So who is this JS character anyways?

So TikunOlam commented on my previous post saying :

JS-Hard to imagine you super conservative - actually hard to
imagine you an extremist in any direction.What are you conservative on? And
where would you say you are on Israel politics?

I was going to write back a short comment, but it turned into a long comment, which is now turning into this post where I'll share a little bit about my politics and where I stand on the LW/RW scale.

When I first started becoming curious about the world, I was working at an internship that required long drives to and from home. For about 2 weeks I listened to the local classic rock station. That's about as long as it took for me to get sick and tired of listening to the FM stations. You see, I really love classic rock and roll (Beatles and Dylan are my 2 faves) and was really annoyed that the local classic rock station seemed to think the Beatles only produced about 3-4 songs. And to make matters worse, they played the exact same 20 or so songs every day during my commute. So I switched over to AM and talk radio.

This was after the Intifada, 9/11, and at the beginning of the War in Iraq and I became an avid reader of the news (even now I am a huge news junkie). Like many Americans, I felt our country was vulnerable and that security issues were our primary concern. As someone deeply concerned about Israel, terrorism also was at the forefront of my thoughts. I was very upset with Democrats and especially with liberals for taking our security for granted, thinking terrorism was a joke, and coming out strongly against Israel in the Intifada. I was also appalled by comparisons of Bush to a Nazi. These feelings were only magnified by being on a liberal college campus.

At the time, it was comforting to listen to Sean Hannity, Mark Levin, etc. who felt the same way I did about these issues and provided good news and interesting persectives I didn't hear in "mainstream media". The socially conservative commentary and other parts of the conservative agenda creeped into my mind as well - kind of like a wolf in sheep's clothing. Before long, I was very anti gay marriage, was sure activist judges are ruining this country, and was convinced that an anti-conservative bias existed everywhere I looked. Well, OK, maybe I wasn't that bad, but I was close.

It took a long time before I realized my viewpoints were being so heavily influenced by talk radio (I even had a few conversations against gay marriage in which I invoked the slippery slope argument asking what was next - marrying children? marrying animals? Yeesh!). To be clear, I don't think talk radio is bad, I just think there is too much agreement going on and not enough dissent and honest discussion. There's a "my way or the highway" attitude that I find disturbing. However, this is also it's appeal as it gives a sense of belonging and that you're part of a bulwark against the rest of the country's insanity. People need to realize that talk radio is popular because it's entertainment, not because it's intellectually honest, unbiased reporting.

Once the War in Iraq started having its problems (reforming the country, IEDs, sectarian violence, no clear exit plan) and Israel's leadership seemed more and more incompetent and corrupt, I took a step back and realized I had stopped thinking on my own and that I didn't really agree with most of what Hannity and his ilk were spouting.

But most of all, I realized that if we can't come out of our ideological shells, if we can't cross the aisle, this country is going to go down the tubes. We simply have too many problems that need to be solved and sectarian posturing on either side is just going to make things worse.
So, I'm disappointed in all political parties in both America and Israel who are more concerned with power and titles than getting the job done and actually solving some problems. And I'm most dissapointed in our various media outlets who foster this kind of polarizing.

So where do I stand now? Mostly against stupidity and posturing. I think this country, and the world, are better off with my liberty and more freedoms. I also think that while people have an obligation to do for themselves, we need to help people learn and understand what it is they should be doing. This tends to make me more socially liberal. I believe in balanced budgets both personally and nationally so I'm fiscally conservative. Although the reasons for the war turned out to be wrong, I do think the world and the middle east is better off without Saddam Hussein. I also think we need to make sure it stays that way and not leave prematurely. So what does all this make me? No idea. I guess I'm just independent.

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