I haven't read a single topic here, but I've joined in at the chat room a few times. I'm a left-leaning supporter of limited government. Specifically, I think that the federal government should only be involved in issues that are national or universal (e.g. pollution standards, civil rights, tariffs) and make policies based only on research, that state governments should mostly operate on the same principles (e.g. focus on state infrastructure), and that local (county and township) governments should have more wide-reaching powers (e.g. over education standards, health care). Based on research on political engagement, moral thinking, and decision-making, I think that we should do elections based on a fully open caucus system (no party registration, combined contests) that elects from township to county to state to national.
I also believe that we should be creating much less legislation, focusing more on letting jury trials decide matters of importance, and revisiting past legislation to bring our government up to date. Our Constitution is inadequate for a contemporary nation, and that fact has helped lead to a lot of extra-Constitutional legislation based on "interpretations" of Constitutional language that are not based at all on the intent of the document.
I've been on both sides on a lot of debates over the course of my life, so the issue of most importance to me is building carefulness into our legislative processes - setting out clear criteria for making decisions, making legislation easier to repeal than to create, and requiring that every action be linked to financial disclosure and open-access public explanations rather than merely a budget line and a vote.
To put it simply, I believe that the job of a politician is to explain in clear terms what the purpose of legislation is, to make decisions as transparent as possible, and to execute the will of the people who caucused as much as possible (which may mean doing nothing, or creating laws that allow neither group to get an advantage) - both those who elected the person and those who did not.
