Liberal vs. Conservative
To me, there is a basic difference between liberals, or the left, and conservatives. This is a different view of people and of government. I use the terms liberal and conservative and not Democrat and Republican because there are a few Democrats who are conservative, and a few Republicans that are conservative -- but nearly all elected politicians end up turning into liberals. That primary difference is the use of government.
If one takes a liberal point of view, one supports government action. The conservative point of view primarily supports the individual's action. Quite often, both want the same result. For example: Schools. Nearly everyone wants a better education system. Sure, there are a tiny few that don't, but that will always be the case. Liberals believe the only way to get a better education system is by using the unlimited force and resources of government. Liberals believe that an education system without massive government expansion and support will fail. Liberals believe that if there is ever a reduction in government spending on education, the quality of education will fail, despite zero evidence for that idea. Conservatives, on the other hand, also want better education systems. However, the conservative believes that people can provide the solution and a better system. Conservatives believe that more and larger government education systems will not work -- as they have continued to show over time. More money is being spent on education than ever before, yet the government system is producing less and less educated people. Another example: hurricane Katrina. Everyone (again, with a few nutcase exceptions) wants the people that were victims to be helped. No one truly wants people to just starve and die in the streets. Conservatives believe in freedom -- they believe that the people of this country will band together and help them. Conservatives believe in people and believe that given a chance, that the people of this country will help them. That can be seen by the huge outpouring of support by private individuals after the hurricane itself. Liberals, on the other hand, don't believe in people. Liberals believe that people simply will not help because they're racist or some other imagined reason. Instead, with liberals, the only way to provide help for these people is to forcibly take money from people and redistribute it with government inefficiency. And if government is wasteful with those resources, liberals believe they should take more because people will not help of their own free will. In a way, the liberal view is a self-fulfilling prophesy. You see, when I, a conservative, see the federal government demanding hundreds of billions more of my money to be taken and given away, I see no more need to donate myself. Government is inefficient and incapable of doing nearly anything -- that can be proven with facts and data -- but government is the only solution looked to by liberals. So now do you see a little more of the difference between a conservative and a liberal? It's not that the conservative doesn't care -- quite the opposite -- the conservative cares and wants to help -- but the conservative wants to have the freedom to actually help instead of being forced, at gunpoint, to help an utterly inefficient and incompetent system (government).
Comments
1
I like your slant..its generous of ya to admit that others with opposing viewpoints actually have good intentions..
Posted by: Angel at March 12, 2006 10:52 PM (sbsb3)
2
I generalized. Of course, your mileage may vary... 
Posted by: Ogre at March 12, 2006 11:03 PM (CyQ4M)
Processing 0.01, elapsed 0.0105 seconds.
18 queries taking 0.0089 seconds, 10 records returned.
Page size 6 kb.
Powered by Minx 0.8 beta.