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Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one
The main difference between the two main parties and ideologies is the role that government plays in daily American life. One party believes that government should play a major role, handling almost all aspects of life including but not limited to healthcare, the economy, education, and the private lives of people. The other party believes that the individual is more important than the government, which people should rely on themselves and their communities to succeed in life.
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Republican and Democrat are political parties while conservative and liberal are ideologies. Political parties are legal groups that anyone can join, regardless of what someone believes. Conservative and liberal are general stances on various issues. Republicans are typically conservative whereas Democrats are typically liberal. However, there are exceptions. There are Democrats that act more conservative and there are Republicans that are more liberal. So what’s the difference? Let’s take a look at what the different ideologies believe.
Liberals believe that the government should control almost every aspect of life. They believe that governments provide security, stability, and prosperity. This means that they stand for higher taxes because that is the only way the government can do these things. They always talk about and try to implement plans that deal with our social responsibility. Taxing the rich more than everyone else and spending the money of social programs, manmade global warming, bigger government, diversity are just some of the main points of modern liberalism.
Conservatives believe that government should control very little of daily lives. They believe that people have a right to do whatever they want so long as it does not interfere with someone else’s right to do what they want. Conservative voters also want smaller government and lower taxes. They also talk about how wasteful the government spending is and that people should be more responsible for their lives and prosperity. The United States of America was founded upon mostly conservative ideas, hence the term ‘conservative’.
The problem with liberalism is that is does not stand up to critical thought, it just doesn’t make sense. Liberals tend to make decisions based more on emotion rather than thought. Take a look at any of their plans: minimum wage, social security, Medicare, higher taxes for the rich, welfare, etc. We are never supposed to examine the results of these programs, just the intention behind them and that because they meant well that these programs are somehow a good idea. Let’s take a look at minimum wage, one off my personal favorites.
Minimum wage at best causes inflation and at worst causes unemployment and economic downturn. Let’s imagine a community and in this community workers are paid $5 dollars per hour. Then the local government declares that every business must pay all workers at least $6 dollars per hour. Sounds pretty good right? Only if you stop there and do not apply any critical thought to what’s about to happen next in this scenario! Any business owner will tell you that there is no unlimited source of funds that they pay their workers from, business owners have a budget that they pay labor from. So if a business owner can only pay $50 per hour on labor for cashiers, they can have 10 cashiers per hour. But now the government has come along and made the minimum wage $6 per hour and now these business owners are faced with a question. Does the business owner now give workers less hours/fire some or do they raise prices so that he can keep his employees. Now that business owner can still only pay $50 per hour so that’s only 8 workers per hour can work, 2 workers just lost money. Assuming that the business owners just raise their prices to cover the increase in labor, every business’ prices just went up so that extra money the workers are making are going to come in handy to cover the higher prices in the community. So in actuality minimum wage accomplished nothing, these people have more dollars but their purchasing power stayed the same because their cost of living just rose.
Now I know this all sounds like just theory, but I would submit to you the following. Look at history. It doesn’t matter if minimum wage is $1 an hour or $100, cashiers, janitors, servers, etc., still have the same buying power. They are still lower middle class while doctors, lawyers, scientists, etc are still upper middle class. The only think that has changed is how many physical dollars we have. The Yen currently stays right around 100:1 exchange rate with the American dollar. So because Japanese consumers have 100 times more bills than we have, is the average Japanese consumer 100 times richer than the average American consumer? No, the Japanese middleclass have about the same buying power they just have to spend more physical dollars to do so. What good does having a million dollars do if it costs 2 million dollars to buy a car?
On the other hand the problem with conservatives is, well conservatives. The conservative ideology is just fine; those who claim to be conservative are a different story. We don’t have very many real conservatives in government; most republicans do not act conservatively until they are forced to.
The founding fathers understood that governments are not good things, but they are necessary. "Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one." Thomas Paine once famously said. Ever wonder why we are called the “United States of America”? That title actually means something. When the country was being formed, the founding fathers realized that the more power is spread the stronger the country is. Each State is its own government and has it owns laws that vary from other States. The founding fathers knew the destruction and stagnation that having a king or dictator or small group of people running a country can do and did not want to repeat that.
The founding fathers also understood, really for the first time, that wealth is not stolen, looted, or give it out as favors, it is made. The economy is not a zero sum game. You do not have to take from one person for another to receive, liberals believe in that. Welfare is when the government takes money from one person by force, through taxes, to give to someone else. In this scenario one person suffers and one person benefits. But if instead of giving that person welfare, that person trades something the other person like money or services then both people benefit. That is free trade, when two or more people come together willingly to trade goods and services to each other’s benefit.
Conservatives tend to be smarter and more educated than liberals. That does not mean that there aren’t smart liberals and stupid conservatives, believe me there are plenty to go around. But conservatives are usually more educated by the very nature of the two ideologies. Conservatism makes you think objectively about most things while liberalism relies on emotion mostly. Liberalism is all about making you feel good about the decision, not whether it is right or wrong. To a liberal, if the intention is good then it is the right thing to do regardless of the outcome. Conservatives usually judge whether something is right or wrong based on objective standards.
There is so much more to be said than what is stated here, unfortunately there is only so much room to tell it. But don’t take my word for it, think and learn about these things for yourself. The next time a politician proposes something, do some research, talk to others, think about it, and form your own opinion. While you are doing this, don’t be afraid to change your position either. Don’t be so close minded as to be shut off from the truth. But whatever you do, don’t think that conservatives and liberals are two sides of the same coin, chocolate or vanilla. Remember, one ideology wants to preserve this country and individual freedom. The other wants to radically alter this country into something like Europe.