Score a victory for moderates

[moriah]

59. That's not my personal definition, but...

... then again I pretty much am only considered a 'moderate" on DU, not among those I deal with in RL. To them, I'm a flaming liberal.

I support commonsense gun regulation, requiring background checks for private party transfers to be done the same way they can be done if a person purchases a firearm online out of state -- go to a pawn shop or gun store, pay $20, and they do the check. I believe in cooldown periods unless a person already has a CHL or a "paper shield" because they help prevent suicides, but CHL holders are likely to already own a gun and a person with a restraining order should be able to purchase the same day they get the paper shield if they hadn't already started the waiting period beforehand.

I believe in a woman's right to choose, though I support efforts to make the need for abortion more rare by making unplanned pregnancy itself more rare and enhancing safety nets for women who would rather give birth but just can't see a way to do so and not lose their career chances, etc. I do think any procedure done post-viability that's not an emergency termination should be accomplished in a way that could allow the baby to survive and be adopted if possible, simply because in most cases it's easier on the mother medically to induce and that's not going to kill a viable baby. But before we make that a law, we had better make the funding available for taking care of those children who are severely disabled, because that's the practically the only reason its done then. Which Republicans will never do, and until they accept responsibility for helping women raise kids they can focus on their own damn families.

The only "charter schools" I support are virtual schools that allow for homebound learning -- if people are going to homeschool their kids I want them to at least learn science correctly. Such technology might only be able to be accomplished by a company vs a state. But we need to invest in our brick and mortar public schools -- often in the very bricks and mortar as well as the curriculum.

I think there can be compromises worked out for demanding artistic endeavors or actual attendance at an event that goes against someone's strongly held idiotic religious views that doesn't discriminate against anyone, and as a straight person I almost wish every business that didn't welcome gay business would say so in order for ME to not give them my business accidentally, but since that would suck for people who aren't straight I will avoid Jesusfish and support rainbows in advertising instead.

I'm Pagan, and if they can put up a statue of the 10 Commandments, I want to replicate Stonehenge. Until then, I support the Church of Satan's statuary proposals. And we can move Civil War monuments to museums or, preferably, graveyards.

I do see politics as sometimes a thing where we have to ask for more than we reasonably expect to get, and try our damndest to get what we can, but any progress is better than going backwards or none at all. So while the ACA has its problems and denying them is insanity, it's better than what we gad before. We don't need to sit on our "laurels" with it, though -- protect AND improve it, with the goal of single payer. State level single payer is possible under the current law if a state pilots a way to make it happen and it's successful. We need to get these on the 2018 ballots in states where we can, to prove single payer is better than insurance.

So am I trampling rights? I hope not. But often people call those views moderate.