why can’t we all just get along?

A liberal is a person who believes that somewhere in the stack of cards which is this world’s ideologies, philosophies, governments and individuals there lies the formula for perfect government. A conservative is a person who believes the perfect formula just isn’t there.

The conservative may be a realist, with a pessimistic view of human nature. Or he may be Christian, and might believe that Christ will return to establish perfect government on the earth someday, but that’s not a solution that exists on the earth right now. In either case, perfect government is not currently in the cards.

This fundamental difference in premise is the cause of much of what those on the right would consider the “lunacy” of the left. It also explains why the left misunderstands and mistrusts the right with such vehemence. The left claims America’s government is a horrible government, rife with injustices. The right observes that there is not another system of government on the planet doing a better overall job of preserving the civil liberties of individuals. The leftist is comparing American government with something that doesn’t exist, and therefore America doesn’t pass the grade. The kicker is that the precise parameters of perfect government, against which our government is being judged, varies from group to group, even from individual to individual. They focus on details like Canada’s and Europe’s healthcare systems, believing that the perfect government will provide free healthcare. Therefore, those governments are exhibiting a trait of perfect government, and ought to be emulated.

The debate regarding taxation is driven by this same difference in premise. If perfect government is here somewhere in the mix, if it can be attained by tweaking or re-shuffling what we’ve already got, then why wouldn’t good citizens want to sacrifice in order to achieve such a goal? If the solution is somewhere right in front of us, we’d be crazy not to do whatever is necessary to find it.

Conservatives believe the solution the left seeks is simply not there. Hence, money spent in the pursuit of perfect government is wasted money. Furthermore, they believe that the extra funds given to existing (imperfect) governments only exacerbate the problems that already do exist, and even introduce more problems.

Imagine how we on the right must appear to those on the left. We seem to adhere to the status quo, tacking toward a vision of our government that was defined in the past, by male chauvinist slave owners! What possible motives could we have for fighting to preserve such an outdated, obviously imperfect system when utopia beckons ahead? This suggests to them an extreme cynicism on the right; a bunch of rich old white guys trying to consolidate and preserve their power over a dysfunctional system which should be relatively easy to fix. As they see it, the rich old white guys care about their power more than they care about old people, foreigners, the environment, gays or freedom of expression.

The right, while generally believing that improvement is always possible, doesn’t believe that utopia is possible. Conservatives are people who believe that liberty is the birthright of individuals, and that it is exceedingly fragile. They see that the social and sexual liberation trumpeted by the left is a pipe-dream which has drawn all the kooks, perverts and anarchists out to follow them. The pedophiles have been sucked into the left’s slipstream, but it would be a mistake to conclude that the left is nothing more than a bunch of post-hippie academic goombahs who just want to do drugs in peace (that would be a libertarian!). All the talk about civil liberties on the left come not from a belief in the rights of the individual, but in the steadfast faith that utopia, in the form of perfect government, is possible. That, my dear liberal and conservative friends, is why we can’t all just get along.

For a much more indepth (and in my opinion more insightful) look at liberal motivations, check out The Motivations of Political Leftists by John J. Ray of the University of New South Wales, Australia. In this monograph, Ray attempts “to analyse most aspects of Leftist political thinking and display the psychological and sociological roots of such thinking in an historical context.” Fascinating stuff.