I have found using the four square technique of helping aide the decision of ones own personal political philosophy my political philosophy being one of a libertarian with a tendency to lean towards conservative. I used four economic issues and three different personal issues. The first personal issue that I used was capital punishment. Capital punishment was the one issue that brought me from more of a libertarian to a conservative. I believe that if capital punishment was used widespread and not just "once in a while" it would be more effective. There are some crimes and some criminals that are much to hideous to deserve a standard punishment. If the criminal justice system were to start to crimping down on criminals with much tighter sentences the crime rate might go down. The second personal issue that I used was prayer in school. I do not think that a public school system should allow a time specifically for prayer. Although it is permissible for the school to advertise during school a public school prayer outside of school. The final personal issue that I used was abortion. This was another issue that partly brought me to the conservative side. I believe that a mother should be allowed to have an abortion until viability without many reservations, as long as a certain number of minimal standards are set. I do not believe that a mother should use abortion as a form of birth control. I think that if people were allowed to have an abortion every time they got pregnant it would just make a small problem into a big problem. Even after viability I believe that there should still be means to an abortion, but it must be must stricter, to a form of almost where the doctor must state that the mother is in high risk.

I personally feel much stronger about the economic issues than I do the personal issues. The economic issue that I feel most strongly for is the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The EPA has gotten to a point where it is everywhere, some of their policy s restrict industry to a great deal. In the state of Indiana there are EPA laws that require a business to have a permit to show that it is not producing enough to need a permit. There are so many points where the government has overstepped its bounds. I am not saying that the EPA should be destroyed, it is still needed, but it needs to be highly refined to get away from hindering business and industry. Another point where I am leaning towards the economic freedom side are worker safety issues. I do believe that business should be required to provide the safety equipment, but it should not be required to test, and check-up on its employees to see if they are using the equipment. There is only so much that a business can do. If an employee does not want to use a particular item, they will find some way to get by without it. A final issue is social security. I believe that this system should be cut. People should be planning for their older years when they are young and carrying a annual income. This should not be the job of business. It should still provide care for the poor elderly through somewhat of a health care system, but not every person of a certain age. Using these six issues I have found myself to be somewhat of a libertarian with a tendency to lean towards a conservative viewpoint. This conclusion was slightly of a surprise to me, I always thought of myself as more of a conservative.