Understanding Republicans and the Right in general
I consider myself left of the middle, so align my values closer with Democrats than Republicans. But since at the time of this writing, the ideology between the parties is so polarized, that it seems there isn't a middle remaining to be seen, I'm going to delve into trying to understand the ideology of those on the right, in an effort to better see where they're coming from, and which of their points actually have some validity, and whether their differing views are logical on a completely objective frame of view, or whether they're influenced by other more subjective underlying belief systems. I'm going to try and be as positive here, without considering the very extremes. In that effort, I'd like to start by identifying what I consider the 7 pillars of Republicanism. To be clear I'm not saying that all Republicans subscribe to all of these pillars, simply that the more pillars one identifies with the more likely they'll consider themselves a Republican...