I used to think matters of opinion regarding politics were something that wasn't ethical. Someone could be for a smaller government and someone could be for an government that is active. They would each have their downsides, and unintended consequences, but give or take, they would end up in a wash.
The dangers of liberalism is that people expect from the government and that leads to taking more from the successful people. Clipping the wings of the strong and successful has a negative effect on the morale. Encouraging dependency also robs people of their self determination. Their self reliance.
The dangers of conservatism is that small government is inactive while many suffer by what seems to be preventable, and even die.
This is where I begin to see conservatism as unethical. People actually die because of lack of interventions by the government. Raising insulin prices to gouge diabetics leads to diabetics dying. You could say they deserve to die if they don't take better responsibility for their lives.
We don't live in the wild west any more. We have an advanced civilization. People don't die out on the prairie, they die embedded in a civilization. That civilization is culpable.
We live in an interconnected world. Sure, maybe most diabetics have some family and friends who look out for them, make sure they take their insulin, and the ones who are isolated are perhaps not friendly, don't listen to family. Maybe. Let the wild west take them, the conservative says, it's stealing to take my taxes for thing I don't agree to. We fought a war about that. Our economy is nimble because of low taxation. Play Civilization and SimCity, borrowing and debt lead to trouble, the lower the taxes, the happier the citizens are.
I'll give the conservatives this. They have been fighting harder for their beliefs. If politics is a substitute for war, then politics is war. Drive up the deficit, so the liberals can't spend and get people used to entitlements. Never mind that that talk of conservatives is against debt. Bruce Babbitt proved that nobody can ride in on that horse as a single issue. Getting less for our tax dollars is also something that republicans are OK with.
The conservative has gotten alienated from their values in the all out fight against liberals. In fact the glee at liberal angst is a main attraction for Trump. But that's a double edged sword. There are a growing number of Never Trump Republicans heading into this election.
Never mind that it's not really fair to put the death toll at Trump's door. It's only a percentage that he is responsible with his irresponsible policies, and it could be argued that states and cities should lead their own territory, we don't need a federal policy. Ditto with social problems--why not let charities lead on solving social problems, and leave the federal government out of it.
One place where a federal policy would be useful would be to even the playing field in school districts which have savage inequalities.
The liberal wants housing, medicine, education, transportation and communal parks and recreation to be federally subsidized. We want to make it easier to survive in the world, make America not such a horrible scary place where one pink slip slides a family into turmoil. Elizabeth Warren sees that, and Bernie Sanders has ideas about that.
The conservative raises their hands up in fear of communism, the bread lines in Eastern Europe, the moribund industry that can't be bossed around by 5 year plans. The free market solves whatever problems we have and if you're crushed in the free market, wild west again, we need an agile economy. Survival of the fittest.
The liberal finds it quite ironic that the conservatives who are often science denying religious people, rely so happily on survival of the fittest, and the tribalism of religious communities. They find the othering quite terrible. When they are saying black lives matter, they are saying all lives really matter. You shouldn't be gunned down for running in a white neighborhood while black by a suspended cop who didn't want to take a course on appropriate use of force.
They say all the racists went into law enforcement because they couldn't handle a black president. They say Trump is the result of a black president. With that kind of reasoning I thought we would end up with Bernie Sanders as a reaction to Trump, but we got Joe Biden.
I think it's a real question, how much should we do. Life isn't fair. That doesn't mean that we shouldn't strive for fairness, that we can't act in the interest of the greatest good. Universal health care would obviously be the greatest good, even if we clipped a few dollars off what the capitalists make. Is it the most efficient system to have all these insurance companies that are rewarded financially for saying no to procedures?
Conservatives will point to the lines for a hip replacement in England, but that doesn't take away the right of people to pay for it. It's a basic baseline of care to get the basics in life. Not to have so many homeless people who fall through the cracks. The liberal will say what you do to the least of us, you do to me, expressing profound interconnectivity. The conservative will say that's why we have charity, it is optional, you rob me of the right on how to spend my money. I don't want my money going to abortions, I feel life is sacred. The liberal comes back--if you were pro-life over the lifespan, we could talk, but the reality is conservatives are not pro-life.
The dialectic is OK. We can't be totally responsible for lives, people have to take responsibility. The economy isn't as nimble when ideas about fairness enter into it, and then we really wouldn't have the money to be charitable.
Conservatives can bite their lip and accept some work programs, some subsidized housing, health care for all. We need to think about the environment, not all concern is liberal idealism gone wrong.
What has made me sick about the power grabs of Trump is that it goes against traditions, and usual procedures. He's wrecking up the government to prove that government is bad. I want to expect good government. There is no underlying philosophy beyond Gordon Gekko's "greed is good". Get what you can. I don't think that is what the federal government is for either.
I don't feel prisons, schools, transportation and hospitals should be run for a profit. I think the corporate and military welfare has gone far enough. I think we could cherish life a little more without fostering galloping dependence.
The pendulum needs to swing back to the left after Trump, and it might be for 12 years instead of 3 years. Roosevelt ran into troubles at the end of his administration. The supreme court put him in check. I believe in these checks and balances. The lawless nature of the trump administration has gone too far. His selfishness is being seen for the limited perspective that does not raise to the good for all.
Liberals and conservatives have different visions of what government should be. The dialectic plays out over the years. Personality will be gratified, or enraged during various phases. The tide of history is against Trump now, and there is a reckoning coming.
We can't always have cheap meat, gas and suburbs. Intelligent government is the antidote to greed, poor government and lack of empathy for the citizens.
The dangers of liberalism is that people expect from the government and that leads to taking more from the successful people. Clipping the wings of the strong and successful has a negative effect on the morale. Encouraging dependency also robs people of their self determination. Their self reliance.
The dangers of conservatism is that small government is inactive while many suffer by what seems to be preventable, and even die.
This is where I begin to see conservatism as unethical. People actually die because of lack of interventions by the government. Raising insulin prices to gouge diabetics leads to diabetics dying. You could say they deserve to die if they don't take better responsibility for their lives.
We don't live in the wild west any more. We have an advanced civilization. People don't die out on the prairie, they die embedded in a civilization. That civilization is culpable.
We live in an interconnected world. Sure, maybe most diabetics have some family and friends who look out for them, make sure they take their insulin, and the ones who are isolated are perhaps not friendly, don't listen to family. Maybe. Let the wild west take them, the conservative says, it's stealing to take my taxes for thing I don't agree to. We fought a war about that. Our economy is nimble because of low taxation. Play Civilization and SimCity, borrowing and debt lead to trouble, the lower the taxes, the happier the citizens are.
I'll give the conservatives this. They have been fighting harder for their beliefs. If politics is a substitute for war, then politics is war. Drive up the deficit, so the liberals can't spend and get people used to entitlements. Never mind that that talk of conservatives is against debt. Bruce Babbitt proved that nobody can ride in on that horse as a single issue. Getting less for our tax dollars is also something that republicans are OK with.
The conservative has gotten alienated from their values in the all out fight against liberals. In fact the glee at liberal angst is a main attraction for Trump. But that's a double edged sword. There are a growing number of Never Trump Republicans heading into this election.
Never mind that it's not really fair to put the death toll at Trump's door. It's only a percentage that he is responsible with his irresponsible policies, and it could be argued that states and cities should lead their own territory, we don't need a federal policy. Ditto with social problems--why not let charities lead on solving social problems, and leave the federal government out of it.
One place where a federal policy would be useful would be to even the playing field in school districts which have savage inequalities.
The liberal wants housing, medicine, education, transportation and communal parks and recreation to be federally subsidized. We want to make it easier to survive in the world, make America not such a horrible scary place where one pink slip slides a family into turmoil. Elizabeth Warren sees that, and Bernie Sanders has ideas about that.
The conservative raises their hands up in fear of communism, the bread lines in Eastern Europe, the moribund industry that can't be bossed around by 5 year plans. The free market solves whatever problems we have and if you're crushed in the free market, wild west again, we need an agile economy. Survival of the fittest.
The liberal finds it quite ironic that the conservatives who are often science denying religious people, rely so happily on survival of the fittest, and the tribalism of religious communities. They find the othering quite terrible. When they are saying black lives matter, they are saying all lives really matter. You shouldn't be gunned down for running in a white neighborhood while black by a suspended cop who didn't want to take a course on appropriate use of force.
They say all the racists went into law enforcement because they couldn't handle a black president. They say Trump is the result of a black president. With that kind of reasoning I thought we would end up with Bernie Sanders as a reaction to Trump, but we got Joe Biden.
I think it's a real question, how much should we do. Life isn't fair. That doesn't mean that we shouldn't strive for fairness, that we can't act in the interest of the greatest good. Universal health care would obviously be the greatest good, even if we clipped a few dollars off what the capitalists make. Is it the most efficient system to have all these insurance companies that are rewarded financially for saying no to procedures?
Conservatives will point to the lines for a hip replacement in England, but that doesn't take away the right of people to pay for it. It's a basic baseline of care to get the basics in life. Not to have so many homeless people who fall through the cracks. The liberal will say what you do to the least of us, you do to me, expressing profound interconnectivity. The conservative will say that's why we have charity, it is optional, you rob me of the right on how to spend my money. I don't want my money going to abortions, I feel life is sacred. The liberal comes back--if you were pro-life over the lifespan, we could talk, but the reality is conservatives are not pro-life.
The dialectic is OK. We can't be totally responsible for lives, people have to take responsibility. The economy isn't as nimble when ideas about fairness enter into it, and then we really wouldn't have the money to be charitable.
Conservatives can bite their lip and accept some work programs, some subsidized housing, health care for all. We need to think about the environment, not all concern is liberal idealism gone wrong.
What has made me sick about the power grabs of Trump is that it goes against traditions, and usual procedures. He's wrecking up the government to prove that government is bad. I want to expect good government. There is no underlying philosophy beyond Gordon Gekko's "greed is good". Get what you can. I don't think that is what the federal government is for either.
I don't feel prisons, schools, transportation and hospitals should be run for a profit. I think the corporate and military welfare has gone far enough. I think we could cherish life a little more without fostering galloping dependence.
The pendulum needs to swing back to the left after Trump, and it might be for 12 years instead of 3 years. Roosevelt ran into troubles at the end of his administration. The supreme court put him in check. I believe in these checks and balances. The lawless nature of the trump administration has gone too far. His selfishness is being seen for the limited perspective that does not raise to the good for all.
Liberals and conservatives have different visions of what government should be. The dialectic plays out over the years. Personality will be gratified, or enraged during various phases. The tide of history is against Trump now, and there is a reckoning coming.
We can't always have cheap meat, gas and suburbs. Intelligent government is the antidote to greed, poor government and lack of empathy for the citizens.
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