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The REAL differences between Liberals & Conservatives |
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Not everything that is said on this site about "Liberals" and / or "Conservatives", applies to every person who goes by these labels. Nor, when we speak of "Democrats" and / or "Republicans", are we talking about every member of those parties. When we use these terms here, we are referring to those who are representative of their group, those who either set the tone for their group or who at least follow the leadership of those who do. If you are a Democrat or a Republican who is at odds with the leadership and / or the mainstream of your party, then don't take it personally, when we say something about your party that doesn't apply to you, precisely because you are an exception to the rule.
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When, for example, we say that "Republicans favor the super rich over poorer Americans", we know perfectly well that the majority of Republican voters are not super rich. But the fact is that the decision-makers of the Republican Party are far more concerned about meeting the wishes of its richer members than the needs of its poorer members. So long, therefore, as rank and file Republicans continue to elect as its leaders people who regularly promote policies that benefit the super rich – – such as the reducing if not actually eliminating Capital Gains taxes, Dividend taxes, Income tax rates on the rich, the Estate taxes – which only the super rich pay –, and Corporation taxes – which only the owners of corporations pay –, it will be true that "Republicans favor the super rich". And it will be true that Republican policies result in working class Republicans as well as Democrats being forced to either shoulder the tax burden which the rich avoid paying, or getting stuck with the loss of benefits which can no longer be funded by the reduced tax base. Thanks to all of that "tax cutting" there will be fewer decent schools for the young, fewer opportunities of higher education for all who have the ability and desire to take advantage of it, fewer hospitals for people in all regions of the country, less health insurance for people who can't get good jobs, less care for veterans who cared for the rest of us, less coverage of medication costs for the elderly, less decent affordable housing to avoid homelessness, less correction of injustice of our "justice system" regarding minorities, less improvement of the prison system, less relief of world hunger, etc., etc., etc.)
1) Liberalism vs. Conservatism
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the word "conservative"
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The conservative vs. liberal struggle will always exist so long as there is an unjust distribution of power, wealth and/or privilege. But it manifests itself in different times and places in different ways, depending on how those benefits are distributed among the various parties of a particular situation. In America these days, white, Christian, heterosexual, middle-income, English-speaking, native born, males of European heritage who are in good health, well-educated, employed and living in a decent neighborhood are very likely to be "conservative". as they have a dozen major advantages over others that they might want to "conserve" and exploit. While the victims of discrimination or oppression are naturally viewed as liberals, some of these demonstrate when they have succeeded in gaining some degree of power, wealth and/or other advantage over others that they can be conservative too. (The way some African Americans look down on the struggles of homosexuals comes to mind.) True liberals are people with the power and/or wealth to dominate others who instead use their advantages to work to empower and/or enrich those less fortunate than themselves.
Whenever there is a chance to make progress in the
perpetual struggle between those who control power and/or wealth and "the disadvantaged" of any kind, "conservatives" are the one's who identify with the "haves" and "liberals" are the ones who identify with the "have-nots".
One of the greatest U. S. presidents was the Republican, Abraham Lincoln, who once set forth the liberal principle: "Government should do for people what they cannot do for themselves."
After Theodore Roosevelt, another great Republican president, had served two terms, ending in 1908, and he was running in 1912 as a third party Progressive candidate, here is the way he described the role of government :
" The only way in which our people can increase their power over the big corporation that does wrong, the only way in which they can protect the working man in his conditions of work and life, the only way in which the people can prevent children working in industry or secure women an eight hour day in industry, or secure compensation for men killed or crippled in industry, is by extending, instead of limiting, the power of government." ( from "The Theodore Roosevelt Web Book")
"There was once a time in history when the limitation of governmental power meant increasing liberty for the people. In the present day the limitation of governmental power, of governmental action, means the enslavement of the people by the great corporations who can only be held in check through the extension of governmental power." (from Address at San Francisco, September 14, 1912" in Harbaugh, The Writings of Theodore Roosevelt, pp. 288-291.)
"[A] simple and poor society can exist as a democracy on the basis of sheer individualism. But a rich and complex industrial society cannot so exist; for some individuals, and especially those artificial individuals called corporations, become so very big that the ordinary is utterly dwarfed beside them, and cannot deal with them on terms of equality." ( Theodore Roosevelt, An Autobiography, 276)
"The things that will destroy America are prosperity at any price, peace at any price, safety first instead of duty first, the love of soft living and the get rich quick theory of life." – ( from letter to S. Stanwood Menken, dated 1917-01-10). Theodore Roosevelt –
Conservatives who imagine that the difference between "successful" people and "the needy" is hard work should consider Helen Keller their patron saint because of the way she overcame her many handicaps to be a very successful person. Yet this is what Helen Keller had to say about this matter:
"I had once believed that we were all masters of our fate-that we could mould our lives into any form we pleased . . . I had overcome deafness and blindness sufficiently to be happy, and I supposed that anyone could come out victorious if he threw himself valiantly into life's struggle. But as I went more and more about the country I learned that I had spoken with assurance on a subject I knew little about. I forgot that I owed my success partly to the advantages of my birth and environment . . . Now, however, I learned that the power to rise in the world is not within the reach of everyone." (H.K., Midstream:My Later Life (N.Y., Greenwood, page 156)
"The country is governed for the richest, for the corporations, the bankers, the land speculators, and for the exploiters of labor."
What she learned when her eyes and ears were opened, so to speak, led her to become not just a basic liberal, but a passionate advocate of all kinds of socialist causes, like worker rights, women's rights, civil rights and pacifism. She was one of the authors whose works were targeted by the Nazis for burning.
When confronted by the inescapable fact that most of our nation's greatest heroes of the past were definitely not conservatives, but liberals, many conservatives claim that "liberalism" meant something very different in earlier times.
The truth is that it's not liberalism that has changed over the years, but its targets or beneficiaries. Those who benefitted first and have always benefitted most from the liberating efforts of America's founding fathers were the well-to-do, white, heterosexual, Christian, males. It's great that today's conservatives have such a high regard for the concept of liberalism that they want to claim it for themselves by claiming to be "classical liberals", but these people aren't like the true liberals among our founding fathers, i.e. the best of them who believed in liberty and equality for its own sake, and who wanted these benefits extended to women and to African Americans as well as people like themselves. No, today's so-called "classical liberals" are like those founding fathers who were content, like good conservatives, to enjoy the benefits of freedom and "equality" for themselves but resisted extending those same benefits to women and blacks, just as their conservative counterparts in our day resist extending such benefits to other minorities. Meanwhile, the true liberals of our time are not content with having won the battles to win freedom and equality for well-to-do, white, heterosexual, Christian, males, and then for African Americans, for women, for common laborers, for the aged, for the handicapped. They continue to battle the conservative "classical liberals" of our day to extend the benefits of justice and equality to immigrants, to the imprisoned, to those accused of crimes, for women's reproductive health and to those in the GLBT communities.Thursday, December 08, 2011
"There are two ways of viewing the government's duty in matters affecting economic and social life. The first sees to it that a favored few are helped and hopes that some of their prosperity will sift through, to labor, to the farmer, to the small businessman. That theory belongs to the party of Toryism, and I had hoped that most of the (conservative) Tories left this country in 1776.
But it is not and never will be the theory of the Democratic Party. Ours must be a party of liberal thought, of planned action, of enlightened international outlook, and of the greatest good to the greatest number of our citizens.
Franklin D Roosevelt (1932 acceptance speech)There are some political issues, that have relatively little to do with "liberalism" or "Conservatism". These only serve to muddy the waters, if they are not seen for what they are, i.e. "neutral" issues. When liberals are in office, for example, it's not their ideology, but their control of the government that makes them favor war, law and order, taxation, government spending, raises in government salaries and the like, while conservatives will oppose these precisely because they are the ones out of power. But when conservatives get into power, they may very well support many of the government policies which they opposed when they were on the outside looking in. For the same reasons, both are far more enthusiastic supporters of political reform, when they are the ones trying to gain the seats of power, than when they are the ones firmly esconced in those seats of power.
If liberals and conservatives want to be avoid the charge of hypocrisy and/or dishonesty, they should avoid taking positions on such issues on the basis of their ideology and simply argue the merits of their positions on prudential grounds, i.e. the current circumstances require these tactics, etc.
Beginning with the easier part of that question, because conservatives identify with a group or groups of people whom they at least perceive to be superior to others, they are easily persuaded that they in possession of the "truth" (in politics, religion, morality, or whatever area about which they are conservative). And so, they tend to be orthodox, doctrinaire, intolerant, judgmental, arrogant, elitist, mission-minded, pushy, haughty and the like, very much like Paul of Tarsus.
Liberals, on the other hand, don't want to view others as inferiors, but strive to bring everyone up to the same level of equality. So they don't want to feel superior to others or to force their views upon others, nor to have others force their views on them. If anyone may have been justified in feeling superior to others, it may have been Jesus of Nazareth, and yet . . .
Is it because of the powerful influence of the opinion leaders that they follow, i.e. people like Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Michelle Malkin, Sarah Palin, Anne Coulter, Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, Sarah Palin, Michelle Bachmann, Karl Rove? The ignorance and/or dishonesty of these conservative mouthpieces is so blatant that one has to wonder if the reason their followers don't want to admit the plain truth is that they aren't the victims in this situation, but rather the patrons calling the tunes.
The terms "liberal" vs. "conservative" have varied some over the years, but if you could boil them down to their essence, we think you would find the contrast below. There may be few people who are totally liberal, or totally conservative, but the more liberal they are, the more they will exhibit the traits in the Left-hand column below, while the more conservative they are, the more they will exhibit the traits in the Right-hand column :
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"Conservatives" |
tend to identify with and have concern for whole classes of people, for "society", or "mankind" |
tend to identify with oneself and to have concern for one's immediate family, one's neighborhood, or one's race. |
tend to look forward, with confidence in the future, and dissatisfaction with the past. |
tend to look backward, with satisfaction over the past and suspicion over the future. |
tend to view the rich and the powerful as the source of most of their societal problems. |
tend to view the poor and the weak as the source of most of their societal problems. |
Scientists tend to be Liberals and liberals respect and use science. |
Scientists are rarely conservative and conservatives have little respect for science. |
tend to embrace All groups (not just one's own or the dominant race, religion, class, gender, age, sexual orientation, etc.) |
Inclusive only of those of one's own class, group, neighborhood, religion, country, etc., |
tend to view people in need as a challenge for which a permanent system-wide solution should be found. |
tend to view people in need as opportunities for "entrepreneurs" to create profit-making enterprises (see my whole page entitled guardiansofgreed.html and the "Acre of Diamonds" section in particular.) |
Emphasis on being responsible for the whole community, and for it's past & future, as well as present. |
Emphasis on being responsible mainly for oneself, and focus mainly on the present. |
Every human being is entitled to many basic human rights just because they have been born into the human family. | We are born with nothing but the hair on our heads and no right to anything unless and until we or our parents can earn it for us. |
The instinct of liberals is to defend the rights of their opponents to differ. |
The instinct of conservatives is to suppress dissent & oppose "right to know" policies. |
Liberals see the world in a multitude of colors, recognize, invite and welcome diversity, recognize complexity and subtlety, etc., etc.. |
Conservatives tend to view situations as either black or white, good or evil, guilty or innocent, for or against us, right or wrong, communist vs. capitalist, patriotic or treasonous, simple rather than complex, etc., etc., |
Elevate the powerless | Exploit the powerless |
Liberals think that what causes many people to be poor is injustice in the principal transactions of life, i.e. unfair wages for the labor they provide, unfair prices for the goods and services they have to purchase, unfair policies regarding health care, law enforcement, working conditions, discrimination, etc., | Conservatives think that "successful people" become prosperous by working hard and they need to be defended from the injustice of politicians stealing from the rich to support the lazy. |
Promotion of progressive taxation (in order to finance public services). |
Opposition to most forms of taxation (and to the public services they make possible). |
as much equality as possible (e.g. support for taxation of the super-wealthy) |
Unlimited INequality (opposition to taxation of the super-wealthy) |
When liberals are in control, the laws passed and/or enforced tend to fall on the rich and the powerful, rather than on "little people" | When conservatives are in control, the laws passed and enforced tend to fall on "little people", rather than on the rich and the powerful. |
Affirmative Action on behalf of minorities |
Negative INaction which benefits the majority |
O K with paying taxes, if money is used to care for the needs of others, i.e. the young, old, sick, handicapped, minorities, etc., etc. |
O K with paying taxes, if money is used for their own security, i.e. law-enforcement, prisons, and national "defense". |
Creativity & New ideas: Liberals respect the ability of all men to think for themselves and welcome and respect new and different insights and discoveries by thinkers in every field. (Reason is supreme). |
Tradition & Orthodoxy : Conservatives are insecure in their own ability to find the truth and need to have "orthodox" doctrine handed down to them from supernatural and / or political authority figures. ( Faith and blind obedience are supreme.) |
Abe Lincoln once said : "We all declare for liberty; but in using the same word we do not all mean the same thing. With some the word liberty may mean for each man to do as he pleases with himself, and the product of his labor; while with others the same word may mean for some men to do as they please with other men, and the product of other men's labor. Here are two, not only different, but incompatible things, called by the same name, liberty. And it follows that each of the things is, by the respective parties, called by two different and incompatible names: liberty and tyranny. The shepherd drives the wolf from the sheep's throat, for which the sheep thanks the shepherd as a liberator, while the wolf denounces him for the same act as the destroyer of liberty, especially as the sheep was a black one. Plainly the sheep and the wolf are not agreed upon a definition of the word liberty." |
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"Conservatives" |
believe large scale problems are best solved with public non-profit social programs | believe large scale problems are best solved with private profit-making individual solutions |
Liberals would rather admit the country needs to make progress in order to make progress. | Conservatives would rather the country not make progress if it means admitting that the country is not number one. |
Trust power in the hands of large (public) government over large (private) corporations |
Trust power in the hands of large (private) corporations over large (public) government |
Favoring Distribution of wealth and power to as many as possible |
Favoring Concentration of wealth and power in the hands of the elite few who have earned them |
Promotion of Unions & Collective Bargaining |
Promotion of individualistic private enterprise & "Freedom to Work" |
Union of States and belief in federal government |
Independence of States belief in "states' rights" and distrust of federal government |
History of opposition to slavery | History of defense of slavery |
promotion of higher minimum wage and even "a liveable wage" |
keep wages as "minimum" as possible ( whatever "the market" allows or even "dictates") |
The public should insure just wages for all its citizens, by law |
Nothing but "market forces" should determine what employers have to pay employees |
promotion of Health Care for all who need it : (Universal public plan). |
Health Care Insurance only for those who can afford it. (for–profit private plans). |
Both sides view themselves as champions fighting for liberty, freedom and justice; but they have very different ideas as to whom to protect and from whom : |
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Freedom for ALL : (requiring restraint of the rich and powerful) |
Freedom for the rich and powerful : ( with as much "deregulation" as possible) |
Oppose the proliferation of guns, because they end up killing so many innocent people. |
Embrace guns, because they enable even weak people the ability to threaten and overpower large numbers of other people. |
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"Conservatives" |
Believe in United Nations & the World Court |
Distrust United Nations & of World Court |
Do everything possible to achieve Peace, and settle for War only as a last resort | View waging War as proof of patriotism, manhood, etc., and pursuing Peace as proof of cowardice |
After the allies had defeated the Germans and Japanese in the 2nd World War, they took a liberal, i.e. a kind and generous approach toward them, and turned them into some of our best friends and allies. | After the allies had defeated the Germans in the 1st World War, they took a conservative, i.e. a vindictive and punishing approach toward them, and turned them into even more vicious enemies who would eventually start still another even worse world war! |
"Liberals" | "Conservatives" |
Tend to follow and promote the teaching of Jesus of Nazareth, rather than that of Paul of Tarsus. Compare and contrast LiberalsLikeChrist.Org |
Tend to follow and promote the teaching of Paul of Tarsus, rather than that of Jesus of Nazareth. Compare and contrast WhatWouldJesusThink. info/BadNewsPaul
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Did you know that until the rich the powerful succeeded in turning "liberal" into a "four letter word", that word meant "generous", "righteous" or "noble", as you can still read in the King James version of the Bible :
"The liberal (i.e. generous) soul shall be made fat ( i.e. "prosperous"}: and he that watereth shall be watered also himself. He that withholdeth corn, the people shall curse him: but blessing shall be upon the head of him that selleth it. He that diligently seeketh good procureth favour: but he that seeketh mischief, it shall come unto him. He that trusteth in his riches shall fall: but the righteous shall flourish as a branch. { Proverbs 11: 25-28}
"The vile person shall be no more called liberal ( i.e. "noble" in the NRSV ), nor the churl said to be bountiful. For the vile person will speak villainy, and his heart will work iniquity, to practice hypocrisy, and to utter error against the Lord, to make empty the soul of the hungry, and he will cause the drink of the thirsty to fail. The instruments also of the churl are evil: he deviseth wicked devices to destroy the poor with lying words, even when the needy speaketh right. But the liberal deviseth liberal things; and by liberal things shall he stand." { Isaiah 32: 5-8 }
"they glorify God for your professed subjection unto the gospel of Christ, and for your liberal distribution unto them, and unto all men" ( which the NSRV renders as "; the generosity of your sharing with them") { 2 Corinthians 9:13 }
You won't find the word "conservative" used in a good way in the Bible, because it's not there. What you will find, however, in the writings of "Christian conservatives" is the twisting of Bible verses to justify their beliefs. To give you but a few examples,
There's a tremendous difference between the way that non-Christians are viewed by conservatives vs. liberal Christians. And consider the paradox that on the one hand, the vast majority of mankind are either unaware of Jesus, undecided about him or indifferent, and on the other the vast majority of Americans profess to be Christians, that contrast is both interesting and consequential. Interestingly enough, if you go to the Gospels to find out "What would Jesus do?", you'll get two very different answers (below). While Matthew has Jesus saying that the vast majority of mankind are "against him" (which is the answer conservatives can relate to, Mark and Luke has Jesus saying the very opposite (which liberals prefer), that the vast majority of mankind are "for him".
It's rather foolish to imagine that you can really find out what liberals believe, by going only to conservative sources; just as it would be foolish to go only to liberal sources, to find out what conservatives believe.
That is why we were so pleased to discover a web site where a Southern conservative Christian does an outstanding job of laying out the very defective theology of conservative Christianity in America's bible belt, from which many of the beliefs of Christian conservatives in America's south are derived.
In contrast to these pages of ours, which strive to be fair to those with whom we disagree, check out what right-wingers view as "an honest examination of Democrats vs Republicans" at www.toberight.com/2011/05/democrats-vs-republicans/ This stuff is hilarious !
On March 5, 2004, the ultra-conservative magazine, Human Events, published its ("top ten") list of U. S. Federal Programs that conservatives dislike the most, listed in order of level of conservative contempt from 100% down, (along with the life span of the program). |
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Other than "Obamacare", "Common Core" and "The Dream Act" taking over the top spots, most of the above will remain top G.O.P. targets until they are knocked off. |
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Conservative self-expression (from "www.thoseshirts.com") :
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The REAL differences between "Liberal" vs. "Conservative" |