Conservative Politics - Part 2 - What is the difference between liberal and conservative?
Continuing the quest for ever expanding understanding of the goofiness we call modern politics, I think we really need to take a look at what are the fundamental differences between Conservatives (aka - Republicans) and Liberals (aka - Democrats).
2.) What are the differences between liberal and conservative politics?
Politics is a strange phenomenon. People throw around terms such as "liberal," "conservative," "green," and "libertarian." When we hear these words, all kinds of images come into our heads: welfare spending, tax cuts, environmental policy, abortion stances, and many others. Do we really know what these terms mean?
After contemplating this for a while, I realized that the terms are very ambiguous. People grab a term, and then they define their personal stance under the "umbrella" of all the connotations and denotations that have historically been associated with that term before. Therefore, there is little consistency in choosing your politician based off of these terms. I asked myself, is there a way to better classify people based on their stances on issues. I mean, someone has to have thought of this before, right?
Enter Google, the wonder of the modern era. Please refer to the following site:
http://www.politicalcompass.org
This site has a method of rating people not simply on a liberal (left) to conservative (right) scale, but also on a libertarian to authoritarian scale. There is a good description of their reasoning on the site, so I won't repeat it all here. However, the really interesting thing they have done is normalize the responses through history, providing a stable axes on which to rate yourself. They include an interactive test to rate yourself, which I would encourage you to take. Then, you can compare your score to that of Hitler, Stalin, Lenin, Bush, Lieberman, Kerry, Dean, and many others.
The most interesting thing I got out of it was that modern politics is not that extreme, however, even the modern Democrats are considerably more conservative than 50 years ago.
In summary:
Left vs. Right is an economic distinction. That is, the Left wants to have total control over the economy, while the Right fights for a total free market.
Libertarian vs. Authoritarian - This is a social distinction, where the authoritarian views the State as more important than the individual (ie. Stalin) and Libertarian views the individual as more important than the State (i.e. Gandhi).
Obviously, those are some wild extremes, but how would you classify yourself?
I would say that I am:
1.) Slightly Authoritarian - I want to government to be as minimally involved in my life as necessary to maintain safety, order and infrastructure. I want the freedom to do what I want, as long as I don't infringe on the rights of other people, and the assurance that the government will protect that right. However, the government does have the right to apply taxes, to enforce laws to protect our safety, and to call on support for a military.
2.) Conservative - That is, I expect to take care of myself as much as possible. Therefore, you should take care of yourself. Let the people have their money, and they will find a way to spend it in a free economy. The government has never shown itself to be capable of managing sectors of the economy, however, some regulations do need to be applied to prevent companies with massive resources from completely taking advantage of local water, power, and mineral resources. Therefore, I don't support a 100% free market, but we need to keep the government out of the picture whenever possible.
Along the same lines, the government doesn't need to spend money on BIG programs. I thought that that collapse of Communism would have shown us that a socialistic policy implemented on a large scale is doomed to fail. In addition, it seems here that the most effective government programs are the small ones, or the ones that affect a small group of people. The bigger the program, the less efficient and more inflexible and useless it becomes. Take a look at how effective the modern public school system is: we keep spending more money and don't get any better results. However, private schools are getting by on much less money with better results.
Obviously, each person defines their own limit of what is acceptable and unacceptable for a variety of social issues. This is why a complete spectrum of beliefs is allowed to exist, and why political debates get very confusing. Take some time, evaluate yourself, and let me know if you actually fall where you thought on the political spectrum.
2.) What are the differences between liberal and conservative politics?
Politics is a strange phenomenon. People throw around terms such as "liberal," "conservative," "green," and "libertarian." When we hear these words, all kinds of images come into our heads: welfare spending, tax cuts, environmental policy, abortion stances, and many others. Do we really know what these terms mean?
After contemplating this for a while, I realized that the terms are very ambiguous. People grab a term, and then they define their personal stance under the "umbrella" of all the connotations and denotations that have historically been associated with that term before. Therefore, there is little consistency in choosing your politician based off of these terms. I asked myself, is there a way to better classify people based on their stances on issues. I mean, someone has to have thought of this before, right?
Enter Google, the wonder of the modern era. Please refer to the following site:
http://www.politicalcompass.org
This site has a method of rating people not simply on a liberal (left) to conservative (right) scale, but also on a libertarian to authoritarian scale. There is a good description of their reasoning on the site, so I won't repeat it all here. However, the really interesting thing they have done is normalize the responses through history, providing a stable axes on which to rate yourself. They include an interactive test to rate yourself, which I would encourage you to take. Then, you can compare your score to that of Hitler, Stalin, Lenin, Bush, Lieberman, Kerry, Dean, and many others.
The most interesting thing I got out of it was that modern politics is not that extreme, however, even the modern Democrats are considerably more conservative than 50 years ago.
In summary:
Left vs. Right is an economic distinction. That is, the Left wants to have total control over the economy, while the Right fights for a total free market.
Libertarian vs. Authoritarian - This is a social distinction, where the authoritarian views the State as more important than the individual (ie. Stalin) and Libertarian views the individual as more important than the State (i.e. Gandhi).
Obviously, those are some wild extremes, but how would you classify yourself?
I would say that I am:
1.) Slightly Authoritarian - I want to government to be as minimally involved in my life as necessary to maintain safety, order and infrastructure. I want the freedom to do what I want, as long as I don't infringe on the rights of other people, and the assurance that the government will protect that right. However, the government does have the right to apply taxes, to enforce laws to protect our safety, and to call on support for a military.
2.) Conservative - That is, I expect to take care of myself as much as possible. Therefore, you should take care of yourself. Let the people have their money, and they will find a way to spend it in a free economy. The government has never shown itself to be capable of managing sectors of the economy, however, some regulations do need to be applied to prevent companies with massive resources from completely taking advantage of local water, power, and mineral resources. Therefore, I don't support a 100% free market, but we need to keep the government out of the picture whenever possible.
Along the same lines, the government doesn't need to spend money on BIG programs. I thought that that collapse of Communism would have shown us that a socialistic policy implemented on a large scale is doomed to fail. In addition, it seems here that the most effective government programs are the small ones, or the ones that affect a small group of people. The bigger the program, the less efficient and more inflexible and useless it becomes. Take a look at how effective the modern public school system is: we keep spending more money and don't get any better results. However, private schools are getting by on much less money with better results.
Obviously, each person defines their own limit of what is acceptable and unacceptable for a variety of social issues. This is why a complete spectrum of beliefs is allowed to exist, and why political debates get very confusing. Take some time, evaluate yourself, and let me know if you actually fall where you thought on the political spectrum.