Liberal or Conservative?

[Chawsee]

Just curious what percentage of spankos lean to the left side, and what percentage lean to the right? This poll format respects members' privacy and allows everyone to answer anonymously. 

[RossCaliban]

I voted, but I also have a feeling that you're looking at the left/right divide from an American perspective - and that distinction has a different meaning based on where you're from.

I'm a Canadian so from an American perspective I'm a leftist by default.

I'm fairly centrist by a gestalt Canadian standard.

And compared to my former art school classmates, I might as well be a Republican!

[Chawsee]

22 minutes ago, RossCaliban said:

I voted, but I also have a feeling that you're looking at the left/right divide from an American perspective - and that distinction has a different meaning based on where you're from.

I'm a Canadian so from an American perspective I'm a leftist by default.

I'm fairly centrist by a gestalt Canadian standard.

And compared to my former art school classmates, I might as well be a Republican!

Good point. It will be different for our Canadian members, and also for our members from other countries. Thank you for pointing this out, Ross. Here in the US we have two parties; some countries have several. And, our ideologies are somewhat different.

There's no pressure on anyone to vote, but if you'd like to, please feel free to do so, going by what is the most accurate leaning for you. I apologize that my platform is a bit flawed.

[DaChief]

None of the above. 

[normalguy]

My initial guess would be most are liberal, or maybe that’s more on fetlife with many more fetishes, but it seems conservatives are winning so far. You should do a poll of who spanks worse (harder, longer, more severe, more strict, etc.), liberals or conservatives.  Lol 

[Bspankly]

My spanker wife and I are both conservative on economics, more liberal on social issues. 

Edited May 7 by Bspankly
Typos

[michgal.k]

 America is a multi-party system. The Democratic Party and the Republican Party are the most powerful. Yet other parties, such as the Reform, Libertarian, Socialist, Natural Law, Constitution, and Green Parties can promote candidates in a presidential election. 

[Spanknutt]

8 hours ago, Bspankly said:

My spanker wife and I are both conservative on economics, more liberal on social issues. 

Yes, the same and registered as Independent.

[FlowJohnson]

I think a better poll might be to ask people whether they are progressive or conservative. I consider myself a liberal. But what "liberal" means is common parlance in the US is a great deal different from what actual liberalism is, and modern progressives/leftists often adopt a lot of inherently illiberal positions and values. 

[ShevyGetsSpankt]

I see the other ee's stumbled out of bed and made a beeline for the computer!

[Zeldazeitgeist]

Liberal on social issues but conservative fiscally.

[Sixthformer]

Liberal socially but fiscally conservative-ish.

In European terms, I would describe myself as a social democrat. Which probably makes me a raving commie in USA.

[danadares]

57 minutes ago, FlowJohnson said:

I think a better poll might be to ask people whether they are progressive or conservative. I consider myself a liberal. But what "liberal" means is common parlance in the US is a great deal different from what actual liberalism is, and modern progressives/leftists often adopt a lot of inherently illiberal positions and values. 

And the "Right" these days is often nothing like what in most of my life was considered conservative. Many conservatives are dead set against what has happened to their chosen political party. While liberalism is defined, it does not always provide a definitive answer as to what is a best policy under given circumstances, and political actors these days exploit that complexity in order to "own" the other side. That is more significant to me, and poses a greater threat to our country, but then on a basic general level, I've always leaned to the left.

 

[FlowJohnson]

8 minutes ago, danadares said:

And the "Right" these days is often nothing like what in most of my life was considered conservative. Many conservatives are dead set against what has happened to their chosen political party. While liberalism is defined, it does not always provide a definitive answer as to what is a best policy under given circumstances, and political actors these days exploit that complexity in order to "own" the other side. That is more significant to me, and poses a greater threat to our country, but then on a basic general level, I've always leaned to the left.

 

To me, liberalism is generally defined by a genuine belief in the institutions of democracy, freedom of the press/freedom of speech that america and many other western countries were founded on. During an era when people on the left/right are increasingly advocating for the destruction of those freedoms and institutions, I think that distinction and holding those values is important. 

Both modern conservatives and leftists are in my opinion, horribly lost and off the mark from what those ideologies and opinions used to mean. It's a weird world out there, with "conservatives" converting to islam while also advocating for men to sleep with 50 women before marriage (and to get vasectomies) while leftists are going around running defense for megacorporations and advocating for government crackdowns on people's right to bodily autonomy.

[Chawsee]

1 hour ago, FlowJohnson said:

I think a better poll might be to ask people whether they are progressive or conservative. I consider myself a liberal. But what "liberal" means is common parlance in the US is a great deal different from what actual liberalism is, and modern progressives/leftists often adopt a lot of inherently illiberal positions and values. 

I understand where you're coming from, and that might be another good question, separate from this one. But I'm actually asking from the political angle. It has been my observation that people who are politically conservative often have a whole different set of values than do people who are politically liberal.

I suspect that we have more liberals here than conservatives. It's so interesting to study this correlation between spankos, their social viewpoints, and their politics. As some folks here have attested, they may be politically conservative, but lean liberal socially. Yet in the people I know from my everyday life, I've observed that, more often than not, there is a correlation, a whole different way of thinking between the two parties. 

[Chawsee]

12 hours ago, michgal.k said:

 America is a multi-party system. The Democratic Party and the Republican Party are the most powerful. Yet other parties, such as the Reform, Libertarian, Socialist, Natural Law, Constitution, and Green Parties can promote candidates in a presidential election. 

That is correct. But for the simplification of this poll, I'm going with the two parties that we generally recognize in the American system. 

[Bramblewine]

An interesting spin would be correlating who's liberal and who's conservative with where people are from. In general, urbanites more often consider themselves liberal and rural dwellers more often consider themselves conservative. Being from a blue state or a red state makes a difference. Religious background, and how religious people are or aren't, makes a difference. 

And at the end of the day, people who call themselves liberal and people who call themselves conservative usually have more in common than not. 

[wide_eyed]

15 hours ago, Chawsee said:

It has been my observation that people who are politically conservative often have a whole different set of values than do people who are politically liberal.

You might find this illustration interesting.

https://www.informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/left-vs-right-us/

It's been around for a while, so I'm sure there's points that can be quibbled with as no longer up to date. Beyond that I also find imposing this type of binary template simplistic. The illustration's own graphs showing support for various policies in the middle ranges suggests that this sort of overview is a loose fit.

There's also much to be said about how Trump affected the Republican party and changed some of the positions and policies we would normally associate with the two parties, (e.g. the hawk and dove associations of the right and left, a purported healthcare plan from the Republicans that will improve on the ACA(?!)), but that's a far more complex topic than I can do justice to.

As for me, I'm a moderate with a tilt towards the libertarian side of the political compass and a smaller lean to the left.

[OhRedhead]

Both parties seek to divide us and play off of the human propensity to tribalism and the idea of "the other." The truth is that the majority of Americans are closer to the center. We all want the same basic things and are much more alike in shared beliefs than the current political climate suggests. 

[Bramblewine]

For people who are interested, here's a quiz that helps you assess where you are on the political spectrum: 

https://www.beliefnet.com/news/election-center/politicomatic.aspx

 

It's based on American politics, and on issues that were current a decade or so ago. The questions about same sex marriage and legalization of marijuana were clearly written in that time frame. But I wouldn't say it's irrelevant today.

If you feel an issue is low or high priority, don't forget to move the slider for that part of the question. It defaults to medium.

[DaChief]

On 5/7/2023 at 6:34 PM, FlowJohnson said:

To me, liberalism is generally defined by a genuine belief in the institutions of democracy, freedom of the press/freedom of speech that america and many other western countries were founded on. During an era when people on the left/right are increasingly advocating for the destruction of those freedoms and institutions, I think that distinction and holding those values is important. 

In this day and age, these views are "centrist." 

For many years, I considered myself a "Harry Truman Democrat." After the 2004 election, with radicalization from the Left increasing in local party circles, I was more or less purged from the party along with others who held more centrist views. Similar things have happened in the GOP as well. 

[Chawsee]

23 hours ago, Bramblewine said:

An interesting spin would be correlating who's liberal and who's conservative with where people are from. In general, urbanites more often consider themselves liberal and rural dwellers more often consider themselves conservative. Being from a blue state or a red state makes a difference. Religious background, and how religious people are or aren't, makes a difference. 

And at the end of the day, people who call themselves liberal and people who call themselves conservative usually have more in common than not. 

Thank you, Bramblewine. Yesterday I was thinking about this, where people are from, since that makes a difference in the culture they were raised in and the values they embrace. So thank you for actually saying this out loud. And thanks for your conclusion, too, that whether folks call themselves conservative or liberal, at the end of the day, they usually have more in common than not. 

[Chawsee]

9 hours ago, Bramblewine said:

For people who are interested, here's a quiz that helps you assess where you are on the political spectrum: 

https://www.beliefnet.com/news/election-center/politicomatic.aspx

Thanks for this link!

It says I'm a Ron Paul Libertarian. I'd say that's very accurate. But all my friends would just say that I'm conservative. Haha. 

[Chawsee]

12 hours ago, wide_eyed said:

You might find this illustration interesting.

https://www.informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/left-vs-right-us/

I like these kinds of graphs. Thanks, wide_eyed!

[DaChief]

Said I was a Bill Clinton liberal. 

"I did not have sex with that woman!" 

But I sure did spank her!