Saturday, April 4, 2015

The mind of a liberal

I have often pondered why opponents of my political views, namely liberals, think the way they think.  I am only considering opponents within the U.S.  Of course there are opposing external viewpoints from my own that come from dictators, communists, fascists, and all form of tyrants and potentates, but I am only concerned here with those who oppose me at the ballot box.

My frame of political reasoning is primarily conservative; a small government that acts as a defender of individual rights, protects its citizens from foreign threats, promotes commerce, and fairly administers justice to those who would use unjust force in society.  And that would be all that I would want my ideal government to do, and nothing more.  Just the stuff that the U.S. Constitution empowered the government to do.  

My political opponents, the liberals, want almost the exact opposite from the government.  Liberals desire a large, all powerful government that controls with regulations, rewards and punishment any activity within the U.S. that can be gamed, or otherwise unfairly manipulated in order to profit or unfairly advance a participant's interests.  Liberals want a completely level playing field for everyone in every endeavor, regardless of circumstance. They desire as small a national defense posture as possible, and divert the vast resources needed for a strong defense  to social concerns instead. 

On the surface, most of the liberal position seems reasonable.  Who wants people gaming the system?  Nobody, right?  Who wants an un-level playing field?  That's just not right, is it?  Who wants to put up with pollution of our air and water?  Only idiots and rotten people, right?

But on most issues of how best to manage the limited resources of the U.S. citizen, these 'reasonable' positions start becoming impractical, and often are contradictory to other liberal philosophies.  On occasion, I conclude that many if not most liberals are just plain evil, when they vote in droves to take the money from one American by brute force from a ham-fisted federal government and give it away to other Americans who have not done anything to earn it.

But liberal behavior defined as simply being evil doesn't explain things so well.  I can't imagine that 150,000,000 Democrat voters cast their ballots the way they do because they are all evil.  The math just doesn't support the 'liberals are evil' theory, although the immorality of taking one man's resources away and giving them to another who did nothing to earn them is nothing short of evil in itself.

No, most liberals are not evil.  But why do they support political party that punishes some Americans at the expense of other Americans?  

The only answer I can come up with is that the liberal mind is one of a perfectionist: if something is not perfect, then take steps to make it so.  Most conservatives understand that nothing is perfect, and structure practical arguments to the issues of the day that make the best of an imperfect situation.

Not good enough for liberals, however.  As the old saying goes, the perfect is the enemy of the good.  Back in the early days of LBJ, Lyndon Johnson attended a single room classroom when he was four years old.  That little classroom in Stonewall, Texas was about as spartan as things got back in the day: 20 wooden desks, a chalk board, and a wood stove to heat the place in the winter.  That's it.  

And LBJ figured that people just didn't care enough about education to make little kids sit in those little shacks, so he did something about the situation.  He started the U.S. down the road to profligate spending by everybody that owned property in the form of property taxes to be committed to public education, and now nobody has to go to school in a one room classroom anymore.

Every citizen now has access to publicly funded mansion-like school properties that have lunchrooms, libraries, school nurses, school psychologists,  and enough administrators to populate an army battalion.  All at the mandated public expense.  

That little one room school was good.  But not perfect.  And LBJ made our education system perfect.  Right?  Wrong.  His goal was to perfect the outdated education system, by simply overwhelming the system with money.  Other people's money, of course, but we got to where we are today in our horrible public school system as a result of the good intentions of a one time little four year old boy sitting at a rickety old wooden desk in a stark, barren one room school house.  

And so it goes with all liberal causes.  A wheel chair bound lady can't get into a public facility to buy a jar of pickles because there are two steps to deal with.  Is this any way to treat our crippled folks?  No siree Bob.  Let's mandate that every public access facility across the Fruited Plains have wheel chair access.  And we as a nation spent perhaps a trillion dollars doing so, and now that lady can access that store and buy her jar of pickles.  

But why don't liberals, in doing their good deeds, ever consider the costs?  Money is no object in seeking perfection in most liberal minds.  

It should be an object, however, because money doesn't grow on trees.  This is something I haven't a clue as to why liberals don't consider the costs in achieving their perfect solutions to many problems, as well as solutions to problems that aren't even problems.

Maybe somebody will give me a hint one of these days as to why liberals think the way they do.  



19 comments:

LL said...

"Just the stuff that the U.S. Constitution empowered the government to do."

You can't loot the system and spend other people's money when you do that. Liberals feel that they are smarter than you are and are better able to spend your money than you are. I think that's at the core of the argument.

Gorges Smythe said...

I think a lot of it was explained recently by a Harvard study. It showed that independants have average IQ's of 135, conservatives - 110, liberals - 87.

Fredd said...

LL and Gorges: both of you point to intelligence as the basis for my disagreement with liberals.

LL says lberals think they are smarter than me, and should call the shots because I am too stupid to walk and chew gum.

Gorges points to Harvard studies suggesting that just the opposite, that liberals are dumber than dirt.

Gotta disagree with both of these suggestions as to the basis of the liberal mind (since both are polar opposites of each other in any regard). That, and to assign a single factor to liberals as the root cause of their behavior at the polls and of their leaders doesn't explain away all 150 million Americans as simple idiots or misguided geniuses. Nor are they all evil.

I think it has to be the water supply. I may be on to something here....maybe chlorination contaminating their precious bodily fluids, a theory first suggested by Gen. Jack D. Ripper in "Dr. Strangelove". Yes, I think I am on to something.

Fredd said...

Gorges: taking Harvard study results seriously is not something I readily engage in.

Results from a National Lampoon study would have identical validity with me.

Even though the results you posted seem reasonable, with the exception of the suggestion that independents are brilliant on average. I would have put those guys down as dumber than both liberals and conservatives, since they can't make up their minds even with 250 years of data at hand as to which way they should pull the lever at the polls.

Ed Bonderenka said...

Liberal supporters have a motivation:
Something must be done!
They also have a belief:
There's no reason we can't do it.

They can't tell you how, but they are willing to believe that the experts, given the resources and authority, can make it better.

It's that simple. I've seen it too often, mostly in co-workers.
Smart people.

I go to church with a woman.
She's smart and generous personally.
she's also a victim of some poor lifestyle choices: smoking, diet and marrying a lack guy that abandoned her when she got pregnant. She is on SSD. Lives in subsidized housing.
She's a liberal. She listens to the local conservative radio station.
She has been staying with my wife during her recuperation. Will not take a dollar from me.
She is an enigma to me.
But she meets my description above.

Fredd said...

Ed: When you ask your liberal fellow parishioner about the immorality of the taking of one American's property and giving it to another under force, and that something must be done, and we have the ability to make it happen, what does she say?

I already know the answer, Ed. We can't turn our back on those less fortunate. And 'fortunate' is the word they use to describe the people that bust their ass in life and make the right life decisions that enable them to make something of themselves, those 'lucky' rich sumbitches that don't deserve what they got.

Is that the answer she will give you, Ed?

Kid said...

liberals are stupid, cowards, sociopaths, fascists, and lazy.

They dream up social compassion based ideas that in the end afford them something for nothing.

At the best case, there is no intelligence, only emotion. They can do a 180 on themselves in the span of a nano-second and not even realize it.

In basic terms.

They like the moslems are a cancer upon a productive healthy society.

Kid said...

Liberal also don't believe in the concept of Loser or Evil.

Most of them are losers so I can understand that part easily, but how someone can look at current events and not understand evil - must have some basis in mental disease.

Joe said...

Confiscation of people's money is perfectly fine. In fact, everybody should actually be forced to give 100% of what they earn to the government, because the government knows what people need better than the people themselves do.

"Wait! We just want a little more of the people's money...and just a little more...and just a little..."

So goes the mind of the average liberal.

Fredd said...

Joe: liberals don't seem to like THEIR money getting confiscated, but have no problem with voting to confiscate OTHER people's money. They are perfectly fine with that, and sleep like babies at night after leaving the voting booth having voted to rob their fellow Americans and give the proceeds to ne-er do wells.

I don't understand that kind of thinking, and never will.

Kid said...

Fredd, "they certainly vote in sync with those liberals that are stupid, cowards, sociopaths, fascists, and lazy"

Well, what would you call THAT ?

The only liberals who I separate out are the ones too young to know the difference and have have been soaked in liberalism for 12 year of school and maybe 4 years of college.
Once you can see the problems and can't figure out (or are not interested on solving) what causes them, you fit into one of my categories.

Z said...

I think your post covered it well and the comments are good...Conservative IQs higher than Libs; imagine if that went the other day and how the media'd have broadcast THAT info?

I believe that, for some reason, liberals got twisted in whatever patriotism/affection they felt for America;
They're either rich and feel guilty or they're anything but rich and feel resentment. It builds on that:
Rich Liberals: I feel so guilty that everybody who has less than I do, in any way, must be treated like a very special endangered species and deserves a lot even if they don't try for themselves.
Poor Liberals: I hate this country because we're all supposed to do well and it's about time that happened to ME, and if I don't want to work, I shouldn't have to...I'm ENTITLED!

In a nut shell! :-) Z's take on it.

Fredd said...

Kid: sure, as Forest Gump would say "Stupid is as stupid does."

Still, 100 MILLION of my neighbors are idiots? I just can't wrap my brain around that possibility.

Fredd said...

Z:

The Rich Liberal/Poor Liberal theory would certainly go far in explaining motivations of pinkos. Way more Poor liberals than Rich liberals.

If we get any more poor liberals in the public trough, the ship is going down, Z.

Still, 100 MILLION entitled moochers out there? How can that be?

Kid said...

100 million idiots? Oh - I'd say it's entirely possible.

Z said...

I think we are sinking, fredd.

Also, Cheney spoke out again today....implies Obama's getting our country in trouble on purpose.
I love Cheney.!

Fredd said...

Kid: if we have 100,000,000 idiots in the US, we have entered into the realm of the movie "Idiocracy", where a dummy is frozen and wakes up 500 years into the future, and this dolt is now the smartest guy on the planet.

Fredd said...

Z: Dick Cheney is right. He's always right. And I believe that when he says Barack Obama is throwing a monkey wrench into our society on purpose, the facts sure point in that direction, don't they?

Kid said...

Fredd, 160 out of 1000 believe the world is going to end because of climate change. Then of course, you have close to 50% voting a 2nd time for obama. I'd say it's well over 100 million.