Last week, I wrote a piece about the top 5 things that make me a conservative. I try to be fair, so this is the flip side of that: 5 issues I'm a liberal on, with (I hope) a satisfactory explanation of all 5. As you'll notice, these are mostly about social issues. That's because I'm a firm believer in getting government out of my social life as well as my wallet. I don't say this because I have any real stake in it. I'm straight, don't smoke anything, and on top of being a guy, don't sleep around, so I have no stake in any of the social issues I'm liberal on.

But liberty is a funny thing. Once you realize how important it is, you want to protect the liberties of everyone else as well as your own.

That being said, I won't keep you waiting any longer. Without further ado...

5. Marijuana Legalization

Yeah, yeah, I know. This one is pretty stereotypical for a millennial. I can already see the conservative readers putting me in a box. Well, they're partly right: millennials are more likely than any other generation to support legalizing recreational marijuana. But as Pew has shown, 57% of Americans think it should be legalized, the highest percentage on their graph.

That's a big deal. Why would so many people support recreational marijuana, especially since most of us don't want to actually smoke it ourselves?

Well, with some common-sense restrictions, similar to those in place for smoking tobacco, there's little risk that anyone will have to put up with it who doesn't want to. Regulations and taxes, too, can be a huge boost for government's revenues, like in Colorado, where they've gotten a lot of money off of weed alone.

It just doesn't make sense to me to restrict people from partaking in marijuana, especially for medical use, when the alternatives are generally less useful (and at least slightly worse for you, too).

Again, I'm not planning on smoking it. That's not my speed. But the benefits of legalization outweigh the downsides, when all the War on Drugs has gotten us is costly raids, ridiculous prison sentencing laws, and a restriction on liberties for...some reason.

4. Immigration

From the beginning of the election cycle, the Republican race was all about immigration. Marco Rubio would have had a strong shot at the nomination, but he had pivoted moderate in the Gang of Eight while a Senator.

The Democrats capitalized on the issue, making the Republicans all look like Donald Trump, and they let Donald Trump just keep talking, which...really worked.

Well, while I think it should be used sparingly, I'm with the liberals on this one. A streamlined path to citizenship would be a much more effective method of curtailing illegal immigration from Mexico than mass deportation or a wall. I thought the wall was satire the first time I heard about it.

Whatever.

Anyway, that's not the only facet of immigration. Another important point I can't stand is the conservative stance on refugees and Muslim immigrants. Many so-called conservatives really believe we should block immigration on the basis of religion. Some people have the (much more reasonable) view that we should block it from certain high-risk countries. Of course, there's the ever-present Skittles metaphor that, honestly, pretty accurately reveals the fear these people have.

I mean, that's cool and all, but immigration really helps the economy too, and makes our free market even more competitive. Also, Mexican immigrants aren't stealing your jobs. That's an excuse and a bad one.

3. Birth Control

Before you jump out of your seat, I'm going to be absolutely clear: I don't think government should be paying for everybody's healthcare. I don't really support ObamaCare, both in principle and in the way that it sort of has done a horrible job.

I'd say, "Thanks, Obama," but this isn't really his fault. He didn't write the thing or stack a bunch of amendments on it to make it even worse than it originally was. That was Congress, which was (at the time anyway) mostly Democrat too, but that's neither here nor there.

How I'm liberal on birth control is that I think birth control should be readily accessible and cheap, if at all possible. I don't think there's anything wrong with using it. Plus, there are a ton of other reasons women can take it, other than just avoiding pregnancy.

As I discussed in my last article, too, I'm pro-life, so I want to avoid as many unwanted pregnancies as possible. If a woman isn't pregnant when she doesn't want to be, abortions go way down, because obviously.

Plus, it's completely crazy to tell everyone to be abstinent. It's just not going to happen. Easy access to birth control can help avoid the whole mess in the first place.

2. Foreign Policy

This one is a bit weird, because neither Hillary Clinton nor even Donald Trump (who's not all that conservative, in case you were wondering) is truly liberal on this issue.

Really, though, most people don't like getting involved in other countries. That's for the obvious reason: it usually sucks.

If Iraq has taught us two things, it's that 1) we shouldn't intentionally destabilize a country and 2) once we do, we shouldn't leave too quickly, or things will just get worse.

I generally don't like the idea of constant war. While I think we should support our veterans and protect ourselves, the fact that the USA has become the world's watchdog just bothers me.

Especially since Putin is expanding into Eastern Europe and playing Stratego with the Middle East, America simultaneously is doing too much and too little. We're involved, but not doing it properly. We either should play the game right or not do it at all, and I prefer option 2. This possibility of a new Cold War (seriously) isn't helping matters.

While foreign policy isn't exactly my strong suit, I can say with some serious confidence that we can't keep this up much longer.

1. Marriage equality...sort of

As you already know, I generally think government should get its grubby hands out of our wallets. They should keep to their own business in the bedroom, too.

I find it totally ridiculous for government to try to legislate against any sort of sexual actions between consenting adults.

In fact, I don't understand why the government has anything to do with marriage, either. It's a tax deduction—that's it. I suppose that it's possible it happened that way to incentivize marriage as a whole, but that's weird, too. America doesn't need to legislate morality. We shouldn't.

Here's the thing, though: I'm a Christian. I'm not just a nominal one, either. I do my best to live by the Law, not because, y'know, that'll get me to heaven or anything, but because I just think that's how people should live. And the Law says don't be gay, so, y'know. I'm not.

That doesn't mean I go around condemning gay people. Everyone sins...a lot. Myself included. Being gay isn't a "worse sin" (there isn't such a thing, by the way) than cheating, or stealing, or saying Jesus really loudly when you stub your toe. I'm especially guilty of the last one. Imagine if I just went around condemning everyone for every specific sin they commit—I'd get a headache.

So despite my personal beliefs, I don't think that the government should prohibit people from getting married. As long as the government still gives marriage licenses, they can give them to whoever they want.

Because you know what? My personal marriage, whenever I get married (hopefully) someday, is not affected in the slightest by who else calls themselves married or who the government gives a tax break to. A Biblical covenant has less than nothing to do with governmental permission.

So there you have it.

If you want more like this, check out my blog (it's not always about politics, I promise).