Tuesday, March 22, 2005

Why the Republicans Are Wrong

This is a great article that captures the fundamental problem I have with the Republican party - they aren't true conservatives. They aren't principaled. They are ideological bullies, and worse, they are out of synch with most Americans. This has always been my problem with Republicans.

Now I don't really consider myself a conservative, although I have strong libertarian leanings. If I had to classify myself, I'd say I'm a hawkish libertarian liberal. I'd like to think I became hawkish after 9/11, but the truth is, there hasn't been a war in my lifetime by the United States that I haven't supported, including the first Gulf War, the Panama invasion, the Bosnia bombings, and the second Gulf War. I'm guessing I would have opposed Vietnam, but honestly, I wasn't alive yet and have no idea what it was really like to live during that time....I was always taught it was an ill advised war.

What I mean by libertarian liberal:

Liberal, in that I believe one of the fundamental roles of government is to extend opportunities and liberty and freedom to those previously marginalized. Historically, this means supporting the Civil Rights movement, Women's Rights, affirmative action, and so forth. I also support alot of Galbraithian economics, which necessitates market regulation to account for factors that the market neglects. A decent example of such is the cigarette tax, which was not added to punish smoking or tabacco companies (although it inadvertantly did this), but to take into account the full social and medical costs associated with long term affects of smoking.

Libertarian, in that I think the government which governs best, is what governs least. In questionable situations, when issues are sticky and nuanced, I don't think government is in the best position to make decisions. Examples of this are the Schivo case, steriods in baseball, and abortion.

I realize there may be some fundamental disparities between being a liberal libertarian, but in essense I don't trust people to behave justly, given free reign of the market and control over institutions. At the same time, I don't trust government to properly correct individual choices. I can't imagine anyone who would trust either...it's a contradiction. Fun.

1 comment:

Greg said...

When I say Republicans are out of synch with Americans, I mean that if you go down, issue by issue over the past 20 years or so - my guess is that Democrats would generally have more popular positions than Republicans. This is speculative, I have not done a study.

One of the major reasons I suspect this is that the Republicans have been more ideological and less pragmatic than the Democrats in my lifetime. Again, this is a general feeling and I ought to find some data to support it.

And yes, I do distrust people to such a degree that government needs to be around, not just to protect the little guy, but to take into account the public versus the private good. There are many things that we need in public, roads, national defense, lighthouses are tangible examples, but also free speech, assembly, these types of things do not come about in a "free" market. We would see hecklers silencing speech, and private groups deciding on behalf of communities if there were no community forums or public schools.

I wholeheartedly agree with your gripe against liberals. It's true, most liberals want equality of outcome...but worse, to me, is that most don't even understand the difference between equality of opportunity and equality of outcome. The liberal debate over this type of issue is non-existent - they simply take the line, if it helps a disadvantaged person, it's legitimate, without taking into account at whose expense or the long-term consequences.

It's human nature not to accept equality of opportunity, because life isn't fair. The best example is that of a poker game. Equality of opportunity is starting the game with an equal stack. Equality of outcome is forcing everyone at the end of the game to equally share the chips, no matter how you played.

Sometimes I end up losing all my chips, DESPITE having played well and as smart as I could, because of bad luck. It's frustrating and unfair and I WANT, and on some level DESERVE, my chips back. But that's life, as they say.