I believe in a lot of controversial things, mainly because I refuse to adhere to, or bow down to the prevailing 'wisdom' of popular prejudices.
I believe that all people have equal rights. People say they do, most don't actually believe it. This applies to the right of marriage.
I believe that we need to completely dismantle the political establishment and bar people from becoming career politicians. It's not for life.
I believe it's imperative that we immediately stop the trend of having the old live off of the backs of the young; the young suffer in debt while the old 'die comfortably' since they never saved for retirement.
I believe public post-secondary education should be free of charge (i.e. subsidized by taxation), or if that is not fiscally possible, that a system of tuition caps should be put in place, with tuition prices frozen at an affordable rate and only changed subject to monetary inflation. Colleges should be mandated to spend equally on research as much as scholarships.
I believe high schools should require students to get certified in a trade in order to graduate. Forget community service requirements. If a student learns a trade, that's a skill they'll be able to use for life. Requiring them to be free labor for local interests doesn't help them achieve and teaches them very little.
I believe in universal healthcare. Part of the reason health care costs so much is because most people avoid preventative care and screening due to the overinflated costs doctors and hospitals and other providers are accustomed to be able to charge in order to support their riches. The health care and insurance industries prop themselves up on the backs of the weak and infirm. Time to change that. With most immediate effect, keep laws on the books that prevent insurers from dropping coverage for so-called 'pre-existing conditions' (done in Obamacare). But beyond that, regulate costs. Force the so-called 'free market' to find solutions that don't cost small fortunes. Most European countries have found a way to this, there's no reason America can't.
I believe in opportunity for all, not just the mega-rich. Close tax loopholes for gigantic corporations like General Electric, who payed an effective zero dollars in corporate taxation last year despite huge profits. Use this money to fund economic opportunity programs designed not to hand out money but to get the 6.5 million Americans who have been out of work 6 months or longer real, lasting jobs, not temp agency jobs that turn around and let them go in 3 weeks and view the jobless as an indentured class of sub-citizens. Re-structure commerce laws to give rights back to smaller, local companies so they can compete on better terms with the giants that have been putting them out of business due to their use of cheap slave-wage labor from overseas to make their products. Companies that do business here should have tax incentives to stay, those that fire Americans to open factories on the Yellow River should be taxed into oblivion.
I believe that Intelligent Design should be limited to teaching only in history classes, and that if a student can't explain why evolution is a widely-accepted theory of science, they should be held back until they can cough up that they believe the world is only 8,000 years and have been brainwashed. When they join the thinking human race, then they get their sheepskin and join the workforce.
I believe we should no longer subsidize hate, ignorance, and intolerance by giving religious institutions tax exemptions. You want to run a business--which is essentially what an organized Church, Synagogue, Mosque, or Temple is--pay your dues. Contribute, and stop stealing from the rest of us by sticking your hand out for grants when you don't have the accounting wherewithal to prove our money is being put to good use.
I believe we should remove 'In God We Trust' from all U.S. currency. I have a 1956 Silver Certificate dollar bill. Guess what? It doesn't say 'In God We Trust' on it. McCarthyist cronies put it on there in '57 to 'fight the commies'. Enough of this horseshit.
I can go on.