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Inspired by Tacitus's open thread asking "what are you?" (or "what aren't you?") and why, I actually wrote down for possibly teh first time my general guiding principles. Readers of the blog might identify these themes running through my posts.

I'm not a Republican because I'm a closet communist. And I'm not a Democrat because I'm a closet fascist. At leats, that's how I look to the hard-core ideolouges who comprise the cores of these groups, and it's that rancor and filtered worldview that drives me away from any explicit party affiliation. Ultimately I'm less interested in party labels and more interested in philosophical ones.

For example, I'm definitely neowilsonian. I'm also socially conservative in practice, but socially liberal regarding socety and law. I'm extremely fiscally conservative. I'm a conciliator with dominator leanings. I think the best foreign policy is one that encourages strong allies of common interest, guided by the twin moral precepts of "if you want peace, work for justice" and "teach a man to fish".

I have strong libertarian impulses regarding personal liberty and states' rights but these are tempered by my progresive belief that diversity is a source of strength, which must be nurtured by the state. I see a basic conflict between capitalism and meritocracy, even though I strongly believe in both - which is why I see affirmative action as a powerful mediator.

I strongly favor scientific freedom, ie reverse engineering, stem cell research, etc. - I believe that technology and research must be unbounded by moral imperatives. Ultimately there is no technology that cannot be used to serve mankind, and that justifies the risk that it will be abused.

I'm against using religion or ethnicity as the sole fount of identity. I think identity needs separable orthogonal components, of which religion and ethnicity form separate axes. Another axis shoudl be national identity, yet another local (and for me, local identity is synonymous with State identity. I don't go much more fine-grained than that). I reject the idea that politics should enter into identity at all.

I am Valjean and Javert, in counterpoint. Also, see the Whitman quote in the "Praise for UNMEDIA" sidebar.