Recently, I have been thinking about politics, especially since my husband brings it up so frequently, and the words liberal and conservative have been plaguing me for some time now. I try to stay away from discussing politics because it's such a loaded subject for many and I'm not one to argue, but I really wanted to know what the extremes saw as liberal and conservative.
The answers I received were surprising, to say the least.
The Oxford Dictionary defines liberal (in politics) as favoring maximum individual liberty in political and social reform. It also defines conservative as favoring free enterprise, private ownership, and socially conservative ideas. The interesting thing I noticed in interviewing several people is their opinions are not so different, and few felt these definitions were correct.
First, let me say that scrolling through my Facebook page, I see one extreme or the other. There are the "you-can't-take my-guns, if-you-don't-like-it-go-home, liberals-are-snow-flakes," then there is the "LGBT-rights, gun-regulations, conservatives-are-deplorable." It has become overwhelming.
Who wants to see this every day?
This the list of questions I asked.
1. What is your opinion of the opposite party?
2. What is your opinion of the definition of liberal?
3. What is your opinion of the definition of conservative?
4. Do you see liberals/conservatives as immoral? Progressive?
5. Do you use slang against the opposite party, (i.e. snowflake, deplorable, lib-tard, conspiri-tard, triggered, fake news)?
6. How do you feel when Congress or the house shuts down?
7. What do you think we should do to bring the country together?
Keeping my own opinion out of the discussion, here were some of the answers. Many of the opinions here are the same or close to the same. I interviewed Democrats and Republicans alike.
The liberals/conservatives are ineffective.
Liberals are not for individual liberties, they want more government control.
Conservatives need to change with the times.
Liberals that support Planned Parenthood are amoral.
There are amoral people on both sides.
If someone uses personal attack on other politicians, I will use the slang against them.
Government should never be able to shut down/ Shut down's don't really effect anyone but lower officials that may not get paid.
Our government needs to be completely revamped, with different processes/ There is no way to bring our country together, there is too much division to unite us.
I was suprised at the level of agreement from both sides. From these interviews, this is what I feel has happened. We are no longer willing to listen to each other. Sometime in the growth of this country, we stopped listening to those different than us. In 2018 we are just as segregated as we have always been.
The words liberal and conservative are used as a way to rally people to their cause or as a scare tactic to pull people away from the other side. We were not meant to have a two party system.
John Adams said:
"There is nothing which I dread so much as a division of the republic into two great parties, each arranged under its leader, and concerting measures in opposition to each other. This, in my humble apprehension, is to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our Constitution."
Each side has demonized the other instead of focusing on what we do agree on. Senators and Representatives will vote for what is best for their party, or for what their party wants instead of thinking about what their constituents want. The words liberal and conservative is used as a tool of division.
So here is what I propose. Listen! Find some one who has a different opinion than you and listen to their beliefs, their worries, their reasoning. Don't judge, and learn about the people around you. You just may learn you have more in common than you thought.
