I believe that God expects me to raise my children in the best ways, training them to be Godly and to also love their neighbors.
I believe that I have responsibilities to try to make the world a better place. That means to me, that I need to try to be part of a solution, and less of a problem. This translated into decisions that I make regarding voting issues, volunteerism, charity and countless other oportunities to affect peoples lives in a positive way, in the family, in the church, in the neighborhood, in the world at large.
I doubt many who name themselves liberals, would disagree much with my goal and principles to this point.
However, where they often do disagree, is how best to accomplish these ideals.
So, where do I part company with liberals philosophically? I will answer that, but please keep in mind, that I will be using generalities, there may well be many liberals who do not think that they are as I am going to discribe them, if you are a liberal, or a conservative, do not think that I am talking about you, I am talking about my perception of liberals and conservative in the U.S., the country in which I live and with which I am most familiar.
In my observation, there are some fundamental differances in the way the conservative mind and the liberal mind think. I am not going to say that one is superior to the other, but here is my attemp to explain what I see as differences in general.
The conservative thinks more in terms of individual responsibility, he/she sees obligation to act on a personal level, while the liberal tends to think in terms of what government should do to help people. That is probably not going to go unchallenged here, but it is what I beleive. Perhaps it would be good to give an example to illustrate my contention.
A conservative is likely to want to see government welfare programs reformed, reduced, or possibly elliminated. He believes that charity, is the job of individuals and charitable orgnizations. He will not generally approve of government attempts at charity, because he realizes that they have not demonstrated themselve to be efficient (only allowing 30 cents of every dollar spent to reach the beneficiary), are fraught with fraud, lack accountability, and get their funding by confiscating money from those who have it. He believes it is better to to have people giving willingly out of love or compassion, than to have his elected officials deciding for him the best way to accomplish charity.
By contrast, a liberal is likely to assume that need is so great, that volunteerism will be insufficient to meet people’s needs, that those who have money, will not be generous enough to cover the needs of the needy, so therefore we need government to step in, take money from some individuals to give it to others.
I have a theory about why liberals have so little faith in voluntary charity. Liberals are not going to like it though, but please, this is about generalities, not any individual
My theory is this. We see the world through the prism of our own world views, and that creates a kind of predjudice. If we do not give much of our own substance away, we are likely to conclude that many or most others, are like us. Therefore, if we are not giving much, probably others are not giving much either. Is this a theory that I can prove? No, not in the slightest. However, what can be demonstrated, is that in general, conservatives give more away than liberals. Now some will be thinking, that is not true, conservatives are likely to be more careful with their money, wealthier also, and there fore either the conservative will be stingy, or he is only giving more because he can easily affort it.
That notion is, of course, also a theory. However, there are massive amounts of data available to show that conservatives give more, regardless of their economic level. Poor conservatives give more than poor liberals, rich conservatives gove more that rich liberals. Now, I can hear someone thinking, that that may be true, but conservatives are more likely to be religious, so that explains that. I am happy to inform you however, that non religious conservatives still give more, and that those who attend church, and give there, are also more likely to give more in addition to that giving, even to non religious causes. The fact is, conservative on the whole, are more compassionate in deeds, than liberals are in the United States at least.
As a side note, the citizens of the United State pay for many types of government programs through their tax system which have goals to help those in need; I am pleased to state they also manage to give away voluntarily, enough of their assets to charity, to amound to 8% of their gross domestic product, about 1 trillion dollar of charitible giving per year. I would like you to think about that number. It means that the average American, gives over $3000 to charitable causes each year, in addition to what is taken from him/her through taxation for similar purposes. Min you, that number is an average, taking into account every man, woman, child, and baby. If we adjusted those numbers to reflect only those people with assets and income, we would see that those who are able to give, do so generously without the goverment forcing them to do so. I am sure this is true for many other countries as well. Is this related to conservatism? I have no way of knowing, but when American are polled about the values they believe in and hold, America turns out to mostly moderate to conservative, with a little over 20% being categorized as liberals. While Americals political leadership tends to be to the left, it’s citizens tend to be to the right.
I believe that both liberals and conservatives are true to their world view. Conservatives beleive in individual giving, and do so, while liberals believe that charity is largely a government responsibility, and consider that they have given already through taxes, and of course that is true. The difference is, that thr conservative is more likely to ”give” both ways.
Now, I do not have an answer to the question of what motivates a conservative to give more. When one considers that it is not religiousity, or income level, I am at a loss to explain it. However, I am happy to dismiss the stereotype that liberals are more compassionate, the facts do not seem to bear that out under examination.
I would like to point out another idea that ties in with this. Four times in U.S. History, that I am aware of, income taxes have been reduced. Liberals feared that this would result in a loss of income to the federal government, and that programs would have to be cut. In each of the four times, when taxes where cut, the governments revenue increased. How is this possible? It is not only possible, it is predictable. When you cut taxes on businesses, businesses have more money to invest in growth, give raises, hire new people etc. When a business buys more equipment, supplies, and raw materials, some one else who sold these items, is making more money. When some one makes more money from those investments, or from getting a raise or a new job, that new money becomes part of an income base, that is in turn taxed, producing more money for the government while at the same time, reducing the governments outlay for welware programs, unemployment insurance benefits, and the like. Also, there is probably another factor at work, the less abused a person feels by the tax system, the more likely he is to pay his taxes, instead of finding ways to cheat or to “loophole” his way out of them.
Lower taxes are one of those rare things, where everybody wins. So why don’t we lower taxes and keep them lower? Ask liberal politicians that question. It is hard to figure out to be sure. Historically in the U.S., it has been conservatives that fight the for reducing taxes and slowing tax growth. I can think of no good reason to burden people with more taxes in order to grow the government in ways that are not necessary, or to fund more inefficient programs that the private sector can handle. Now, while lowering taxes provides more jobs and higher incomes and more revenue to the governmet, there is another side effect that is worth noting. When people’s net income goes up, charitable income goes up also.
Now, with these things all in mind, which is more loving of these two models:
More jobs, more income, more money for govt programs, more charitable giving
or
less jobs, less income, less money for govt programs and less charitable giving?
There is no rocket science here, conservatism is more compassionate in practice, than liberalism is. I could go on with scores of other examples. Liberals who are passionate, could respond with their counterpoints, but I see no benefit in dragging this out to that degree. Instead, I want to bring this to a conclusion to what I think the real problem is, one which I cannot fix, but one which any individual can, in his or her own life.
Liberals are truly compassionate people at the heart level, where God looks. So I am not going to call into question their devotion to God or good intentions. But as I see it, the liberal tends to think with his heart, he feels his way to decisions. He believes that government can be a good force to help people, and that therefore, more government equals more help. The reasoning is not too bad, it all sounds logical and feels right.
By contrast, the conservative analyzes results, he observes that government is too often in the way of helping people, it lowers the standard of living in many ways, lowering the quality of live and the ability to help others. The conservative is not usually ready to try bold new ideas without a lot of examination and forethought as to consequences. Where the liberal sees the world through eyes that examine the way things ought to be, the conservate examines the world through an examination of what works and what doesn’t. Now, I know many will take exception with that analysis, and I admit that I cannot see into the minds of others to see how they tick. But with a world of evidence around us, and that information being more available than ever, it is not hard to find out what works and what does not, what has succeeded and what has failed.
Liberalism has sought to take from the rich and give to the poor, yet in spite of the fact that liberals are more often in control of the country than conservatives, one can reasonable wonder, why has the number of poor people not been reduced or elliminated by now. We have been growing income taxes for over 100 years in the U.S. We have created more social welfare programs than one can shake a stick at over the last 70 years, yet the ratio of poor people to not poor people has not improved, what we have received for those efforts, is a large group of individuals who feel entitled to be provided for, instead of feeling the need to improve their own condition. But it is worse than that.
In one sector our population, our poor black communities to be specific, we have managed to convert a people who were once very family oriented, to a subculture of people where 9 out of 10 black children are born out of wedlock, many of whom have no idea who there daddy is, because they cannot ever remember seeing him. Our government pays the mother money, to help support her child, but pays her more if she does not have a man living in the house, so we have rewarded women by paying them more to have dad gone. Is there something wrong with this picture? We also pay them more money, the more cildren they have. It then becomes nearly impossible, for these women, to ever get off welfare, because too often they are undereducated, and if they could find a job, it would likely pay less than the goverment check. This then, becomes a way off life, often for multiple genrations in these families. No, lest someone accuse me of racial stereotyping here, I will quickly point out, that more white people are on welfare, than black people are. I am just using this example to point out how devestating welfare programs have been to some of our minority communities, the communities that many liberals with their well intentioned hearts, claim to want to help.
Speaking of blacks, I wish I knew more of them, the few that I do know cannot explain their allegiance to the Democratic Party. This question though, is more about party allegiance than conservative/liberal ideology. For those who are not aware, in the U.S. we have two major political parties, and dozens of minor ones. The Democratic Party, is largely liberal, while the Republican Party, is largely conservative, though only slightly at times. The Democratic party and the Whig party, were the major parties a bit prior to our civil war. It was the Republican Party, that opposed slavery and won freedom for slaves. In the early civil rights movement, Republicans by ratio, outnumbered Democrats in inacting civil rights reforms. The Democrats, for the most part, have created a welfare situation which has kept many black people who would rather work, dependant on the welfare system, penalyzing them if they try to better their position in life through personal effort for financial gain. Is it any wonder that drugs and prostitution is big business in these areas, since they seem to be the only way many see to make decent incomes without being worse off employed, than if on welfare?
We have a very Racial focused ‘hate group’ in America, thankfully it is not very large. You may have heard of them, they are called the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. Most of them, profess to be Democrats. Senator Robert Byrd, sometimes referred to as the conscience of the Democratic part, was at one time a Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan. That Blacks show special allegiance to the Democratic Party, baffles me. Just a random thought.
I am beginning to realize that I could continue in this vein for perhaps days, because the number of problems that liberals have helped bring about through their good intentions is staggering, the current economic crises comes to mind. Their opposition to solving problems with solutions that actually help, is mind blowing.
Where does the common notion come from, that the rich are greedy and made there money off the backs of the poor? Or that corporations are only out to cheat, steal, and destroy the environment. You know the kinds of notions I am talking about here, I will ask you, are they more common among liberals or among conservatives?
Having anwsered that, would you like to be rich yourself, given the choice? How many times has a poor person offered you employment? Since most corporations are owned by the stock holders, don’t the officers of a company have an obligation to try to make the company profitable. Almost half of American houshold own shares of stock, if companies where not “so greedy” many of these stock portfolios would not perform as well as a savings account, and savings accounts lose value in terms of buying power, every year.
Do you really beleive that some lawyer or a person who has never held a normal job or run a business, is the best sort of person to put in charge of running our lives? Why do we keep electing them? That is not a liberal/conservative question, that is for everyone.
If I continue, I am going to work myself into a state where I think my country is no good. I have focused here on a lot of problems that I see, but the truth is, that we have it pretty good, I just want to keep it that way – that is what conservatism is, “if it aint broke, don’t fix it”!
I apologize if that all seemed less than coherant. I know I went off topic a few times. This was not some well thought out thesis, this was just me rambling and ranting. I hope that at least one of three things happend while reading this. I hope that you at least saw your own thoughts crystalized, or, that you thought “Hmm, that is interesting, I never thought of it like that”, or that you got good and mad and feel motivated to prove me wrong. If your responce is a complacent yawn, I apologize for taking your time, maybe you can go find some professional wrestling on tv to watch, or maybe a good sitcom to stimulate your mind. Enjoy!
I realize, that if you think of yourself as a liberal, that you may feel that I have attacked you. Please do not! I know your intentions are good, I would just like you to rethink your ideas and examine if they are producing the good results that you expect. If not, why not look at the world of ideas out there, and find solutions that are working, and join in with them, and not feel an obligation so side with any group by label. This is for all people, all parties and philosphies. Any solution proposed by any group, party, or individual, which does not work, is not a solution, and does not need to be grown. Such ‘solutions’ need to be modfied or replaced. The world is not perfect, and problems are complex, therefore no simple solution will likely be perfect or capable of wholly fixing a complex problem, but we can chose the better solutions, and we should. Do your best to do your homework, and think things through.
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