(Note: these learning modules encompass
the actual class lectures, and are designed for those students who have to miss
class through no fault of their own, and also as a refresher for all students.
Bold print in the notes are what the professor writes on the board.)
LEARNING MODULE: WEEKS 1-2,
Liberal-Conservative Ideology and Introduction to Public Policy
The major philosophical
dividing line between people in America today is the Liberal versus
Conservative political philosophy. Liberals are dominant in the national
Democratic Party, and conservatives are dominant in the Republican Party. My
lecture notes are based on my readings over decades of the most prominent
periodicals reflecting these philosophies, such as the conservative National
Review and the liberal New Republic.
Conservatism:
This philosophy
originated with European classical liberalism during the founding of our
nation. It has seven major components in my opinion:
Individualism and
self-reliance.
At
the outset of our nation in an agricultural society, whether you could even
survive was based on your own hard work, working sun-up to sun-down, six days a
week. If you did not work, you did not survive. If you worked even harder, you
planted more acres, you sold more crops, you could expand your farm. We are a
nation of immigrants, and these immigrants have started many small businesses,
and end up working seven days a week, all day. Their hard work usually results
in financial success, and their kids can start out in life with more than they
had, and so they can be even more successful. Another example is the cable TV
program Shark Tank, where successful business people
who worked long hours to get their start are now so successful that they can
invest their money in other people who are just starting out and who have a
good idea for a business. Certainly, you yourselves have experienced the
importance of studying hard, taking AP classes, and getting admitted into the
Honors program at a world-class university like MSU (with our Presidential
Library and our Phi Beta Kappa chapter). My own philosophy of life is:
Pray-Work-Workout with praying and exercise giving me the spiritual and bodily
strength to be able to do my job and help young people. Raise your hands, those
of you who have practiced such self-reliant individualism; you, what is the
story of your life?
Private sources of
support, which include the family and religion.
The
family and religion are an extension of yourself. You choose whom to marry, and
you choose what your religion is. Historically, your spouse and children would
help you to survive and be successful, such as by bringing in cash from a job,
doing housework and raising your kids, performing community services. So on the
farm, the kids would help out with the farm work. Immigrant kids would
typically work in the family store. Today, most kids help their parents by just
being successful in school, and being able to get a good job after graduation.
Religion historically was community centered with the small town attending
their church, meeting with their neighbors, and helping their neighbors with
their job or health problems. In other words, volunteer work. Religion provided
a code of morals, ethics, and conduct, which reduces the need for a big
government. Thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal…. Historically, America
called itself a Christian nation, but the Ten Commandments are found in the Old
Testament (important to those of the Jewish and Islamic faith). So, family and
religion are private sources of conduct that reduce the need for a big government.
And the Founding Fathers did not like a Big Government, since they revolted
against the British King. Raised hand from the audience, question, but what
about the European religious wars, and religious persecution of women,
minorities, and LGBTQ people? Well, humans are flawed and sinful creatures, so
they can distort the words and meaning of a religious leader such as Jesus,
hence the religious wars. Historically limited roles for women, minorities, and
gays gets us ahead of ourselves, so we’ll come back to that. Another hand
raised- what about atheists or agnostics who do a lot to help other people?
Well, maybe they have their own religion of humanism, environmentalism,
whatever.
A commitment to free
enterprise and capitalism.
Real
conservatives simply want the government to leave them alone. Let me take my
good idea, let me work long hours, let me learn how the economic system works,
and then I can be successful, and make a lot of money. And that money can give
me a high standard of living. This is a very competitive system, however, so
someone else may have an even better idea, may organize their business in a
more efficient manner, and can provide their goods and services at a lower
price than you. So you may go out of business. There is a lot of risk in this
philosophy, but society as a whole is helped, since they get more products and
services at lower and lower prices. There tends to be a lot of innovation. When
I was growing up, we only had black and white television, only three networks
plus PBS, no computers, no internet. Airline fares were so high that few people
would fly, and the planes were half empty. Look at how things have changed.
Even conservatives, though, want to provide people with some protection from
being hurt by such ruthless competition, so we have bankruptcy laws. Donald
Trump himself declared bankruptcy in the 1990s, and his creditors were lenient
towards him, because they knew he was a good salesman, and he would get back on
his feet. But nowadays, major companies have lobbyists in Washington and state
capitals, and they get the government to pass all sorts of laws that protect
them from “unfair” (or too much?) competition from other countries or from
other Americans (teachers unions say you need to be “certified”). Is this
really conservative? Or is this, Big Government Conservatism? Some political
observers say that former President Trump’s trade wars were not really conservative. If
the people of China are willing to work for miserably low wages so that they
can build a product that sells for a lower cost than American products, why
shouldn’t American consumers be able to buy from China? What do you think about
this issue of trade? Someone in audience says that it isn’t fair that other
countries abuse their workers and pollute the environment as they build low
cost goods. Another person says, who cares, I want low cost products so I can
buy more goods and services. We actually have a lot of free enterprise in
American higher education- you can choose from numerous public universities in
your own state, many of you are from out-of-state so you exercised even more
choice, some even attend private colleges (expensive!), or go to a community
college. American universities are the envy of the world, so maybe a mixed
public-private partnership is most beneficial to our nation?
Limited
Government.
Conservatives hate big government! Remember, our Founding
Fathers revolted against the tyranny of the British King, and his taxation of
the colonies without representation in the British Parliament, and his
prohibiting American colonial trade with parts of the British empire. For years,
America had a very limited federal government. We had numerous small
depressions, and even during the Great Depression of the 1930s many
conservatives said it was a normal economic downturn, and the country would
come out of it eventually. Conservatives especially dislike a large and
powerful federal government, as they say it is too geographically far from the
average person, and that it can become too insular and arrogant. They prefer
that the state governments and local governments (cities, counties) solve most
of society’s problems by themselves. Governments can abuse their powers. During
World War 2 after Japan attacked our major Pacific naval base at Pearl Harbor
(Hawaii), our government put many American citizens of Japanese ancestry in
concentration camps. During the Cold War between the U.S. and the Communist
Soviet Union (Russia and its other “Republics”) in the 1950s, people lost their
jobs and careers after being accused of being “communists.” Today, some people
lose their jobs for saying or writing politically “incorrect” things. The
federal government has become so large that it can spy on a presidential
campaign (Trump) and monitor telephone conversations of its incoming National
Security Advisor (Flynn). When investigated by a Congressional Committee for
possible abuse of power, a couple of FBI investigators were called out by a
Congressman for smirking at him. During a national pandemic, government can
confine you to your house for two months. Even liberals point out governmental
abuses, such as the killings of African American men by police. What do you
think about the current power of the government? Have any of you or your
friends been hurt by governmental actions? Hands raised. One student has a
friend who was pulled over for “driving while black.” Another student complains
about his school closing, and her older brother's prom and graduation was cancelled, to deal with a
pandemic that primarily affects old people.
Tradition.
Traditional
values, traditional social arrangements. Conservatives historically thought, “if
it ain’t broke, why fix it?” Gosh, what a Great Country we have. We settled on
the shore of one ocean, then expanded across an entire continent, defeated
European colonial powers, won two world wars, survived the Great Depression
with our democracy intact (unlike Italy, Germany). We did all that with our
Christian religion, our traditional division of power and labor between the
sexes (women were largely homemakers), even our traditional ethnic and racial
roles. Some conservatives even went further back in history, and glorified the
British government (which had a House of Lords, hereditary landed nobles) and
pointed out how European monarchies had promoted and protected the Catholic
faith (and the Pope). Conservatives historically relegated the gay community to
the “closet,” meaning that one could not publicly express an LGBTQ lifestyle
(one could lose their job, some sex practices were illegal by some state laws).
Abortion was believed to be murder, and as late as 1972 all except two states
outlawed it. The South enacted laws to “legally” prevent most African American
from voting, and force black kids to attend segregated and poorly equipped
public schools; the rest of the nation went along with this until the 1950s and
1960s. Conservatives were very much against drugs, even marijuana. Drugs were
viewed as reducing one’s ability to focus and to work hard and be responsible.
So, the first four components of conservatism sounded kind of reasonable,
right; but what do you all think about this adherence to tradition?? Many hands
raised, much support for living your own lifestyle however you want, as long as
you don’t hurt anyone else. Much support for LGBTQ freedoms- an MSU student I
interviewed, a Truman Finalist, took the lead in starting an annual Gay Pride
parade in Starkville, which the city finally permitted after a threatened
lawsuit. Abortion causes much discussion, when does life actually begin, are we
taking a human life? Some discussion of recent urban demonstrations, Black
Lives Matter; traditionally people were expected to respect the police, obey
them, but do all of the police follow the law themselves?
Anti-crime orientation,
punitive approach.
Conservatives hate the government, but they do want it to
exist for a few limited reasons: protect Americans from domestic criminals and
from foreign enemies (and make business possible through a currency, bankruptcy
laws). So they are very anti-crime, and because they believe in individual
self-reliance, if you commit a crime, it is your fault! And so, you should pay
the penalty. You do the crime, you do the time. Historically, America used the
death penalty a lot, especially for first-degree murder. An eye for any eye,
Old Testament justice, a life for a life. Western movie scenes would depict
white males being hanged for crimes like horse stealing. One reason for the
death penalty was deterrence- maybe someone would be deterred from committing a
serious crime. Of course, that might not work for some crimes of passion. But
conservatives might also argue that morally, human life is so precious, that if
you take a life, you must forfeit your own. Also, this removes a dangerous
person from society, so they cannot harm anyone else. What about life in
prison, though? Well, they may harm a prison guard, or they may escape, respond
conservatives. In the 1990s there was a national movement of Three Strikes and
You’re Out laws, meaning that a conviction for a third felony would result in
life imprisonment. The crime rate went down, Americans were protected. Historically,
police would carry a heavy baton, and disobedient citizens risked being hit in
the stomach or even over the head. Parents would caution their kids to obey the
police officer. Some nations even have caning, or whipping. Singapore has a low
crime rate. Are such punishments deterrents, and even if so, are they morally
permissible? Much class discussion. Some people can learn better behavior from
pain- I learned the importance of carrying plenty of water after suffering
painful dehydration on a 30-mile day hike in the Smokies one summer; therefore, years later I carried 6
quarts of water for a day-hike from the South Rim of the Grand Canyon down to
the Colorado River and back (don’t do this, it’s deadly!). How should looters
be treated; some conservatives say shoot them!
Foreign affairs- American
national security interests first, anti-communist, use force.
So real conservatives hate government, saying it should exist
for very limited purposes. It should protect Americans from foreign enemies,
period. When our federal constitution took effect in 1788, we just wanted the
federal government to protect our nation so that it could exist. Therefore, we
wanted to stay independent of those great European colonial powers, like
England, France, Spain. We wanted to preserve our international trade, as we
sold much of our farm products to other countries. We did not want to be very
involved in world affairs, though we learned that we could not permit
dictatorships such as Hitler’s Germany to conquer Europe and Imperial Japan to
conquer Asia and the Pacific, or they could then take on the U.S. After
defeating these dictatorships, we faced the dictatorship of monolithic
communism (the USSR Soviet Union and mainland China were strong allies until the 1960s, and Eastern
Europe was under Soviet control) whose ideology called for world conquest. So our
national security interests were very anti-communist, and the U.S. would often
support right-wing (conservative) dictatorships (authoritarian governments)
like Iran, Guatemala, El Salvador, Chile, because they were anti-communist. In
the age of 9-11 terrorism, Islamic terrorism became the top national security
concern of conservatives. Putting America first, conservatives are very willing
to use force, and to do so without much international support. When President
Bush thought that the anti-American government of Saddam Hussein’s Iraq had
weapons of mass destruction (chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons) and
European nations like France refused to support an invasion of Iraq, Bush went
ahead anyway (and some Americans boycotted French fries!).
I have spent so much time on conservatism, because it is
no longer the dominant philosophy in the United States, so I had to explain
what it is, and why it used to be so dominant.
Tomorrow, we turn to
modern liberalism.
Liberalism:
Some view liberalism as
having arisen during the Great Depression, as the U.S. federal government
expanded its power to help people hurt by the Depression. Others point out that
in Erich Fromm’s terminology (a German sociology writing in 1944) of valuing
security over freedom, a big central government dates even earlier to German
socialism the previous century. It has 6 major components in my opinion:
Liberalism recognizes
human failings that hurt other people, and uses big government to help
people.
The concept of self-reliance and
individualism is fine, but sometimes people are hurt through no fault of their
own. Sometimes they are unfairly discriminated against by other people.
Liberals take the lead in making sure that government helps such disadvantaged
people. Was it the fault of the average workers that a Great Depression
occurred, and suddenly one-fourth of American workers became unemployed? Many,
including my maternal grandparents, lost all of their money in banks (which
were not regulated at the time), and then lost their small businesses and their
homes. Until the 1930s, business could pretty much do whatever they wanted,
thereby hurting workers and customers. Under Democratic Presidents, the federal
government enacted Social Security, protected the right of workers to join
labor unions, and outlawed business abuses. Liberals realize that flawed humans
can take over local and state governments. An example is that southern states
until the 1960s were dominated by whites, and they maintained white supremacy
over African Americans. As such, a larger federal government stepped in, with
the Supreme Court ordering integrated schools, and the Congress ensuring that
blacks had the right to vote. Another problem with sole reliance on
individualism is that not everyone is born equal, and not everyone has
financially well-off parents (or any parents, for that matter). As such,
liberals believe that government should step in and help these disadvantaged
people.
Economic security,
ensured by the government.
In
an agrarian, small town society, maybe most poor citizens could get help from
their neighbors and charity organizations, but today’s society is so urban and
so densely populated that many people lack an effective support system.
Sometimes the only people they know are in the same disadvantaged situation
that they are in. Liberals pioneered government ensuring the basic necessities
of life- food, clothing, shelter. Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt
during the Great Depression enacted many economic welfare programs: Social
Security, a retirement program for the elderly; AFDC, Aid to Families with
Dependent Children, our first federal welfare program; public jobs programs for
the unemployed; the Wagner Act, ensuring that workers could join together and
form a labor union, and that labor union would bargain with their employer for
better wages and working conditions; minimum wage and maximum hours laws;
unemployment insurance; more government regulation of businesses to protect
workers and consumers. Such basic necessities have been expanded to include
health care, as President Johnson’s Great Society of the 1960s enacted Medicare
for the elderly and Medicaid for the poor, and President Obama's Affordable Care Act assisted the working poor. They have also been expanded to
include education, as we guarantee a public education to children, and
government provides scholarships, grants, and loans for college. Today, we
still debate how far the government should go. Should government ensure that
everyone has high quality health care? Should government pay the expense of nursing
homes? Should government provide a free higher education to all high school
graduates? If so, should it include high cost private colleges? What do you all
think about how far government should go in providing economic security? I see
a lot of support for free college tuition in the audience, and indeed that was
Bernie Sanders’ program and he got a lot of college student support. I even see
much support for free medical care, as many of you have aging parents and
grandparents, and you yourselves may have an expensive medical condition.
Equal opportunity
guaranteed by the government, maybe even equal results.
The
most glaring historic failure of American society has been how our people and
governments have treated the Native Americans and the African Americans.
Because the Americans coming from Europe were technologically and militarily
stronger than these groups, they proceeded to take the land from the Native
Americans, and to purchase Africans who had been kidnapped from their own lands
to work as slaves on southern plantations. Though the bloodiest war in our
history was fought over slavery (the Civil War), federal amendments seeking to
protect the rights of newly-freed slaves were never effectively enforced on
southern states. As late as 1964, only 7 out of 100 adult African Americans in
Mississippi were permitted to vote, and as late as 1967 in Mississippi, out of 122 state house
of representative members and 52 state senate members, not one was an African
American. Finally, the federal Supreme Court declared racial segregation
preserved by government to be unconstitutional, and the federal Congress
enacted the 1965 Voting Rights Law that guaranteed African Americans the right
to vote. Most Republicans as well as Democrats outside of the South supported
these equal opportunity measures. A more difficult question is whether we
should go further, and try to guarantee equal results. Should we have a racial
quota system in job hiring, promotions, and college admissions and
scholarships? Some liberals would say yes, based on our past history of
discrimination which put generations at an unfair disadvantage. Others would
stop at just guaranteeing equal opportunity to succeed, and recognize that
qualifications and demonstrated accomplishments are most important. Equal opportunity
is also extended by liberals to other groups, such as women and the LGBTQ
community. Historically, American society, businesses, government, and
universities have been dominated by white males. The bosses would often call
their good ole boy friends and ask whether there was a good chip off the ole
block who was like themselves whom they could hire. Women applicants would
often be asked- do you plan to get married, will you have kids, will you miss
workdays? As such, liberals have taken the lead at ensuring that women are not
discriminated against in the workplace. Liberals are also pushing for
guaranteed paid family leave for pregnancy. Once again, these programs are so
popular than even some Republicans support them. Ivanka Trump successfully
worked for paid family leave for many federal employees. Protection against
discrimination against the LGBTQ community is also important to liberals. Gays
finally have the right to legally get married in every state. The question of
whether private companies, especially small businesses, should be forced to
serve gays if it violates their religious beliefs (forced to bake a wedding
cake for a same sex couple) is currently being debated. What do you think? Another important issue currently debated is whether a transgender born a man but transitioned into a female should be able to compete on a woman's high school or college sports team. Any thoughts about that issue?
Support for individual civil
liberties, deemphasizing tradition.
Well,
if family, religion, and tradition aren’t as important to the liberal
philosophy, if flawed humans have hurt so many of their fellow citizens, what
is the solution? Well, liberals focus on the importance of the individual.
Humanism, rather than the centrality of God. Individuals should be able to live
their lives however they wish, as long as they don’t hurt other people. So, a
person should be able to take whatever drug they want, at least marijuana. It
is a woman’s right to choose whether or not to have an abortion. A person
should be able to choose to marry whomever they wish, even if they are of the
same sex. Indeed, a person should be able to change their own sex, and not be
discriminated against. And so, liberals are very tolerant of alternative
lifestyles. Obviously, women should be able to break the glass ceiling, run for
President, and be elected President of our country. African Americans should be
able to be safe from law enforcement excesses, reflected in the rallying cry
Black Lives Matter. Historically, liberals were very supportive of free speech
and freedom of ideas. When conservatives in the 1950s were getting communists,
socialists, atheists, and anarchists fired, liberals fought for their
individual civil rights to express their unpopular beliefs. Today, liberals
seem less supportive of free speech rights, as they promote political
correctness that has resulted in some conservatives losing their jobs after
expressing unpopular beliefs. Liberal support for historically discriminated
against groups such as blacks, women, and gays makes liberals very concerned
that people in those groups will be damaged by derogatory comments about them.
What do you all think about political correctness? Any examples from your own
high schools?
Regarding crime, liberals
stress prevention and rehabilitation.
Given
our history of discrimination against politically weak groups, is it fair to
just enact harsh punishments? Does the death penalty even work as a deterrent
to crime? Look at how expensive it is to finally execute someone, given the
decades of judicial appeals. Jail itself is extremely expensive for the
taxpayer. Liberals stress preventing someone from becoming a criminal. Make
sure that young people have summer jobs, summer youth camps, summer sports.
Make sure that everyone has a good education, or a good job training
opportunity. If someone ends up in jail for committing a crime, make sure that
they are rehabilitated. Give inmates access to a high school GED, college
courses, job training, weekend furloughs to start a job. More controversial for
liberals is whether religion should be promoted in prisons, which conservatives
would be more in favor of. Liberals oppose harsh punishments. President Biden was blasted by liberals for supporting three strikes and you’re out laws in the
1990s, and for supporting the war on drugs as a Senator, and he has since reversed his
positions. Liberals oppose the death penalty, pointing out that minorities (who
lack the money for the best lawyers) are much more likely to be on death row.
So, what do you think? Do you know of anyone who has been in trouble and turned
their lives around? How did they do it?
In
foreign affairs, liberals either have a broad world-view, or they interpret
American national security interests more broadly. They favor foreign
economic aid, cooperation with other nations, and protecting human
rights. In short, they seem to wish to promote their liberal ideology to
other countries.
Liberals like humanitarian aid to other countries, kind
of welfare for the world. It is the humane thing to do, but was our federal
government ever expected to do that? Why in the 1960s provide billions of
dollars of foreign aid to India, when India was neutral in the Cold War? Well,
maybe it bought good will among the people of India. Today, India is very
capitalistic, and very pro-American. Why not support the individual human
rights of people living in other countries? Why shouldn’t we have free
elections in every nation? Why shouldn’t people be able to protest against their
governments in every country? Well, we supported these human rights for the
people of Iran in the late 1970s, and the U.S. lost a good pro-American
dictator and has since faced a very anti-American government hardline Islamic
regime. Maybe not all people are ready for a Western style democracy (see Condi
Rice’s book Democracy). On the other hand, both liberals and conservatives
supported human rights for the captive nations of Eastern Europe, and today
they are free and independent nations, very pro-American and very anti-Russia.
Regarding cooperation with other nations, liberals love world bodies like the United
Nations and the European Parliament. Why have narrow, self-interested nations,
why not have larger bodies? Especially when nations and nationalism have caused
so much warfare and hurt minorities within their own borders, and when nations
cause so much pollution (see China). An effective world body (unlike the League
of Nations that the U.S. boycotted) might have prevented World War 2. So,
liberals historically have championed foreign aid, cooperation with other
nations, and human rights. Final thought- Why do many liberal Democrats today hate Russia so much (even before their invasion of Ukraine)? Well, they do not have truly free elections, their government discriminates against gays, and they even decriminalized some domestic abuse cases.
Well, that takes care of week 1. But liberal versus
conservative ideology is very important, as it frames the debates over nearly
every issue in modern American society. Even how to deal with the Covid pandemic.
Liberals and Democrats are more likely to opt for security, keep the societal
lockdown (including required mask wearing and vaccination) by our governments going for as long as necessary, as long as it can
save “one human life” as the former New York governor has said. Conservatives and
Republicans say government has become oppressive, closing down our churches,
even our parks and beaches, and causing the horrible tolls of Great Depression
level unemployment. I have greatly simplified what these ideologies stand for,
and even supporters of these ideologies are not 100% pure or consistent.
Certainly, Democrats support capitalism over communism. Republicans support
equal opportunity. But historically, these 7 components of conservatism and 6
components of liberalism have been very important. Make sure that you know all
13, understand them, and are able to explain why each is important to that
ideological group, and be able to give specific examples. Obviously, in the
midterm essay examination, which will ask you to choose to answer 2 out of 3
questions, this subject of liberal and conservative ideologies would make a
great question!