I’m a NH Independent for 2 reasons.
- That’s what we do here so we can choose which primary to vote in.
- My sense of right and wrong doesn’t exactly match either the Democrats or Republicans.
In New Hampshire being an Independent is easy. On Feb 9th, when I’m checking in, I’ll ask for a Democratic ballot. (I haven’t yet been asked for ID - either because our voter ID law is too new, or because they know me). After I vote for Bernie Sanders, I’ll stop at the exit table and change my party affiliation back to Independent. With this approach I voted in the Republican primary in 2012, and then for Obama in November.
My own political philosophy is that we should do what’s right and what’s fair. We should be driven by about 70% morality, and 30% pragmatism. It’s important that we’re all motivated to do things that are positive and productive — and to earn a place for ourselves. But not everyone can “earn a living” in our cold cruel world. So we need a really really strong safety net.
We should start placing a higher value on what people do. As we lose desk jobs and factory jobs to automation, one way to prosper is to put a greater emphasis on community and doing things for others. Caregivers, restaurant workers, nurses and therapists (of all sorts), farmers, architects, knitters and builders are all doing amazing things for us, and a lot of them are undervalued.
We need a free market that’s regulated to protect our health and welfare.
We need a better recognition of the “Commonwealth”, where we own together the air that we breathe, government lands, and the water that we drink. If someone’s going to put shit into my air, then I should be compensated. We need to properly value our mineral and timber rights, and add some significant pollution taxes.
I’m:
For Single Payer: Everyone should be covered, and we can adopt the best of what other countries are doing.
For Private Healthcare: If I want to pay for boutique care, or if I need something that’s not covered by Single Payer, then private healthcare should be an option.
For a $15 minimum wage: In an ideal world we wouldn’t need a minimum wage, but current wages are so inappropriately and immorally bad that we need a $15 minimum wage.
For a woman’s right to choose.
For an end to the drug war, and significant criminal justice reform.
For network neutrality where broadband providers are utilities that can’t favor or filter content.
For reducing the military budget and only using military force as a last resort. (Maybe we could transforming the military by adding more disaster response capabilities.)
For a bold response to limit and mitigate climate change.
I’m for free tuition at public colleges and universities, but students will still have to pay for their own living expenses. Our safety net should cover basic shelter, nutrition, and health care, but not a whole lot of creature comforts - So each of us will typically have to work at least part time to be comfortable. For some of us, that “work” might have to be pretty minimal, but we’ll still be participating and doing something positive for someone else in the community.
I believe in lowering stress and using a happiness index as a much better measure of progress than GDP. Policy should be based on a set of core beliefs, and then doing the best we can with what we have.
So I’m a NH Independent — and a Bernie Sanders supporter.