Political musings

I have felt entirely disenchanted by the three presidential administrations that I have lived through during my married life, and the executive branch seems to be in far better shape than the legislative. I have felt far from any political party in my views of both what to believe in and how to get things done. However, I have also felt that I should be far more active politically to attempt to be less of the problem.

As a consequence, on a long flight this week, I took the opportunity to make a list of the primary political issues that matter, then wrote down my beliefs, then rated those beliefs by their alignment with the stated platform of the Democratic, Republican and Libertarian parties. I'd actually like to see how they align with others as well, particularly Constitution and Green. I had been feeling that I probably aligned best with the Libertarians these days. The tally:

Republican - 90
Libertarian - 86
Democrat - 61

I was a bit surprised by this.
1) I did not think I'd be most aligned with the Republican platform. I realized that I agree broadly with the beliefs, but disagree strongly with the alignment of those beliefs with actions (e.g., massively expanding government spending), the methods and the madness of Republican politicians.
2) I thought Libertarians would be on top. Those of you that are thinking "but Republican and Libertarian are basically the same" need to study up on Libertarianism. Not so at all.
3) All three scores are fairly high. Politics are a spectrum, and I'm more moderate that I thought I'd be given how opinionated I feel about the topic. Look at me - I'm a centrist!

As I've considered how to properly enter the political debate, I found this speech inspiring.

EDIT - I just added another issue. Current score: L 96, R 92, D 69.