Matrix Politics

Originally, I thought of writing how our politicians live in some kind of alternative universe, having only occasional contact with reality -- just like in the movie. But everyone know that already... Instead, I'd like to propose using more descriptive labels for political orientation than "Democrat" and "Republican" (or, "liberal" and "American" as some would have it).

The political orientation is not a spectrum, from far left to far right. It is a matrix. Since a conservative view in one area (e.g., "less taxation") used to implied conservative views in other areas (e.g., "no gay marriages"), dual label system (liberal - conservative), and dual party system (Democrats - Republican) was sufficient. Not anymore. People pick and match their views, more and more often finding themselves in odds with their party affiliations.

There are at least three areas where issues important for the people fall: fiscal, social, and political. (Of course, there is also religious aspect, but, depending on the particular religion it may fall in different categories.) In broad generalization the issues would be as follows:

	Liberal	Conservative
Social	do not care about gays support right to abortion protest death penalty	oppose non-traditional marriages want abortion outlawed support death penalty
Fiscal	demand expanded entitlements advocate "taxing the rich" call for expanding the size and budget of government	call for tax reduction call for less government spending want balanced budget
Political	cede more power to central government indifferent to states' rights more regulations call for strict gun control pro-environmental	advocate moving control from central to local government indifferent to environmental movement more individual responsibility

What is the problem? It is in lack of choice. Once you are a Democrat you have no choice but be "pro-choice" and demand taxing the rich. What if only one of these is what you want? When you are a Republican, you must denounce gun control and support tax cuts, even if you do not agree with one or the other.

We, the people, need more choices. We need parties of different flavors: Fiscal Liberal Social Conservative Party. Social Liberal Fiscal Conservative Party. Etc, etc. And we need candidates for political offices from these parties. We need to know that someone who wants tax cuts will not necessarily oppose gun control, or that pro-choice candidate will not expand welfare (if that is our preference).

No more monochrome candidates!