“It is hard enough to remember my opinions, without also remembering my reasons for them!”

Additionally, I try not to align myself with any ideology or make an "identity" out of my current beliefs because I always want to be open to revising them. You shouldn't make yourself vulnerable to having an identity crisis when you're shown you may be wrong, and unfortunately, a lot of people have these identity crises in America when it comes to politics, especially on the right. 

Republicans and Democrats Are Both Varying Degrees of Bad

Republicans are responsible for and contribute to many of the problems in America. Democrats can at least acknowledge that many of these problems exist and will sometimes try and address them, but more often than not they will only make changes that treat a symptom of a problem rather than the cause or make a change that's merely a symbolic gesture that is ultimately meaningless and doesn't really help anyone. Furthermore, Republicans and Democrats are both pretty big believers in capitalism and neoliberalism. 

I think this two-party system can be described very accurately in the following statement: "Republicans make the country worse, Democrats use it to tell you to support them despite them not actually willing to do anything about it." 

Here are a few other ways to think about the minor differences between the two parties: 

• Democrats almost always say the right thing but hardly ever do the right thing. Conservatives never say or do the right thing.

• Democrats and Conservatives are both fine with oppression and exploitation. Democrats want diverse oppressors and for all people to be oppressed and exploited equally while Conservatives have a very specific idea of who the oppressors and the oppressed should be. 

• Democrats/liberals are essentially the "Man Dreams of More Equal America That Just Sort Of Happens On Its Own" guy from The Onion (WBM link). 

Keep the Church and the State Far Away From Each Other

I am a big fan of the separation of church and state for several reasons. Firstly because religious freedom is largely what drew many people to the new world that would eventually become America and America should remain a place where people can come and practice freely. Secondly, making laws respecting an established religion or laws based on religious texts and teachings is essentially legalizing a "correct" opinion/belief or set of values and criminalizing the "wrong" ones. No one should be using religious doctrine in their argument as to why the government should or shouldn't do something. Thirdly, religious texts are often extremely inconsistent. There were a variety of people who contributed to a text, a variety of people who translated the text and added their own interpretation, and the text is just old. Governments should not be based on stuff written thousands of years ago that hardly applies to the modern age and often contradicts itself. For the most part, a government should not be forcing people to conform to its convictions, a government should be adapting to the changing needs, wants, attitudes, and habits of its people and basing its convictions on these things, within reason. 

• I like the term Laïcité which translates to secularism in French but means a little more than that. The word essentially discourages religious involvement in any government affair. 

• There are also a lot of different religions present in the country and if the government is supposed to be for the people, by the people and thus representative of the people, the values of more than one religion should be represented. 

Politicians Rarely Work For You

I also dislike lobbying and lobbyists. Lobbying is essentially bribery with extra steps and it's absurd that politicians can be bought off to represent special interests rather than the people who elected them who they're supposed to represent. This makes it very easy for politicians to become corrupt and gives private interest groups and the wealthy "elite" power to essentially run the government and pay for the legislation they want which benefits them. Private interests, corporations, and the 1% should not be running the country. 

Labor

I think workers should own their workplace and that labor is entitled to all it creates. I think that if you can accept the fruits of someone's labor, you can accept their humanity. Also, If a person is willing to abandon the life they had in another country and come here on foot and work literally any available job they can get, they shouldn't be treated as a criminal.