Posted by
Andrews on Monday, May 04, 2009 12:33:40 PM
I was reading
comments posted in response to the professional pundits and ran across one very interesting comment from a liberal:
This seems to be the sort of argument often advanced by those liberals who try to pass themselves off as "moderate, patriotic, Christian liberals". They pretend that conservatism is entirely about selfish greed, while liberalism is the true expression of patriotic devotion to one's community.
True,
BUT the failed Bush was very much a social and fundamentalist
conservative, the wing driving conservatism now. And he is EXACTLY who
you get with the hooray with me to heck with everyone else first
commandment of conservatism. You don't listen to anyone but YOU because
it is about only the individual not family, God or country
Well, sort of.
As I wrote before, liberal theory is based entirely upon the belief that people need protection, from their own stupidity, from their gullibility, from their ignorance, or from malicious outsiders against whom they are completely impotent. It doesn't really matter, the basic theory of liberalism is that
YOU are completely unable to rule yourself, so
I will do it for you. Which I suppose does make it somewhat "community" oriented, but only if that community bows down to the will of the liberal in question. And in my book, that makes it even more selfish and egotistical than conservatism.
Let me make this clear, all government theories are about community tot he extent they must deal with the question of how government should work. However, conservatism, at least the minimal government version*, argues that government is a tool which should be used sparingly. People are largely able to runt heir own lives, and so the state should only step in when it needs to protect them against domestic or foreign aggressors or thieves, and to settle legitimate disputes among citizens, such as contract cases or torts.
Liberalism, on the other hand, thinks people need a helping hand, need to be told what to do, as they can't manage for themselves. And, on paper, that sounds very altruistic and non-selfish. Until you ask "Wait, if everyone is incompetent, then who will figure out what they should do? And that is the point where you realize how arrogant and selfish liberals really are. You see, their theory is
ALMOST EVERYONE is incompetent, everyone but them.
THEY are great and good and brilliant, and if only we would all listen to them then everything would work just dandy. So, rather than an altruistic agenda, what they are proposing is that the world would be a great place, provided they were put in charge of everything.
Does that sound altruistic to you? Or do you think maybe the "selfish" conservative agenda, which allows every man the same freedoms we allow ourselves, may be much more generous and humble at the same time?
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* I limit this to small government "economic" conservatives, as the term "conservative" has been ill defined recently, and includes protectionist paleo-cons and some social conservatives who think people need to be protected from immorality. In their beliefs, they are every bit as intrusive and arrogant as liberals, arguing they know better what people should trade or read, watch and listen to. So I need to limit my argument to those conservatives who adopt a properly humble approach, allowing that others may know their own desires better.
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POSTSCRIPT
I have written on this theme extensively:
The Essence of Liberalism
Arrogance and Gun Control
A Very Simple Truth
Our View of Our Fellow Citizens
Those Other People
Seeing People As Stupid
The Virtue of Humility
Man's Nature and Government
Lying Politicians and "Other People"
Two Kinds of Liberal
The Citizen Dichotomy
My Vision of Government
My Vision of Government Part II
Economic Versus Social
Eurocentrism? Racism? Liberal Traits All
Smaller Government , Fair Weather Friends and Special Cases
The Benefits of Federalism
Fairness and the Free Market
A Question of Perception
The Endless Cycle of Intervention
An Analogy For Government
Planning For Imperfection
The Intellectual Elite
Appealing to Arrogance
Nuclear Disarmament and Gun Control
Conservatives and the "Big Picture"
Conspiracy Theories
Government's Abusive Behavior
Very Brief Gun Control Post
And as I mentioned paleo-cons and protectionism, I suppose I should include the posts "
Misplaced Blame and A Power Play", "
Remember I Predicted It" and "
I Told You So!", which provide a basic explanation of my thoughts concerning their beliefs, and "
The State and Morality" and "
A Bit More Explanation" which describe my thoughts on authoritarian social conservatives. And finally, readers should probably read "
Why I am a Republican" to understand why, despite all my complaints with various wings of the party I remain a Republican.