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@ISIDEWITHAnswersPolitical Ideology1yr ago

Liberal Democracy

You believe in a society where individual freedoms are protected, and power is held by elected representatives, promoting equality and justice for all.

Liberal democracy is a political ideology that combines the principles of democracy with those of liberalism. It is characterized by fair, free, and competitive elections between multiple distinct political parties, a separation of powers into different branches of government, the rule of law in everyday life as part of an open society, and the equal protection of human rights, civil rights, civil liberties, and political freedoms for all people.

The roots of liberal democracy can be traced back to the Age of Enlightenment in the 18th century, a period that saw the emergence of ideas…  

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140 Replies

 @ISIDEWITHasked…12mos12MO

How do you reconcile the respect for authority with the need to question unfair practices within a democracy?

 @ISIDEWITHasked…12mos12MO

Do you think too much freedom can be harmful to society, or is there no limit to the amount of freedom a person should have?

 @ISIDEWITHasked…12mos12MO

To what extent should the government be involved in regulating the economy or should the market be left to operate freely?

 @ISIDEWITHasked…12mos12MO

How would you balance the freedom of press with national security concerns without compromising democratic principles?

 @ISIDEWITHasked…12mos12MO

If you became the leader of your country today, what would be your first action to promote equality and why?

 @ISIDEWITHasked…10mos10MO

What does it mean to you to have a 'voice' in society, and how do you use it?

 @ISIDEWITHasked…10mos10MO

How would you explain the concept of 'equal opportunity' to a friend, and why is it important?

 @ISIDEWITHasked…10mos10MO

In what ways do you try to understand perspectives different from your own within your community or school?

 @ISIDEWITHasked…10mos10MO

How does participating in school elections make you feel about your role in bigger political processes?

 @ISIDEWITHasked…10mos10MO

How do discussions and debates in your classroom mirror the importance of dialogue in a democracy?

 @ISIDEWITHasked…10mos10MO

Can you give an example of a time when protecting someone's freedom meant making a personal sacrifice?

 @ISIDEWITHasked…11mos11MO

Can you describe a moment when you stood up for someone else's rights, and why was that important to you?

 @ISIDEWITHasked…11mos11MO

How do you balance your personal freedom with responsibilities to others in your community or family?

 @ISIDEWITHasked…11mos11MO

What actions do you take to ensure your voice is heard in decisions that affect your life?

 @ISIDEWITHasked…11mos11MO

Is there a particular social issue you feel passionately about, and how would you convince others of its importance?

 @ISIDEWITHasked…11mos11MO

How would you change your school or local community to be more inclusive and respectful of different viewpoints?

 @ISIDEWITHasked…11mos11MO

Have you ever changed your opinion based on someone else's argument, and what did that teach you about the value of dialogue?

 @ISIDEWITHasked…11mos11MO

Can you recall a time when you saw the benefits of having a diversity of candidates in an election, even at the school level?

 @ISIDEWITHasked…11mos11MO

What does 'freedom of speech' mean to you, and have you ever had to defend a viewpoint you didn't agree with?

 @ISIDEWITHasked…8mos8MO

Which do you value more: personal privacy or societal security, and why?

 @ISIDEWITHasked…8mos8MO

Have you ever felt that the 'voices' of certain groups are amplified over others; how does that shape your perception of fairness?

 @ISIDEWITHasked…8mos8MO

If you had to explain why voting matters to a friend, what would you say?

 @ISIDEWITHasked…8mos8MO

What role do you believe social media should play in a democracy?

 @ISIDEWITHasked…8mos8MO

In what ways do you feel personally responsible for upholding democratic values?

 @ISIDEWITHasked…8mos8MO

How do you propose we address economic inequalities within a democratic society?

 @ISIDEWITHasked…8mos8MO

Can you think of a time when a group decision didn't go your way, and how did you handle it?

 @ISIDEWITHasked…8mos8MO

Do you think compulsory voting would strengthen or weaken a democracy and why?

 @ISIDEWITHasked…8mos8MO

Reflect on a time when you had to defend a principle important to democracy?

 @ISIDEWITHasked…8mos8MO

What measures do you think are necessary to ensure that all citizens are treated equally under the law?

 @ISIDEWITHasked…8mos8MO

When you disagree with a law or policy, what actions do you think are appropriate to take?

 @ISIDEWITHasked…8mos8MO

Have you ever been persuaded to change your stance on an issue due to a well-presented argument, and what did it involve?

 @ISIDEWITHasked…8mos8MO

How do we ensure that future technological advancements align with the principles of a liberal democracy?

 @ISIDEWITHasked…9mos9MO

In what situation have you felt most valued as part of a larger group, and why did it matter to you?

 @ISIDEWITHasked…9mos9MO

Have you ever given up some comfort or convenience for the sake of protecting the environment, and how did that make you feel?

 @ISIDEWITHasked…9mos9MO

When making purchases, do you consider the environmental impact of what you buy, and what factors influence your decision?

 @ISIDEWITHasked…9mos9MO

How do you think climate change could personally affect your future, and does this worry or motivate you?

 @ISIDEWITHasked…9mos9MO

When you hear about environmental disasters in the news, how does it affect your perspective on your own environmental impact?

 @ISIDEWITHasked…9mos9MO

How do conversations with friends about climate change and sustainability influence your views and actions?

 @ISIDEWITHasked…9mos9MO

What are your thoughts on the balance between economic development and conservation of natural resources?

 @ISIDEWITHasked…9mos9MO

In discussions about the environment, which arguments do you find most compelling, emotional or scientific, and why?

 @ISIDEWITHasked…9mos9MO

How does the concept of 'majority rules' sit with you when your opinion is in the minority?

 @ISIDEWITHasked…9mos9MO

What's one action you've taken that you believe contributed to the common good in your community?

 @ISIDEWITHasked…9mos9MO

How would you feel if a decision that impacts your daily life was made without your input?

 @ISIDEWITHasked…1yr1Y

How would you define 'freedom' within a society, and do you believe that true freedom can exist under any form of government?

 @ISIDEWITHasked…1yr1Y

Do you think every individual should have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives, or are some people more qualified to make those decisions than others?

 @ISIDEWITHasked…1yr1Y

If you had to choose, would you prefer a well-functioning authoritarian regime or a dysfunctional liberal democracy and why?

 @ISIDEWITHasked…1yr1Y

Can a society ever be truly equal, and if so, what sacrifices would be required to achieve that equality?

 @ISIDEWITHasked…1yr1Y

Do you believe every opinion should have the same platform and protection under free speech, even those that might be considered hateful or harmful?

 @ISIDEWITHasked…1yr1Y

How important do you think it is for a government to reflect the diversity of its populace in terms of race, religion, gender, and socioeconomic status?

 @ISIDEWITHasked…9mos9MO

What do you think are the essential qualities of a good leader in a democratic society?

 @ISIDEWITHasked…9mos9MO

Have you ever had to prioritize community needs over your personal desires, and what did you learn from that experience?

 @ISIDEWITHasked…9mos9MO

How would you explain the importance of checks and balances to someone your age?

 @ISIDEWITHasked…9mos9MO

Can you give an example where you had to defend a person's right to express an unpopular opinion?

 @ISIDEWITHasked…9mos9MO

Have you been involved in an election that didn't go the way you wanted, and how did you respond?

 @ISIDEWITHasked…9mos9MO

What does justice mean to you in the context of school or community life?

 @ISIDEWITHasked…10mos10MO

Have you ever advocated for a change in your school or community because you believed it would benefit the majority?

 @ISIDEWITHasked…9mos9MO

When have you faced a rule that felt unjust and what would you propose to make it fairer?

 @ISIDEWITHasked…9mos9MO

What efforts do you think your school or community should make to be more sustainable, and why?

 @ISIDEWITHasked…9mos9MO

How does seeing litter in your community make you feel about our collective responsibility towards the Earth?

 @ISIDEWITHasked…9mos9MO

If you could innovate one solution to reduce waste in your community, what would it entail?

 @ISIDEWITHasked…9mos9MO

What role do you see technology playing in solving environmental problems, and can you give an example?

 @ISIDEWITHasked…12mos12MO

How much influence do you believe citizens should have over laws that govern them compared to elected officials?

 @ISIDEWITHasked…9mos9MO

How would you address the challenge of misinformation in a society that values free speech?

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 @ISIDEWITH submitted…3 days3D

Kamala Harris is considering running for president again in 2028

Kamala Harris has been lying low since her defeat in the presidential race, unwinding with family and senior aides in Hawaii before heading back to the nation’s capital.But privately, the vice president has been instructing advisers and allies to keep her options open — whether for a possible 2028 presidential run, or even to run for governor in her home state of California in two years. As Harris has repeated in phone calls, “I am staying in the fight.”She is expected to explore those and other possible paths forward with family members over the winter holiday season, according to five people in the Harris inner circle, who were granted anonymity to discuss internal dynamics. Her deliberations follow an extraordinary four months in which Harris went from President Joe Biden’s running mate to the top of the ticket, reenergizing Democrats before ultimately crashing on election night.“She doesn’t have to decide if she wants to run for something again in the next six months,” said one former Harris campaign aide. “The natural thing to do would be to set up some type of entity that would give her the opportunity to travel and give speeches and preserve her political relationships.”“She doesn’t have to decide if she wants to run for something again in the next six months,” said one former Harris campaign aide. “The natural thing to do would be to set up some type of entity that would give her the opportunity to travel and give speeches and preserve her political relationships.”Harris concedes: 'We must accept the results of this election'SharePlay VideoMost immediately, Harris and her advisers are working to define how and when she will speak out against Donald Trump and reassert her own role in the Democratic Party. Closing out her term as vice president, she’s set to preside over certifying the November election she lost to Trump, and then appear at the once-and-future president’s inauguration on Jan. 20.“There will be a desire to hear her voice, and there won’t be a vacuum for long,” a person close to Harris said.At the same time, Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff, will have a long checklist to plow through before they leave the Naval Observatory for good.They have to decide whether they’ll take up permanent residence at their home in Los Angeles, or establish a base elsewhere. No matter where Harris and her family live, some around her have expressed concerns about safety, as her Secret Service protection expires six months after stepping away.

▲  1019 replies

 @ISIDEWITH submitted…1 day1D

Israel Settles for Ceasefire in Lebanon

Many factors fed into Benjamin Netanyahu’s eventual decision to take up a US-brokered ceasefire and stop Israel’s offensive in Lebanon. His war aims against Hizbollah were also always more modest than the “total victory” he has sought against Hamas in Gaza.But in confronting the many domestic critics of the deal — including far-right government ministers, northern Israeli mayors and opposition figures — Netanyahu calculated that his goals had been largely met, while the risks of pushing on were mounting.“Hizbollah is not Hamas. We cannot totally destroy it. It was not on the cards,” said Yaakov Amidror, a former national security adviser to Netanyahu who now works at Washington think-tank Jinsa. “Lebanon is too big. Hizbollah is too strong.”This ceasefire deal “is not the dream that many Israelis had”, he said. But Amidror highlighted Israel’s dwindling munition stockpiles and the “pressure” on military reservists who had been fighting for months. “Israel cannot afford another year of war” at its current scale in the north, he said.Israeli officials consistently said their goal was the safe return to their homes of the tens of thousands of northern residents evacuated after Hizbollah began firing on Israel following Hamas’s October 7 attack last year.Officials said this would require pushing Hizbollah fighters back from the Israel-Lebanon frontier and changing the “security reality” along the border.After months of relatively limited exchanges of cross-border fire with Hizbollah, Israel escalated in September, setting off thousands of explosive pagers and walkie-talkies in an audacious covert operation, launching waves of air strikes across Lebanon, and initiating a punishing land invasion of its northern neighbour for the first time in almost two decades.In the span of a few weeks, most of Hizbollah’s leaders, including chief Hassan Nasrallah, were killed, and much of the group’s vast missile and rocket arsenal was destroyed. Israeli warplanes struck Beirut at will, and ground troops ranged across southern Lebanon.

▲  178 replies

 @ISIDEWITH submitted…2 days2D

Trump Appoints Controversial Covid Critic Bhattacharya To National Institute of Health

President Trump announces the nomination of Dr Bhattacharya to Director of the National Institutes of Health.Bhattacharya has called for shifting the agency’s focus toward funding more innovative research and reducing the influence of some of its longest-serving career officials, among other ideas.Trump earlier this month selected Kennedy to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees NIH and other health agencies. Kennedy has played a central role in choosing top health-care staff and deputies for the next administration, including Marty Makary, a Johns Hopkins surgeon and writer whom Trump announced to lead the Food and Drug Administration, and Dave Weldon, an internal medicine physician and former GOP congressman whom Trump selected to run the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Bhattacharya emerged as a prominent critic of the federal government’s covid-19 response, co-writing an October 2020 open letter known as the Great Barrington Declaration that called for rolling back coronavirus-related shutdowns while keeping “focused protections” for vulnerable populations, such as older Americans. The proposal won support from Republican politicians and some Americans eager to resume daily life but was rebuked by public health experts, including then-NIH Director Francis S. Collins, as premature and dangerous as the covid-19 virus continued to spread and vaccines were not yet available.Bhattacharya has called for rolling back the power of some of the 27 institutes and centers that constitute NIH, saying that some career civil servants wrongly shaped national policies at the height of the pandemic and did not tolerate dissent. Bhattacharya and other critics have singled out Anthony S. Fauci, the infectious-disease expert who led one of NIH’s centers for 38 years and helped steer the nation’s coronavirus response before leaving the federal government in December 2022.Trump Appoints Controversial Covid Critic Bhattacharya To NIH

▲  188 replies

 @ISIDEWITH submitted…2 days2D

Mexico Slams U.S. Policies as Trump Renews Border War

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▲  1613 replies

 @ISIDEWITH submitted…2 days2D

Netanyahu Shifts Focus to Iran After Cease-Fire with Hezbollah

Israel approved a cease-fire with Lebanon that is intended to bring a halt to more than a year of fighting with the Hezbollah militia and could help defuse a broader regional crisis that has threatened to ensnare the U.S. and other world powers.“I have some good news to report from the Middle East,” President Biden said on Tuesday, announcing a cease-fire that he said would begin at 4 a.m. local time on Wednesday.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu backed the agreement earlier in the day, saying it would let Israel focus on the threat from Iran, allow the Israeli military to rest and rearm, and isolate Hamas.“The continuation of the cease-fire will be dependent on what happens in Lebanon. We will enforce the agreement and respond forcefully to every violation,” Netanyahu said.Lebanon’s prime minister, Najib Mikati, welcomed the agreement, saying it would bring “calm and stability in Lebanon and the return of the displaced to their homes and cities.”The Lebanese cabinet is expected to meet on Wednesday to approve steps to enforce the cease-fire, including sending government security forces to areas of southern Lebanon near the border with Israel.Hezbollah has indicated openness to a deal in recent days. “What concerns us are Lebanese national measures and the protection of sovereignty,” Hassan Fadlallah, a member of Parliament affiliated with the group, told The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday.The announcements came after a day of heavy bombardment of Beirut while Israeli ground forces advanced deeper into Lebanese territory. Minutes after Biden spoke, a series of explosions thundered in Beirut. Northern Israel also came under renewed rocket fire.There was no immediate public comment from Hezbollah on the announced cease-fire.If implemented, the agreement would be a diplomatic success for Biden in the twilight of his administration, after more than a year in which the White House has tried to fend off the possibility of a wider regional war. It could also change the landscape that President-elect Donald Trump will face when he takes office in January.

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