Questions for my Friends on the Left

There are now a mere 18 days left until this election is over and if you're like me, that probably thrills you.  I've written before on this blog that I see this point in our history as a seminal moment, as a fork in the road where we're being forced to choose which type of country we want to be when we grow up.  So, I do believe that engaging with the issues is critical--more now than perhaps at any other time since the Civil War.  But I'm also weary of the charade we call politics.  I really hate the deception and I absolutely loathe that so many of my fellow citizens are evidently content to be lied to by members of their own political team.  That last fact simply cannot bode well for the future health of our nation. 

I've become increasingly aware through this cycle that I don't look at the world the same way that my friends on the left do.  I keep searching for a general theory that will explain why someone tends one direction or the other.  More puzzling still are swing voters, but that's a topic for another day.

My inclination is not to write off my progressive friends as ________, but to have another go at understanding them.  How have they come to believe the things they do and what really makes them tick? 

That's the spirit in which I share these questions.  I'm sure they will seem loaded to some, but that's not my motivation.  Each of them are truly things I don't get.

So, with that said, here's a partial list of things I can't process about what it means to be a Democrat in 21st century America.  I'm choosing not to respond to posts this time, but I do promise to read each response with an open mind. 


The Economy

1. Who creates jobs?
2. Is there a point where you could safely conclude that federal fiscal stimulus doesn't work well and, if so, where is that point?
3. Is the emigration of American capital something to which we should respond with force or enticement?
4. Why are relative measures of poverty preferred to absolute measures?
5. Aren't promoting liberal immigration policies and out-sourcing jobs really two sides of the same coin?
6. What's the basis for your faith in central economic planning?
7. If the banking function were nationalized, what kind of impact would it have on capital formation? 
8. What role do large American defense expenditures--for our benefit and that of our allies--play in Western economic stability and growth?

Taxes

1. Whose money is it and why?
2. Is there a point where high marginal tax rates become a disincentive to produce?  If so, where is that point?
3. At what point has a high income-earner paid more than her fair share and below what point has a low income-earner not paid his fair share?
4. If it's reasonable to redistribute income, should we not likewise apportion capital losses?
5. Unionized public sector employees are paid with tax dollars; a portion of those tax dollars then goes to union dues; a portion of those dues goes to political expenditures; the overwhelming majority of those expenditures support Democrat candidates; and Democrat lawmakers overwhelmingly support labor initiatives.  How is this not a racket?

Rights

1. Should we distinguish between the right to pursue happiness and the attainment of happiness?
2. On what basis do you judge a pregnant mother's right to liberty to be superior to her unborn child's right to life?
3. When does a fetus become a person and who gets to assign value to that life?
4. To how much health care does each person have a right?
5. How do school choice measures (e.g., vouchers, charter schools) violate the 1st Amendment's Religion Clauses?
6. Is equality the necessary and sufficient condition for justice?
7. If positive liberty is the legitimate understanding of the term, isn't it essentially a subsidiary of equality?
8. If the intent of the Constitution's authors is not relevant, what's the point of continuing to have a constitution?  Why not just have a bunch of laws that we can change as our values also change?   

Values

1. Why is it acceptable - even fashionable - to condemn Christians and Christianity but not Muslims and Islam?
2. Is there a difference between race and culture and, if so, when and for whom is it appropriate to critique cultures?
3. Why is length of tenure a superior means of judging one's professional value to a group (school, corporation, labor union, government office, etc.) than output, competency, or market worth?
4. What is the source of Democrat resistance to competition and failure?
5. Why is democracy viewed as inherently good rather than as the least dangerous among a variety of coercive political systems?
6. How are we to infer from Jesus' teachings on the pitfalls of wealth and the importance of caring for the poor that we should carry out his will via secular government bureaus?
7. Is preemptive military action ever in our national security interests and, if so, when?
8. Why the fetish with big oil and big oil profits, but not with the big manufacturers of the vehicles which burn that oil?