THE REAL NATURE OF POLITICAL DIFFERENCES
Are differences in values really what divides us politically? Or are we more alike than different and divided rather by ignorance, confusion, and misunderstanding?
To the extent that the latter is true there is great hope. The cure to ignorance is knowledge, and understanding dissipates confusion. Even where values do differ, understanding what they really are is the first step to sane political discussion.
Conservatives Always Fight for the Haves Against the Have-Nots
But if you want to know what really drives the conflict between progressives and conservatives, and has always driven that conflict, it is class. It is the war between the haves and the have-nots. This has always been the case, since the beginning of history.
Conservatives are always on the side of the privileged and powerful. The haves.
The word “conservative” means many things, but on the political battlefield it has always meant the preservation and augmentation of the power and the privileges of the powerful and the privileged. Everything else comes second. In fact, most of the time all the rest is just hot air.
This leads to strange and frightening fact: there are many self-proclaimed conservatives who are intensely committed to helping those who only want to rob them [*]. And they are passionate about it. So what separates liberals from conservatives is not strictly class, but attitudes about class.
Conservative Values: The Tools the Rich Use to Rob Us
That is why values matter. Conservative values are the reins by which the plutocratic horsemen control the beasts they ride.
This is true of conservativism generally and it is true of individual issues. The conservative coalition is an unholy alliance between powerful plutocratic puppeteers and the marionettes who happily do their bidding, fighting for those who fleece them.
The gun lobby, for example, is an alliance of the gun dealers and manufacturers who call the tune (and whose only interest is the bottom line), and a motley assortment of teeny-weenies, country closet queens, and other refugees from Over-Compensators Anonymous. It is not that most of the members of the NRA are actually insane. When polled, a majority of NRA members actually favor keeping guns out of the hands of lunatics, criminals, and terrorists. But when anyone proposes legislation to achieve such sensible goals, the dealers in death and destruction only have to scream “They're comin' to git yor guns!” and the angry puppets obediently storm the gates of the legislature.
[Next: Are Conservatives a Lot of Chumps?]