My stance on the "controversial" social issues

I've seen a lot of political discussions in the last week in the aftermath of the assassination of Charlie Kirk, an outspoken and controversial conservative activist.  This has caused me to reflect on what my current positions are on the "controversial" issues.  Over time, my political stances have shifted from my conservative upbringing, but I don't think any of my political positions are as set in stone as I used to believe they were. Does anyone probably care about my current political beliefs? Eh, maybe not.. but this is more of an exercise for myself to write out and try to clarify for myself what my current stance is on various issues.

Gun control

The US has far too many gun deaths compared to other countries.  Part of this stems from mental health issues as well as the breakdown of families and community support that lead to self-inflicted gun deaths, gang violence, and other forms of violence like school shootings. A large part of the problem, though, seems to also be that guns are far too accessible, especially weapons that can kill many people in a matter of a few minutes - often faster than any "good guy with a gun" can respond.

I support responsible gun use for hunting where, outside of hunting, gun owners keep guns unloaded and safely locked away and out of the reach or access of youth and young children. For those that choose to own guns, I think it's important to teach children about basic gun safety - how to properly use a safety, never pointing the end of a gun toward another person, etc. 

I am less confident on the benefits of guns for self-defense for home intruders as there are far more accidental deaths and gun suicides from personal gun ownership than there are violent intruders stopped by personal guns. I admit that I have very little personal experience with guns other than BB guns and shooting a .22 rifle for a few afternoons at Boy Scout camp to get my rifle shooting merit badge. I have no desire to own a gun for personal self-defense for the reasons noted above.

The 2nd Amendment of the US Constitution was written with an intent to allow citizens to bear arms to protect themselves from the tyranny of an overreaching government.  The simple fact is that in today's environment in the United States, a righteous citizens' uprising would stand a snowballs chance in hell in overthrowing the might of the US military - legally owned semi-automatic assault weapons are no match for military tanks, fighter jets, weaponized precisions drones, and even nuclear weapons owned by the US government.  

We don't allow civilians to purchase militarized tanks in the US, presumably because the costs far outweigh the benefits - the Second Amendment clearly already has limitations.  Similarly, I think we should strongly consider what are the benefits that we are truly getting as a society from various types of weapons that are still legal and whether they are truly worth the incredible costs from innocent deaths each year. My initial reaction is that easy access to guns is causing more harm than benefits and so we should likely restrict and/or regulate gun ownership far more than we currently do. Can we stop all potential shooters from accessing guns? Probably not - but that doesn't mean we can't significantly reduce that access.

Abortion

I think abortion debates focus far too much on the wrong issues.  The biggest cause for abortions in the United States is an unwanted pregnancy and so more of our discussions and debates should be around how to lower the number of unwanted pregnancies rather than how far the US federal or state governments should go in restricting access to abortion.  My personal philosophy is that the best way to prevent unwanted pregnancies is to provide universal access to healthcare, free contraceptives, and better support for parents raising children.

After addressing access to healthcare and contraceptives, I think how many children a woman has and the timing of when she will be able to be in the best position to raise those children should be a woman's choice to make, with support from her partner.  I support full access to abortion care in the first trimester without unnecessary guilting or shaming of women who are already making one of the most challenging decisions they will ever make.  I am less sure on my position on second trimester abortions though lean toward supporting women in their decisions to make in consultation with their partners, doctors, and trusted community leaders.  My understanding is that purely elective third trimester abortions are vanishingly rare, and I think can be reasonably restricted.  Third-trimester abortions are more likely to be attempted deliveries and should be allowed in cases where the life of the mother is reasonably in danger in the viewpoint of a competent medical professional or where the fetus is determined to have conditions such as chromosomal abnormalities that would not be compatible with life.

I'm cautious in general of the government mandating healthcare decisions for individuals unless there is wide-spread public harm that would be caused from those decisions (i.e. vaccine mandates in public schools).  Many abortion bans have had significant unintended consequences and have lead to unnecessary harm and even deaths where doctors were afraid of providing necessary care for a pregnant woman in distress.

Healthcare Access

The healthcare and maybe more directly, the health insurance system in the US seems to be broken.  For-profit health insurance creates inherent conflicts of interest where the interests of shareholders (profits) are put above the interests of human healthcare.  Medical debt is one of the leading causes of bankruptcy in the United States, and the US has fallen significant behind many other countries in health outcomes such as life expectancy or infant mortality rates.

I think we need some form of universal healthcare where no one avoids medical care simply because they cannot afford it. I think competent doctors and medical professionals should determine healthcare plans and necessary medications with their patients rather than insurance companies making such determinations.  There can certainly be oversight of doctors but that oversight should NOT come from for-profit insurance companies who have a huge financial conflict of interest in actually supporting positive patient outcomes.

I think a step in the right direction would be to require health insurance companies to be not-for-profit entities, where any residual returns would be returned to hospitals or patients rather than to shareholders.

We also need to address the issue of prescription drug prices which are much higher in the US than other countries.  Interestingly, this is something both political parties in the US give lip service to but no one seems to actually get anything done.

Campaign Financing and Term Limits

One of the biggest plagues of the US political system is that the companies or individuals with the most money are the ones who largely decide who wins or loses elections.  This is often not in the best interest of the American people but almost always in the best interest of those who have the money and power. I'm not an expert on campaign financing, but I think we need comprehensive reform, perhaps in the form of publicly funded elections.

I also think term limits should be imposed on Congress - I think if I had a magic wand, I would change the term for the US House of Representatives to four years instead of two so politicians could focus more on listening and helping their constituents rather than always having to spend so much time fundraising and focusing on the next election cycle.  Then I would set the US House of Representatives to a limit of two terms and the US Senate to two six-year terms maximum.  This would allow for less career politicians and allow for fresh new voices to come in that haven't already been ruined by our divisive and broken political system.

I think this is also an issue that has a lot of support from a lot of people on all parts of the political spectrum, but nothing is done about it by our elected officials who are too far entrenched in maintaining their grips on power and money.

Family - This is an area that I think I have some significant overlap with my conservative friends. I think a functional family unit is integral to the success of society. I believe that raising children and teaching them to be kind, respectful, hard-working, and charitable is one of the most important roles we can have in life.  

I also think this extends beyond the traditional husband, wife, two kids and a dog model and should include two loving dads or two moms as well as extended family members, and close friends.

I admire single parents who make incredible personal sacrifices for their children and think we need better systems to support them.

LGBTQIA+

I think human sexuality is like other genetic traits in that there is a wide spectrum of possibilities and sexuality isn't as black and white (or binary) as many would believe.  I don't discriminate against those who have different eye colors than I do, nor do I think that we should discriminate in any way against those who have different sexual preferences.  As noted above, I think family units are integral to the success of society and I have known gay couples who are likely far better parents than I am.  I think, unfortunately, that the legal opposition of gay marriage (which I shamefully participated in several years ago) has perhaps permanently damaged the relationship that many gay individuals have with marriage, but any long-term, healthy, committed relationship should be honored and celebrated.  Gay individuals should have equal opportunities for their pursuit of happiness through loving, committed, intimate companionship.

Transgender

Yes, I know transgender is the "T" in LGBT, so could be included above, but seems to have gotten more attention lately, so I'm adding additional thoughts. 

I've written before that I don't particularly "feel" like a particular gender, and so I'm personally inclined to accept that I am a man simply because I've never particularly felt like a woman and I have male anatomy.  However, from discussions with transgender individuals, I do think they very much do feel like a particular gender, and I think that should be honored and treated with respect and dignity.  Just because my experience is different doesn't mean I can't honor someone else's experience, as long as their experience is not harming others. I don't think transgender individuals are harming others - at least not in any larger proportion to cis-gender individuals harming others.  I think the issue of transgender sports and bathroom usage are often blown significantly out of proportion and are more of red-herrings to the broader discussion around supporting transgender rights and identity.

I think the science is still emerging on the genetic and environmental factors that contribute to an individual being transgender.  Part of the difficulty with our limited medical understanding is trying to define what is a man or a woman. Human chromosomes and genes create all kinds of interesting situations where someone may have XY chromosomes but physically present as female and can be XX and have "male" anatomy based on the presence of a SRY gene on the X chromosome.  There are also estimated to be as many intersex people as there are people with red hair - not the most common but very much within the realm of "normal" human variety.

This is not to say that I believe all transgender individuals are intersex - that's certainly false. My initial inclination, though, is that there are very real biological factors that lead one to identify as they do just as there are biological factors that contribute to our hair color or whether one likes cilantro or thinks it tastes like soap. I personally think cilantro is delicious but respect and appreciate others who experience that taste differently than I do. Overall, I think if we can just strive more to understand and love our neighbors, we'd be better off than "othering" those who have different lived experiences.

Does pineapple belong on pizza?

Yes.  

If you disagree, you are wrong, but I respect that you made it this far into my ramblings. There are also better pizza toppings that I generally prefer.