the other. There's no reason to take stances on issues you're not interested in and that don't concern you.

That depends on how you read it. If you read it as me saying "because they are bad, don't do what they do" then yes, but if you read it as me saying "because they are bad, do not count their example as valid" then that is not an a hominem.

No, there isn't much reason to argue that single issue voting is bad, but that isn't the point of this matter, as the issue is exploring political views, which seems to mean an ideological exploration more than anything else.

Sorta ditto, I got really mercenary about my politics for a few years when it came to who I voted for, if it didn't affect me directly it didn't enter my calculations. I came to the conclusion that I could either have gay rights and legal abortions, or low taxes and gun rights, and that's just not a hard call for me to make. Now I'm pursuing a slightly more nuanced path of attempting to simultaneously convince the Dems that messing with my guns is a political death sentence, and the Reps that gay bashing and illegalized abortions are vote poisons as well. In my area, it might actually fly, since my state consists of the little blue island of Seattle surrounded by the huge red ocean that is rural Washington State. Nationally, I'm not so sure, though I'm sure the Republicans are smarting after this latest election, and so hopefully will start to pendulum a little more towards the center. I'm hoping the Dems learned their lesson in 2000-2004, but being part of a well oiled political machine, I'm ready if they haven't.

Your political compass
Economic Left/Right: -2.00
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -2.87

The late great Richard Feynman said: What do you care what other people think?

ruveyn