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I would like to reply to this thread, but I'm going to have some trouble with it, as I am unsure which labels to affix to myself.
I am really pretty left on the spectrum, compared to most Americans. I am a Democrat. I vote Democrat largely because the political system in the United States prevents third parties from getting a real shot at winning an election, although I also vote Democrat because the Democratic politicians in my area (such as my Representative in Congress, Peter DeFazio) are pretty liberal too. If you were to look at the Political Compass thingie, I'm way down in the left-hand corner.
When it comes to religion, I don't really care. I broadly affiliate myself with a variety of mainline Protestant churches who all believe in ecumenism and understand that sometimes, it's better to be outside on a hike and be with nature than it is to be inside a church. You could say I'm much more spiritual than religious, and that I do have faith in a higher power. That's really all I want to say here. My relationship with my higher power is pretty personal, and I don't talk about it much simply because I don't expect others to understand. I've had experiences that fundamentally shifted my perception of the universe that I don't expect others to have had. My beliefs are pretty strongly influenced by a variety of Eastern philosophy; I suppose I have my father's urgings as a kid to thank for that. He is an atheist and pretty much raised me to believe that you couldn't believe in something until you'd read about all of the alternatives. So yeah, I have read a lot of the holy texts of other faiths and come to my conclusions about my own faith after rather a lot of research, including 2 university classes on Eastern philosophy and another on world religions.
Culturally, I believe that culture cannot compete in a free market and thus should be supported, much as you do, Baraka. I wish it weren't so.
I probably should have had more coffee prior to addressing this, but there you go.
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If I am not better, at least I am different. --Jean-Jacques Rousseau
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