Unfortunately in the USA we are taught from a very early age to join one of 2 camps, either the Democrats or the Republicans. I hold a lot of Libertarian views, however, which blend aspects of the 2 main parties. I think free markets lead to higher standards of living, and I believe that government should generally leave people alone and have a minimal role.
I had an interesting conversation with a former classmate about socialist policies like universal health care and education, and conservative values such as giving businesses lots of room to expand and letting individuals have many unrestricted rights such as owning weapons. My classmate brought up the point that countries with good social programs for their citizens and unrestricted rights tend to be ethnically homogeneous. I was sort of shocked. America is very diverse, white-European descendants are slowly becoming a smaller population, and I would prefer that a government system that gave social benefits and guaranteed individual liberties to people did not have to be one color or one race, but transcended race, ethnicity, and religion.
Then I realized how it made sense. Take Switzerland for example. Most people are Swiss and most people are white. You can argue that they have an incentive to look after their own people and thus give up some of their money to pay for education, health care, and other programs, whereas America doesn't have this ethnic motivation. In addition, people in Switzerland own lots of guns, which is a massive personal liberty even though you may consider it dangerous. But they have a relatively mild murder rate due to firearms. So you have to wonder, if all people are of the same kin, then won't they be less inclined to fight with each other and hurt their own kind?
I would actually like to see socialist policies blended with conservative ones. The government, the media, and the educational system do a great job at dividing people in America and ordering them to look at history from one perspective only. One of the fears of conservatives is that if we do pay for massive social programs then we will face massive immigration and our resources will be depleted. However, if we had limited immigration this wouldn't be as much of a problem.
These topics are important and complex. Thank you for posting your views. I'll follow your content!