So, general thoughts, which I think take me to a weird mix of socialism and libertarianism.

There's two ideas that I think make good starting points, but should not be taken too far because then bad stuff happens. The first is that people should be generally free to do whatever they'd like, as long as they're not hurting others. The second is that the whole 'market' system (people are buying, selling, trading etc. stuff, whether physical or otherwise) is a decent idea.

But this sort of obvious market libertarianism has a few big problems. One glaring issue, I believe, is that if you put a market over things that are actually necessary for life (food, water, shelter, health care, social interaction, ...), some people will get 'priced out of the market'. That is, people could (through no real fault of their own) die because of this system. That is a Bad Thing, so you have to adjust your system to avoid it. One aspect of that is a class of necessary regulations that put a "floor" on the free market. For example, a minimum wage (property implemented, which it isn't) ensures that the price of labor doesn't spiral so low that people can't make a living. Similar arguments apply to things like unemployment, welfare, and so on (they protect you from failure modes of the market). I think a basic income would be an ideal floor, but I'm not convinced we have the technical capability to implement it.

The second problem is negative externalities, such as pollution. These are things that a person (or, more commonly, a group of people) can do that hurt everyone. So you can try to patch around them by adding the notion of a crime against everyone, and you give the government (which represents everyone) the power to prevent those crimes through regulation. This also justifies antitrust bills, since big monopolies hurt everyone by closing off the market in spheres where it would be better for it to be open.

tl;dr certain pretty broad classes of regulation are necessary.

As to the current US political situation: I would have preferred Sanders, but I can't really object to Clinton. The worst-case for a Clinton presidency is that we stay more or less where we are, the best case is that scoot a bit closer to what I want. Trump is insane.

And on a specific policy note: first past the post voting is a terrible system. Implement instant runoff today! Elect the candidates everyone's mostly OK with, while providing information about actual preferences!

(and my ideal far-future would be something like the Culture. That is, there's so much of everything that the price of anything important is indistinguishable from 0, and we've found technical solutions around basically all negative externalities. Then you can drop the regulations and everything still works.)

1°) I guess I'd be somewhere on the left. I think entreprises have responsabilities beyond their bottom line and the idea of mondial regulation for finances, and taxes on transactions seem legit for me and that the state has obligations about its citizens. In the same time, I think social aides shouldn't be a crutch for people to live off the rest of society, unless they cannot reallistically apply for a job.

Now the situation in France... Oh boy. Precedent rigt president was not liked at all by the end of his term, but actual left president managed to make 'better' about this (and give up an eco-tax fairly important because a few... protesters with red caps in a region of the country didn't agree >:().

We've got elections next spring, but he still intend to run for left, despite the fact he 'promised' to not run if the situation was as ducked up as she is actually, meaning that other people at the party want the canddature at left, to the point where other just left the party to prepare their own campaign.

And the right is in the same state because the ex-president, who had 'retired' from political life, is coming for the candidature for the right, leading to another micmac like the one in the left.

Only party going well is far-right, where the daughter of the precedent leader there, who was someone with a murky background at best, has succeeded in selling her... message, when she's as much a racist as dearest daddy. She cannot win second turn of the election, but is almost certain of going there.

I'd vote for the left, provied they change of leader. If not... I'll still vote, if only for not giving their victory to the far right nutjobs vaunting the success of 'Brexit', forgetting these nutjobs jumped off the ship as soon as possible...

I'm a socialist. For more or less the reasons hS gives: I think it is hypocritical to have this national ideal that the human rights are "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," and yet stymie all of those. With wealth caps when given the chance - health care costs money (…life?), college costs not money so much as "the rest of your life in debt," (life, and also… happiness?), if you're arrested for nigh-on anything, the difference between liberty and bondage is just how much money you have.

And that doesn't even touch on how this impacts people of color more harshly in all cases. BUT, of course, being an historian, I'm aware the US was founded on those ideals (the difference being that pursuit of happiness was initially listed as private property rights, which included, of course, slices), with the heavy caveat being "if you are a propertied white man." Nonetheless, I think they'd be good things to have if we could get them to work for all people.

…another factor is that the US has been stuck in the Cold War for the past 60-70 years, and it may have doomed the planet, so the sooner we get out of that idiocy, the sooner there's hope for all of us.

The current political situation here, as far as I can tell, is that the Conservative party in our country, in their increasingly radical attempts to put down the left and characterize their opponents as evil monsters of in-American evil, has finally overstepped to the point where they can no longer support their own weight (because most conservatives might support laws against making insurance companies pay for birth control, but they won't support someone who brags about sexual assault; likewise, most conservatives might support immigration restrictions and racial profiling in general, but they won't go for actual Nazis), and fractured heavily. Since they'd become a huge drag on the government's ability to function lately (ie, when they were a majority they blocked the president, when they were a minority they filibustered or threatened to filibuster every time they couldn't get their way, and most recently they decided to defy precedent and law because of sheer orneriness and not wanting to lose the Supreme Court), I'm applauding. Maybe the left can finally have a chance to effect real change now.

My outlook on life is that the only real value in any human behavior is in serving our species and our planet. It's everyone's job to support each other, and to ensure the long-lasting nature of the human species and the planet it calls home.

So I have little respect for the political parties, especially the big two in the United States, because their only goals are to be self-sustaining and serve their own interests, to the detriment of average citizens. (I also have no respect for large businesses that think their only purpose is to keep amassing larger amounts of never-used money in their bank accounts, rather than to provide a quality service or product to society.) Hence, I vote based on what an individual candidate seems likely to do for the community and the people who live in it.

The current U.S. presidential election is a difficult one for me. I frankly don't want either big party candidate elected. Trump quite simply is not a leader in any way, and is likely to have any policies he puts forward influenced by his clearly bigoted and prejudiced views. The only positive thing I can see coming out of a Trump presidency is that he's not likely to send U.S. troops to deal with any random conflict that doesn't directly affect our country out of a sense of "peacekeeping," but I'm also quite worried his temper and argumentativeness will get us into another war with a far more dangerous power. Clinton will be a more competent leader, but I also feel, after the years she and her husband have spent in politics, that she's potentially in the pockets of Gan knows how many corporate interests. The couple have also left a trail of bodies behind them from cover-ups—I know some people consider that a nutty conspiracy theory, but frankly, there's just too much evidence for me to dismiss it. So even though I think she would do the job well, there's so much darkness in her past that I don't feel she deserves to be rewarded for her actions with the presidency.

For very personal reasons, I also refuse to vote for anyone in the Libertarian party, because members of that party attempted to run me over while I was walking home from the bus stop one day. (My mom was working as personal secretary to Arizona Secretary of State Jane Hull at the time, and the implied drive-by was meant as a threat to Hull's office.) So I basically have terrible options in this election overall. Green Party? Probably Green Party.

So yeah. I don't really know what to call myself, and I don't particularly care what political label applies. Again, the parties don't matter; people and planet do.

—Fun fact: The first exposure doctorlit had to Tolkien was watching the animated Hobbit film on a VHS tape in Secretary Hull's living room, because I was sick out from school, and had to go to "work" with Mom. He still has trouble watching the scene with Gollum to this day.

I am right. Very right. As in, take a long walk down to the far end of the political pier, jump off into the murky waters no one seems to know exist, and you should see me, struggling to make sense of the world.

In all seriousness, though, I'm an Anarcho-capitalist. However, since I very much doubt any of my political or social views will gain much traction in my lifetime, I pretty much just lump myself in with the Libertarian party and hope for the best.
As to the why, that can largely be summed up as, "I don't think government is moral, and I think we can manage without it."

As for my opinions on my country's current politics... It's a mess, plain and simple.

And as for who I would support, I don't know Clinton's policies well enough to have a real opinion on her, much less vote for her, Trump needs to be smacked in the face with a trout, and the last candidate to win on a third party ticket was Abraham Lincoln. So, no one. So far as I know it's too late for me to register anyway.

Something like the census. People won't feel as pressured into agreeing with the majority opinion, and if they hold a minority opinion, won't feel as if they have to speak for everyone who shares their views. We can get a better idea of the full diversity of PPCers that way. Even the quiet ones.

--Key is making a Google Form as she types

Take a wild guess. =]

1) I'd say left-leaning center.

2) Because though I'm all for LGBTQ+ rights and stricter gun laws and access to contraceptives, I don't want to ban guns outright or force religious institutions to perform gay marriages. I've heard some really far-left people I know say religion ought to be banned entirely, which I think is stupid. Just because you yourself aren't religious doesn't mean you have the right to tell other people what to (not) worship, kthx.

3) Now that Bernie's out of the running, I'm just crossing my fingers and hoping Trump doesn't get into office. Still, even with Hilary in the White House, the Republicans are almost guaranteed to get people into the majority of the House and the Senate, and we'll be stuck in another political gridlock. Woop-de-flipping-do.

I realise Scape is our vocal socialist on the Board, but I'm out there too. I'm the one who voted no to Brexit on /principle/, rather than evidence.

Why? Because I don't believe anyone is less important than anyone else. I want everyone to get a fair and positive existence - even if they live outside my country. Our goal should be to help /everyone/, not just the rich or the English.

Right now, Britain kind of sucks at that. We have a conservative party in power, gleefully privatising everything they can get their mitts on while dragging us out of the continental union. We have a left-wing leader in Labour, elected to the position by a landslide - but every politician in his party hates his guts. We have a far-right nationalist party who got /15% of the vote/ in the last election. Racism, nationalism, and isolationism m are rife, and we have no functioning Left.

So yeah. 2016 sucks, please don't make it worse America.

hS

This guy is telling things like this? No wonder the Republicans are trying their hardest to distance themselves from this madman.

How could people vote for that wreck?

And I thought elections in France next spring were going to be ugly...

Especially in this election, where members of both parties are refusing to vote for their candidate (because they hate Trump/won't vote Democrat without Sanders). I'm not saying you should argue for either side, or even say which one you're voting for - we fought hard for secret ballots, y'know! - but you should make your vote count, not throw it away.

hS

I'm with them on environmental issues and certain of their animal rights messages (I cannot in good conscience condone scientific animal testing, because while alternatives are being developed they are nowhere near ready for mass production yet), but less so on their endorsement of homeopathy and other fringe pseudoscientific beliefs. Like, the belief that a statistically insignificant drop of onion juice can cure your ills is very much the tip of the iceberg here.

He's maybe too idealistic. For example, he supports California Proposition 61, a mess of a proposal whose positive effects rely entirely on big companies doing the ethical, supportive thing -- and if the big companies behave the way big companies are known for behaving (selfishly), lots of patients will lose access to potentially lifesaving drugs. And I'm scared it'll pass because of Bernie's endorsement -- he's pretty popular here.

--Key

I do my best, though I have been known to fail spectacularly.

(Right now I'm all kind of fuzzy and 'yay someone expressed an unprompted positive opinion of me as a person' inside. The 'thank you' was very much sincere.)

hS