Black Conservatism "envogue"?

[TonyB06]

this was a good debate, I thought I'd restart....

[Jill1228]

Co-sign!
Girlfriend, I couldn't have said it better. As you can see in my sig, a woman's personal and reproductive freedom is very near and dear to me.

I also agree with your view on welfare. Ain't no way you will be living off my hard earned tax money. Welfare is supposed to be used to get back on your feet, not having generations living on it!

Originally posted by Steeltrap
As per Reiki's post and the definitions, I'm a moderate. I find sensible positions in both liberals and conservatives. For instance, I'm pro-choice (which surprises people because I absolutely adore infants) and don't mind paying taxes for educational purposes.

But I also am not in favor of long-term welfare dependency and I believe in personal responsibility and adherence to mainstream values. For instance, if you're going to have sex, use birth control and don't give birth to children that you can't support on a routine basis (I'm not speaking of things such as job loss via layoff).

[Steeltrap]

Originally posted by Jill1228
Co-sign!
Girlfriend, I couldn't have said it better. As you can see in my sig, a woman's personal and reproductive freedom is very near and dear to me.

I also agree with your view on welfare. Ain't no way you will be living off my hard earned tax money. Welfare is supposed to be used to get back on your feet, not having generations living on it!

Thanks, Jill. Maybe I sound cranky, but I'm almost 40 years old and I've worked HARD for what little I have.

If you truly need to get back on your feet, say get an education or job training while you're on welfare, that's OK, but I just have major problems with it becoming a way of life.

[LadySunshine]

I find myself to be a moderate. I think this is becoming more and more the case not just among African-American's but in America in general. I have to agree with Sphinxpoet that the political party system is far from ideal. It gives the appearance of choice but in reality it stifles real competition on the issues that are important. Rarely has a candidate risen that is not a part of one of these 2 very polarized groups. Because of the lack of true competition in the party system, i find myself more and more at election time not voting on who I think will do the most to improve this country's welfare or on issues, but on who i think represents the lesser of 2 evils.

[Sistermadly]

I consider myself a conservative Democrat. I can't support many of the social policies embraced by the Republican Party/Religious Right, but I deeply believe in personal responsibility, a strong military (even though I have issues with the number of poor brown folks who end up there) and a free market system that doesn't exploit workers. I personally think that many African Americans have relied on "others" to look out for our interests for way to long, and that we need to get back to the (Booker T. ) Washingtonian ideal of self-reliance. I don't advocate social isolation from "others", but I really think we need to get back to doing for ourselves, looking after our own interests, and start addressing issues that continue to plague our communities. I also support the death penalty, even though I know sentences aren't handed out fairly.

At the same time, I'm socially liberal, in support of Gay marriage (and not some wishy-washy 'union'), vehemently pro-choice, and pro-immigration. I believe that this country needs to get back into the business of taking care of each other, and that means overhauling Social Security, a national healthcare plan based on income/ability to pay, and taking care of the mentally ill so that they're not dumped out on the streets.