I am extremely liberal politically.
I think that the purpose of a government is to serve its citizens. The Preamble was referred to in a different thread...
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
I had a serious junior high school civics teacher who drilled The Constitution and the Bill of Rights into my brain at a tender age of about 13. I take both documents extremely seriously.
Back before the religious right had such a dominant role in the Republican party, I could differentiate the two parties on a few philosophical grounds...To oversimplify, the Republicans were for smaller government, except in the case of national defense, less regulation of the free market, less interference in individual lives, and a greater deal of fiscal responsibility. In contrast, the Democrats typically wanted to expand social programs, especially aid to poor families, health, and education, wanted more regulation in the free market, and tended to be perceived as less fiscally responsible.
Back then, I could make sound arguments for either case. Now, I'm at a loss to explain how the conservative party went so far afield, but as best I can tell they do not have anything to offer me. And that feeling has only intensified since they've embraced the religious right. I don't get what part of 'separation of church and state' they don't understand. (And yes, I feel the same way about President Obama continuing the faith-based initiatives, for now).
I worked for our national defense for 18 years, developing imaging technology, and then assisting with their financial transactions. I know all about how government does and does not work.
I want my tax dollars to be spent making sure that every American citizen has equal rights and equal opportunities for 'life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.' It's not enough that the laws are on the books; they have to be enforced. This means equality in education, job opportunities, civil liberties (and yes, I include gay marriage here).
This means enforcing the gun control laws we do have; giving our policemen and social workers more training and putting more of them on the streets where they can do the most good.
I want my money spent on education so that our children are at minimum the equal of any other nation in the world. And I mean all the children, not just the ones whose parents can afford to educate privately or homeschool. Anything else is both foolish and short-sided, and I'm constantly being Cassandra on this issue, but if we don't act yesterday, we are dooming our future generations to working second and third class jobs because they don't have even rudimentary math and reading skills, never mind advanced math, physics, calculus, engineering, technology. It's a disgrace. Hell, I doubt we'll have poets, psychologists, philosophers, or economists in the future either.
And while they're in school, we can teach science in science classes and mythology in literature classes. And the science classes will include the mechanics of reproduction and birth control. Clearly, their parents aren't doing it.
To me it is absolutely inexcusable that every American citizen does not have basic health care. I think the 'free market' has run amok letting the AMA and pharmaceutical companies and insurance companies define policy instead of the People telling the government and these quasi-governmental and private agencies and their lobby interests what WE as consumers (consumers of government and consumers of health care) have the right to expect.
What else? There are American citizens sleeping on the streets tonight because there is not a workable safety net in place for people who fall through the cracks in our society.
I won't wiki the number, but an disproportionate number of the homeless are veterans of <insert war here>. The way we take care of our veterans is shameful. We are happy to trot the troops out in all their glory, flags flying, hands over hearts while we stand for the National Anthem - it's only proper - and I respect and honor each and every one of them. But when they come home unlucky enough to not be dead (meaning missing limbs, or with other horrible injuries including PTSD, have trouble finding work, etc..) there's just not enough funding or political will to take care of them even though they sacrificed their very lives (or the quality thereof) because they were asked to by some bureaucrat behind a desk.
And I'll add here that both the veterans' and the homeless problems are exacerbated by a society that stigmatizes mental illness as different from physical illness.
Which brings me to our elderly, and how they're frequently shuffled off into substandard nursing or rehabilitation homes. The government may pick up the tab for some, but these places are understaffed and underfunded. The pay is so poor that only the very selfless or the untrustworthy work in such conditions. There should be provisions made to make it affordable for families to take care of their elders at home when at all possible.
If you don't believe our values as a nation are completely skewed - compare the salary of a teacher or a nurse or a nurses aide with an actor or sports figure or even news program talking head.
Foreign policy. We used to be a nation respected world-wide for our ingenuity and integrity and self-reliance. Those days are over and may or may not be salvageable. Because we were/are so free with (selling/bartering) our weapons technology, tossing out poli sci concepts like mutual deterrence, many of the governments which I consider to be unstable have weapons as good as ours, up to and including the nuclear weapons. I love how our nation's collective memory is so short that we don't remember that it was US who trained and armed bin Laden in Afghanistan against the Soviet Union in the first place. (That's irony.)
We live in a global society - a global economy. We can take that seriously, consider the concerns of the rest of the world soberly and try to get along with our allies and make allies out of our enemies. Or not, at our peril.
I think I've said enough for now. And I doubt there's any gray area where my position isn't pretty clear.
None of these issues have simple answers, but I believe that the Democratic party at least recognizes the problems as the enormous problems they are and want to address them from a standpoint of making the world a better place, and as a consequence the lives of American citizens better. It took us a long time to get into this mess and it'll likely take us as long to get us out. I don't 'worship' Obama; he's just a man, albeit one smart enough to know what kind of mess he's gotten himself into. But I think he has both his head and his heart in the right place and wants to be part of the solution instead of part of the problem.