From an experiment performed by some social scientists in 2001.
They had subjects identify themselves as either liberals or conservatives... The groups filled out questionnaires about their own beliefs and how they interpreted the beliefs of their opposition. They then rated how much insight their opponents possessed. The results showed liberals believed they knew more about conservatives than conservatives knew about liberals. The conservatives believed they knew more about liberals than liberals knew about conservatives. Both groups thought they knew more about their opponents than their opponents knew about themselves.
I believe I do know more about conservatives than they know about liberals. Here are three elemental principles, or fundamental beliefs, of conservatives:
- Our economic system is fundamentally fair. It rewards hard work and initiative, and punishes laziness and ineptitude. Rich people deserve to be rich, and poor people deserve to be poor.
- The government is fundamentally bad. First because it disrupts the natural outcomes of the free market, and second because it lacks free market discipline, and is therefore inefficient and corrupt.
- When the government disrupts the natural outcomes of the market, it disincentivizes hard work and initiative, and creates a "free ride" mentality among the people.
There are more, of course, but these are three that more or less unite conservatives. (Others divide them.)
My predictions are these: 1.) That the majority-conservatives on this board may nit-pick, but they'll agree that these are three fundamental beliefs of the conservative movement; and 2.) that few, if any, of the conservatives on this board will be able to articulate liberal principles in a way that liberals themselves will agree to.
Addressing each point in turn:
1. Our economy is fundamentallly fair. All people deserve to be rewarded in ways that the society will provide. A guy who can catch a football will make plenty. Same with a second baseman who can hit a curve ball. It is fair in that if you have something to sell and can find a buyer, you are free to make the deal that benefits you.
If all you have to sell is your time and sweat, you can still make a living and have a good life. If you are very young, very old or infirm, the rest of society owes you the care you need. If you are just lazy or envious, starve in the street. Outcomes are not equal, but they are fair. Fairness and equality are not synonyms.
2. In your bizzaro world understanding of the world, you have the right ingrediants, but think that the causes are the effects and the effects are causes.
The government is fudamentally bad because it is inefficient and corrupt. The exercise of power by those who are inefficient and corrupt is what disrupts the free markets which are, by necessity, not free but are regulated and, ideally, the regulation shold make them more fair. They are not and do favor some while punishing others for no other reason than the agenda of the powerful, inefficent and corrupt government officials.
I grew up in a state that actively campaigned against industry because they had an unrelated agenda. Industry left and thousands were on the street out of work. This is the result of your benevolent government.
3. By disrupting the connection between risk and reward, the government can disincentivize the movers and the shakers who will then pull in their horns and sit on their cash instead of investing and promoting. When this happens, for any reason, the rest of us suffer because opportunity and wealth are not naturally occurring. They are created by the folks that know how to do it.
When the government announces its intention to eliminate the reward for risk, why risk? When the government announces its intention to raise taxes on profits declared in the US, why not declare them in a less punitive country? When the government sues a company for creating 2000 jobs and shuts down another company for creating 400 jobs, all of these jobs non-union, what might other companies gleen from this?
The "free ride" tripe is just progressive slogan making. If there are jobs out there, Americans will work. As long we have an anti business Socialist in the White House who is actively and energetically working to undermine business, there will be no jobs growth nationally.
As far as articulating Liberal Principles, I don't think most Liberals know what they believe beyond a vague impression of striving for justice or some other nebulous crap. I don't really care. It's taken me most of my life to figure out what I think. Figuring out what you think is your job. By the way I read your impression of the world above, you have some distance to make up.
Putting aside what is thought, let's look at what is said. Class warfare is what Liberals deal in what will ultimately produce defeat for the country. You imply it 4 times in your definition of conservatives above. Our President cannot stop himself from setting up everything he thinks,says or does in an us vs. them scenario.
A house divided and so on. Wiser men than I and you know the rest.
