What?
I mean... What? Why would this even be an issue? Oh, right. Jesus said so.
You fucks are worried about religious extremism coming to the United States?
IT'S ALREADY HERE.
It's so insane I can't even really get my brain to acknowledge it as a real thing.
What policies are you referring to? I'm genuinely curious.
Everything in my experience has been people citing him as a centrist baselessly. And as you might imagine, I'm somewhat engaged politically, so it's not totally anecdotal.
And I'm not going to touch on the Sanders thing, we've had it out, you and I clearly disagree on economics. Which is fine! That is a reasonable debate to have. My postulation has always been that a reasonable two sides in America would be a left that embraces democratic socialism and a right that embraces "American centrism" (right wing in other countries). Social issues are a moot point because those are simply issues of right and wrong.
I do not in any way view John Kasich as a centrist or moderate.
First, this is one of the things I'm trying to point out to you (and may have done so poorly, and if so I certainly apologize. I know excuses are for nothing, but I did work about 80 hours last week, and I may have been coming off more aggressively than intended.) : I think your heart is absolutely in the right place, and I know that you care and want change, but like Vlad, you're trying to put text book definitions onto the American political system, which just doesn't work. In reality, no, Kasich is not a centrist. In America? He is. And I realize you want that to change, that you want America to be a place where the far left is seen as normal, like in a lot of the rest of the Western world, but to get to that point, I don't think you help when your rhetoric can occasionally come off as, 'burn it down and Fuck anyone who doesn't agree!' (exaggerating). You have a vision, and that's great. It's just not everyone else's vision, especially in a country that tries to prize itself as being a democracy. To that point: obviously we're failing in that regard right now, to give the people what they want, and the only cure for that is my big three: Reevaluation of the EC, an end to Gerrymandering and Publicly funded elections. So for that reason, I'm always going to vote D or 3rd party until someone fixes it. I have no faith that the Reps will, so most of my saying, 'I'd vote for [insert Republican here] is bullshit and I know it inside. I just try so hard to listen to both sides, but in the end I have an issue that's so important to me, I'd put away almost any of my other beliefs to vote for. Which of course makes me sound like a hypocrite for being angry with Trump voters, but in my defense, I'm a human being. I also feel the size and scope of the issue I am passionate about is so overarchingly important to the future of our country, I feel excused in finding it more important than how one feels about someone else's decision to have an abortion.
As to Kasich, I preface by saying, I don't want to continue to live in the past of this election cycle. As much as I'm tired of hearing, Bernie was cheated, or Hillary messed up by blank, at the end of the day it no longer matters and is over. Hopefully the DNC watched and learned. Well find out next year.
Now to answer your question: Kasich's economic plan, while showing some similarities to Trump's, shows some signs of reform I can get behind. Parsing some government programs down and reshifting, a Reevaluation of the tax code, a focus on balance, etc. I don't like his willingness to increase military spending, but I have already stated, I trust the guy economically, so I'd be more willing to wait and see how his policies would work out.
On education, he and I see pretty much eye to eye, and this is another hot button issue for me, just not to that level.
On women's health care, this is where you and I bumped heads before. Yes, he defunded planned parenthood in Ohio. He also filled the gaps in alternative options for the other important health services that PP provides for women. The reason I think we need to move away from PP isn't because I'm prolife, but because I think liberals and PP have done more harm than good by making the issue so thoroughly about abortions and not being as vocal about what else Planned Parenthood has to offer. There's no fixing the image there and as a result it might be better to replace it. I also don't hate the idea of letting states find their own way of handling it, along as there are guidelines such an organization is to observe. He also put his money where his mouth is on being pro-LIFE and has done real good with the adoption process, which I respect.
I fucking hate his views on gun control. It's my biggest Kasich turn off and I also hate the rhetoric.
His rhetoric (yes, yes, you're right there, I do appreciate his rhetoric) on Healthcare seems promising and I LOVE his focus on preventative care rather than reactionary. With guidance he could have a decent alternative to the problem of health in America, and fixing the problem at the root (the health care system is greedy as hell) is a path worth pursuing.
I don't like his plans to increase military spending, as I said, but his plans i/r/t national security seem far more promising than anything else I've heard from the right: be stronger allies, stand up to Russia (hahahah), focusing on the war of ideas and actually talking positively about refugees and this quote from his site is so refreshing in the wake of what we got, even if it's probably half bullshit
RECOMMIT OURSELVES TO OUR FUNDAMENTAL VALUES: By using public diplomacy to spread the ideas that are foundational to our own freedom and prosperity, the U.S. can play a critical role in making the world more stable. We must rededicate ourselves to the values that underpin and unite the Western world: democracy, a respect for individual and civil liberties, a respect for human rights, a belief in the equality of men and women, and a tolerance of different worldviews and religious beliefs. We must develop new strategies for fighting the war of ideas over the Internet, social media, and video, as well as the traditional tools of television, radio, and satellite. At the same time we must also develop stronger measures to combat jihadist efforts to recruit and spread their message via the Internet.
He also approves of the Keystone pipeline. The way it is now, I don't. We don't agree there at all. But he's also open to researching new goals for energy production, focusing on clean energy (because he cares about climate change, holy shit I still can't believe we ended up with Trump good God.) and exploring a happy medium with regulations vs production to allow innovation to grow. I'm OK with that. So mostly I like his energy policies. I don't know how he feels about fraking which is a biggie no for me, I'm sure he's all for it, so we're a miss there, but again, we're talking by and large, and understanding he was not my first pick, this is a hypothetical.
Finally, building off the last point, he really does seem to care about innovation and pushing for technological growth, which is also pivotal in improving our world.
What else, I think those are the big ones. He and I don't agree on a lot, but overall, I'm OK with a lot of his smaller government plans, because he seems to have great support ideas in place to ensure the states can provide for their people on a smaller more personal scale, while also giving support and guidance necessary to make sure the people are taken care of.
The end. (I wrote all of this on my phone and wanted to kill something by the end)