I'm Non-Binary

I am non-binary.

No. I actually believe in binary sex and gender. I do not subscribe to a spectrum, but rather a gradation. In the gray scale, the shade will lend more toward black or white, so the binary exists, but with individual distinction or shading. This is all beside the point.

I am using the term non-binary to refer to my political persuasion. In the past, I have used the terms classically liberal and pragmatic conservative. I am more of a centrist on things, but not in the wishy-washy flippant way. I have solid convictions, but I rarely stream far Left or Right. On some issues, I am lefter than the Left, like with immigration. My reasons are theological and economic. Even in that, the position really isn't Left, but uber-libertarian. On other issues, I am surely on the Right side of politics, such as on abortion. Yet, even there, I am not obnoxious about it and see a need for compassionate dialogue with those who support abortion, because many reasons for abortion do address certain social dysfunctions, from economic disparity to violence against women. 

So, I have decided, I am no longer a conservative, nor am I a liberal. I am also not a pure laissez faire libertarian who upholds the free market and capitalism as a wholly good. With the latter, I count myself as an ordoliberal, being a person who believes in a free market, but with adequate checks and balances to limit crony and runaway capitalism, which leads to economic disparity.

I am also not a communist, because it lends toward authoritarian enforcement of social equity. Yet, I have some democratic socialist opinions, because, unlike what many on the Right claim, socialism is not incompatible within a democratic or constitutional republic (in reality, no political bent is un-American, since we are a republic that represents many voices, with the extremes in each checked by other views).  Look at the postal service, which was founded in 1775. It is an industry/business owned by the people, who are the government. That makes it a technically socialist endeavor. But, I am not a pure socialist. 

In reality, the binary Left/Right or liberal-progressive/conservative divide is really limiting and abstracts on the reality of politics and the Madisonian ideal of a multitude of ideological factions to maintain a balance between powers. Really, we need more ideas to prevent tyrannies of both the majority and minority, which rely on coalitions of sometime odd bedfellows. This can all be found in Federalist Paper # 10. 

In the end, I think the political binary is toxic. We need more voices and more political parties. Yet, to bring about the viability of third parties, which should not draw votes away from candidates in close races, I support rank-choice voting. We need a revisioning of our political procedures, because the binary as it exists, is tyranny, because both camps ebb and flow between majoritarian rule at the expense of more varied voices, like mine. This is why Madison and other founding fathers did not anticipate or want political parties. They exist because of coalition building, but lately, our coalitions have become more uniformed when they were originally varied. 

So, from now on, if someone asks me if I am a conservative or a liberal, I am just going to say, yes. ;)