Reasons why I can't be truthfully described as a conservative:
1. I'm against the death penalty.
...for one principle reason, and that's that the legal system of America is a horrible mess of mistakes, a huge comidy of errors, a horrible mess of human affairs, a series of blunders. It doesn't deserve the power of life and death over a mad dog, much less a fellow human being.
2. I'm pro-choice
...not because I like the idea of killing babies, but because I think a baby is better off dead than being raised by someone who didn't want him or her in the first place. If a woman is selfish and self-centered enough to want to kill her own child then the child is better off not coming into the world to be raised by a person like that.
As I have mentioned before, I think there is an element of eugenics here, the sort that Margaret Sanger originally had in mind, that is at work, and I'm not at all sure that's such a bad thing.
3. I'm in favor of affirmative action.
...because you and I both know that there are people in positions that matter that would take advantage of the situation if AA were not in force. Not many, not the majority, but enough to matter to the public.
4. I'm in favor of socialized medicine.
...because the kind we have now is not working for too many people. Yes, I know that we'd get the kind of medical care that nobody would prefer, with waiting lists, and rationing, and long lines and restrictions of medicines and procedures and so forth. But we can't go on rationing care in accord with who has the money, which is what we are doing now.
5. I'm in favor of certain other kinds of big government programs as well.
...In short, the one's that can be proven to work. That's not that many, of course, but it's not nothing, either.