[dreadgeek]

I am a pragmatic liberal which means that, on the whole, I end up voting for Democrats or, sometimes, Greens. However, there is not a party in the United States that represents my *actual* political views nor do I think any such party is viable in this country over the course of my lifetime.

I am too pragmatic to take the typical liberal stance of "no war, ever" because there are circumstances--someone is about to invade your country--where I think that war is just unavoidable. So I want our military well-equipped, well-trained and ready to be deployed but I want us to have a foreign policy stance that is "seek peace first and then, when all else fails, send in the military".

The party I would *like* to see is pro-national interest without jingoistic nationalism (I think it's possible to be patriotic without being nationalistic or believing that America is some kind of god-ordained exceptional country). It would recognize that while religion is important to people as individuals, it is NOT a matter for the state to endorse any religion or favor the truth claims of one religion over another.

The party I want is pro-education, pro-science, makes policy decisions based upon evidence and is capable of discarding or reforming non-working programs.

The party I want is on the side of labor instead of management, favors the consumer over the corporation, favors the small business over the monopoly. The party I want favors public transportation and a strong safety net.

There's quite a bit more, of course, but as you can see the political party I want is simply not viable in this country.