Differences Between Left and Right: Part I

Most Americans hold either liberal or conservative positions on most matters. In many instances, however, they would be hard pressed to explain their position or the position they oppose.

At the very least, you need to understand both the liberal and conservative positions in order to effectively understand your own.

I grew up in a liberal world -- New York, Jewish and Ivy League graduate school. I was an 8-year-old when President Dwight Eisenhower ran for re-election against the Democratic nominee, Adlai Stevenson. I knew nothing about politics and had little interest in the subject. But I well recall knowing -- knowing, not merely believing -- that Democrats were "for the little guy" and Republicans were "for the rich guys."

I voted Democrat through Jimmy Carter's election in 1976. He was the last Democrat for which I voted.

Obviously, I underwent an intellectual change. And it wasn't easy. Becoming a Republican was emotionally and psychologically like converting to another religion.

In fact, when I first voted Republican I felt as if I had abandoned the Jewish people. To be a Jew meant being a Democrat. It was that simple. It was -- and remains -- that fundamental to many American Jews' identity.

Therefore, it took a lot of thought to undergo this conversion. I had to understand both liberalism and conservatism. Indeed, I have spent a lifetime in a quest to do so.

The fruit of that quest will appear in a series of columns explaining the differences between left and right.

I hope it will benefit conservatives in better understanding why they are conservative, and enable liberals to understand why someone who deeply cares about the "little guy" holds conservative -- or what today are labeled as conservative -- views.

Left-of-center doctrines hold that people are basically good. On the other side, conservative doctrines hold that man is born morally flawed -- not necessarily born evil, but surely not born good. Yes, we are born innocent -- babies don't commit crimes, after all -- but we are not born good. Whether it is the Christian belief in Original Sin or the Jewish belief that we are all born with a yetzer tov (good inclination) and a yetzer ra (bad inclination) that are in constant conflict, the root value systems of the West never held that we are naturally good.

First, no religion or ideology denies that we have goodness within us; the problem is with denying that we have badness within us. Second, it is often very challenging to express that goodness. Human goodness is like gold. It needs to be mined -- and like gold mining, mining for our goodness can be very difficult.

This so important to understanding the left-right divide because so many fundamental left-right differences emanate from this divide.

Perhaps the most obvious one is that conservatives blame those who engage in violent criminal activity for their behavior more than liberals do. Liberals argue that poverty, despair, and hopelessness cause poor people, especially poor blacks -- in which case racism is added to the list -- to riot and commit violent crimes.

"In some communities, that sense of unfairness and powerlessness has contributed to dysfunction in those communities. ... Where people don't feel a sense of hope and opportunity, then a lot of times that can fuel crime and that can fuel unrest. We've seen it in places like Baltimore and Ferguson and New York. And it has many causes -- from a basic lack of opportunity to some groups feeling unfairly targeted by their police forces."

So, poor blacks who riot and commit other acts of violence do so largely because they feel neglected and suffer from deprivations.

Since people are basically good, their acts of evil must be explained by factors beyond their control. Their behavior is not really their fault; and when conservatives blame blacks for rioting and other criminal behavior, liberals accuse them of "blaming the victim."

In the conservative view, people who do evil are to be blamed because they made bad choices -- and they did so because they either have little self-control or a dysfunctional conscience. In either case, they are to blame. That's why the vast majority of equally poor people -- black or white -- do not riot or commit violent crimes.

Likewise, many liberals believe that most of the Muslims who engage in terror do so because of the poverty and especially because of the high unemployment rate for young men in the Arab world. Yet, it turns out that most terrorists come from middle class homes. All the 9/11 terrorists came from middle- and upper-class homes. And of course Osama bin Laden was a billionaire.

Material poverty doesn't cause murder, rape or terror. Moral poverty does. That's one of the great divides between left and right. And it largely emanates from their differing views about whether human nature is innately good.

LIBERALS ARE SOCIOECONOMIC FASCISTS!

a) “Leftists” pride themselves in being “their brother’s keeper” - which isn’t a bad thing, by definition.
b) Leftists ALSO expect OTHERS to be “their brother’s keeper”
c) Their “brother’s keeper” policies require that others are taxed and CONTROLLED in some way
d) Thus, unwittingly, Leftist policies result in THE USE OF FORCE. (If someone doesn’t pay taxes to fund the Left’s version of their “brother’s keeper’s policies” the IRS will take them at gunpoint to jail).

As the saying goes: “Socialism: Policies so wonderful, you have to use FORCE to implement them!”

As one who cherishes individual rights, I object to the use of force on individuals. Left-wingers also claim to object to the use of force, but they don’t think deeply enough into the ramifications of their policies to realize they are huge proponents of the use of force on individuals to benefit the collective - sometimes in a very greedy manner. Hence the term “greedy liberals.”

That’s why I REFUSE to call them “liberals” because there is nothing “liberal” about their core philosophies. Liberal stems from the word, “liberty” and modern-day Leftists want the “COLLECTIVE” to have CONTROL over the INDIVIDUAL.

Hence, we need to start using the more appropriate term “Socioeconomic Fascists” for people who think they’re “liberals,” because they’re not liberal. They’re FASCISTS.

LIBERALS ARE SOCIOECONOMIC FASCISTS!

As the saying goes: “Socialism: Policies so wonderful, you have to use FORCE to implement them!”

Hence, we need to start using the more appropriate term “Socioeconomic Fascists” for people who think they’re “liberals,” because they’re NOT liberal! They’re FASCISTS.

It’s time someone CORRECTLY equates OBAMA’s socioeconomic policies with HITLER.

Most of the ignorant masses think HITLER was a RIGHT-WING EXTREMIST. But NAZI stands for Nationalsozialismus, or National Socialism. Obama stands for national socialism too.

In addition, Obama has taken numerous pages out of Hitler’s playbook:

1. Both are SOCIOECONOMIC FASCISTS who use class differences and racial hatred/intolerance to polarize the electorate and rally his followers.

2. Both seek to nationalize everything they can.

3. Both downplay individual rights and champion the greatness of “THE COLLECTIVE.”

So if you factor out the military component and the Auschwitz component of HITLER’s regime, OBAMA and HITLER are oddly of the same cloth!!!

Remember the “Yes we can” Hitleresque rallies of all his economic illiterate mouth-breathing followers? That was truly scary and an omen for things to come...

Hitler was NOT right wing, he was LEFT WING EXTREMIST, just like OBAMA!

Can’t speak for everyone, but for me the difference is: Liberals believe that taking from a group that is “better off” and giving it without effort to a group with fewer financial resources will solve problems. This has been the guiding mantra since the War on Poverty was begun over 50 years ago. Result? The GAO last year said that poverty is worse now than it was 50 years ago. Liberals bash the rich and seek a class warfare. Yet, they are the ones who drive this economic engine. How many of you were hired by a poor person.

They say taxes are too low, but hire high-priced experts to keep their taxes low. When did you last see Bill Mayer write a supplemental check for a million dollars to the IRS? Put up or shut up, Bozo!

Solution: Give a hand up, not a hand out. How does using my tax dollars to give deadbeats a cell phone solve any real problem? Instead, how about: If you draw public assistance, you have two choices: 1) show up at 7AM to clean toilets, sweep the street, or whatever else needs to be done, or 2) enroll in either a training program or the military. That’s it...no other options.

Material poverty doesn't cause murder, rape or terror. Moral poverty does. That's one of the great divides between left and right.

The problem - evil choices can be incentivized. Which makes a person responsible and not responsible at the same time.

For example - decades ago there were two hip replacement options for doctors - one that would last for 20 or 30 years - and one that would last for 10 or 15 years. The thirty year option was vastly MORE profitable for the doctor - took the same time to 'install' and made a nice profit. Of course this was an unethical choice because it made no sense to put in a 30 replacement in a 90 year old patient.

One doctor stood on his ethics and became a joke...

Problems in the black community are similar - liberal elites created the incentive where the 'best' choice for poor blacks is the unethical one - the choice that hurts in the long run but feels good in the short run.

BOTH liberal elites who create the incentives from hell - - AND ghetto thugs who respond to those incentives - - are responsible. That said, the stronger contempt has to be reserved for the white liberal elites because they should know better. (Well, unless ginning up black failure and rage is a way to keep blacks reliably on the democrat plantation -- a crossover to evil... )

There is truth in that. Also moral and cultural relevancy is a joke.
Anyone here want to tell me the Islamic culture today with it’s violence and abuse of women and children along with religious killings are equivalent to the evolved cultures of the Jews and Christians?

Regarding our own cultural civil war, you want to tell me there is equal value in those working regular and paying taxes with those who work the system to remain on tax dollars and NOT work ever when they can?

Why give a voice to criminals rioting to break and take things? That is like giving a pedophile access to more children in the name of love.

Absolutely. You either live by Rule of Law (Higher Law/God’s) or Rule of Man (Stalin’s or obama’s). Our system in the USA was unique in human history since our Natural Rights from God were unalienable-—and proceeded all governments.

Now, we have had our Natural Rights so removed and violated and unequally applied, this system is completely alien to our Founders. It is a mafia system now. Bribed “Justices” who throw out Natural Law and God’s Laws.

It is ALL unconstitutional. It is now Stalin’s Constitution—a Marxist one which promotes vice, no free speech, and constant grouping and indoctrination of all children by the State, and special rights to some and twisted laws (no Logic and not based on Right Reason according to Natural Law)..

And all “Just Law” had to promote “public virtue”. As Cicero stated (and St. Thomas A.) when Law ceases to be Just, it ceases to be Law”. Without a “Just” system we will collapse into chaos and then tyranny.

Promoting Vice (all socialism/Marxism/sodomy) will collapse the morality of children raised in such toxic cultures. When dependency and evil is promoted by government, the people raised in the system become evil—because of the Nature of Man——basically lazy. Virtue is habituated and instilled by environment and the Natural Family where individualism and self-reliance can be learned in a healthy way. (All group institutions create “group think” (loss of individualism with no ability to use Logic and Reason (think outside the box) and our Prussian system creates fear in children of disagreeing with the mob or “thinking outside the box”.

We are, after all, only herd animals if there is no God. Christianity created the Age of Reason (for a reason). It is simply a GOD/JESUS WORLDVIEW which puts Objective Truth and Laws of Nature FIRST. Which means there is a DESIGNER and why the ten commandments were put on all our Courts (Justice System).

Without God, everything is permissible (Dostoevsky). Even if I were an atheist, I would take the superior, perfect idea of God embedded in our Constitution, before I would elevate Man to be my “master”.

There was the "blank slate" or tabula rasa theory that was very prominent when I was growing up. It held that intelligence in humans was nothing more than what was put into them by society.

Therefore, if somebody did something bad, it was not their fault. Someone else made them do that. Men and women were exactly the same mentally. Only stronger males had enforced a patriarchy on women suppressing their desires and intellectual development. Ditto for minorities.

That theory, which I believe was leftist originated, has been thoroughly debunked. Humans are hardwired from birth with differences in intelligence and impulses. Different groups of humans around the world have different levels of natural intelligence and physical development.

The leftist version of intelligence holds that humans should not be punished for their crimes but rehabilitated/re-educated. Individuals are not responsible for what they do.

The conservative position holds that rewards for good behavior and punishment for bad behavior is a better way to organize society. Individuals must be held responsible for their actions.

Some people want to grow up, some people don't. Individuation is the first great crisis of being a human being. Liberals choose childhood forever - Leftists offer liberals a path to a lifetime of squalling, thumbsucking non-responsibility and adolescent indulgence.

Leftists are pure evil, but they need something to work with - something to organize into a political power with which to enslave and ultimately destroy humanity. Liberal moral cowardice is that something.

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