(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.)
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.
This
philosophy originated with European classical liberalism during the founding of
our nation. It has seven major components in my opinion:
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 often 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 their parents had, and so they can be even more successful. Another
example of individual self-reliance 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 to help young
people. Raise your hands, those of you who have practiced such self-reliant
individualism; you, what is the story of your life?
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 to be successful, such as by bringing in cash from a
job, doing housework and raising your kids, and 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 residents of the
small town attending their church, meeting with their neighbors, and helping
their neighbors with their job or health problems. In other words, they did 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 (also important to those of the
Jewish and Islamic faith). So, family and religion and private sources of
conduct reduce the need for a big government. And the Founding Fathers did not
like a Big Government, since they had revolted against the British King. But
what about the European religious wars, and those using religion to persecute
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. What
about atheists or agnostics who do a lot to help other people? Well, maybe they
have their own religion of humanism, environmentalism, whatever.
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 television
networks plus PBS, no computers, no internet, and no cell phones (only land
lines). Airline fares were so high that few people could 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? Many political observers say that President
Trump’s trade wars are 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 the 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?
Conservatives hate big government! Remember, our Founding
Fathers revolted against the tyranny of the British King, and his taxation of
the colonies without their 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, or for criticizing
President Trump and his allies. The federal government has become so large that
it can spy on a presidential campaign (Trump’s in 2016) and monitor telephone
conversations of his first incoming National Security Advisor (Flynn). When
investigated by a Congressional Committee for possible abuse of power, staff
members of some federal investigators can be called out by a Congressman for
smirking at them. During a national pandemic, the 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, or the deporting of
undocumented immigrants without due process in Trump’s second term. What do you
think about the current power of the government? Have any of you or your
friends or family been hurt by governmental actions? Hands are raised. One
student has a friend who was pulled over for “driving while black.” Another
student complains about his school closing, prom and graduation cancelled for
an older sibling, to deal with a pandemic that primarily affected old people. Other
students complain about the parking policies and the rising tuition of their public
university.
Traditional
values- traditional social arrangements are important to conservatives.
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 Germany
and Italy). We did all of 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, and some sex practices were illegal under 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 to force black kids to attend segregated and poorly equipped public
schools; the rest of the nation went along with this situation 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 to 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 are raised, much support is voiced for living your own
lifestyle however you want, as long as you don’t hurt anyone else. Much support
for LGBTQ freedoms is voiced- 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 over when does life actually begin, and are we taking a human life?
Some discussion of recent urban demonstrations occurs, such as over the Black
Lives Matter protests and the anti-ICE immigration enforcement actions. Traditionally
people were expected to respect the police and to obey them, but do all of the
police follow the law themselves?
Conservatives dislike the government, but they do want it
to exist for a few limited reasons, such as to protect Americans from domestic
criminals and from foreign enemies (and to make business possible through providing
a currency and bankruptcy laws). So conservatives 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. It was An eye for an Eye, Old Testament justice, a life
for a life situation. 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, and 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 occurs, covering the complex different views
on this issue. 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, I took 7 quarts of water
for a day-hike from the South Rim of the Grand Canyon down to the Colorado
River and back, plus some salty snacks (don’t do this, it’s deadly!). How
should looters be treated; some conservatives say shoot them!
So real conservatives dislike government, and 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, and 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 China were strong allies until the 1960s,
and Eastern Europe was under USSR control until 1989) 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, and Chile,
because they were anti-communist. In the age of 9-11 (World Trade Center
destruction) 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. President Trump with only Israeli strong support has bombed
Iran’s nuclear program and attacked Iran’s military forces, since Iran’s
government is a terrorist regime that supports terrorists throughout the
Mideast and was allegedly seeking to build nuclear bombs.
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.
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 back even
earlier to German socialism in the previous century. Liberalism has 6 major
components in my opinion:
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 the government helps such
disadvantaged people. Was it the fault of the average worker 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 by government 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 consumers. Under
Democratic Presidents, the federal government enacted Social Security,
protected the right of workers to join labor unions, and outlawed business
abuses. Liberals also 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 a segregation system of white supremacy over
African Americans. As such, a larger federal government stepped in, with the
Supreme Court ordering racially integrated schools and public services and
accommodations, 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 reliable parents,
for that matter). As such, liberals believe that government should step in and
help these disadvantaged people.
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, and 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 unions could 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 enacted
the Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare) for lower income workers. Economic security
has also been expanded to include education, as we guarantee a public
elementary and secondary education to children, and government provides
scholarships, grants, and loans for college students. Today, we still debate
how far the government should go. Should the government ensure that everyone
has quality health care? Should the government pay the expense of nursing
homes? Should the government provide free higher education to all high school
graduates? If so, should it include high cost private colleges? Should
affordable housing be guaranteed to everyone? What do you all think about how
far the government should go in providing economic security? I see a lot of
support for free college tuition in the audience, and indeed that was
Democratic Presidential hopeful Senator 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.
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 registered to vote, and as late as 1967, out of 122 state
house of representative members and 52 state senate members in Mississippi, 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 important. Equal
opportunity is also extended by liberals to other groups, such as women,
Latinos, 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 most 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 gay people if it violates their religious beliefs (be forced
to bake a wedding cake for a same sex couple, for example) is currently being
debated. What do you think? The ideological debate over equal opportunity and
results is reflected in the Biden and Trump presidential administrations. Biden
stressed racial and sex diversity in hiring in the federal government and in
federal contracts, such as more women in the Secret Service and in construction
jobs. Trump is currently attacking DEI (diversity, equity, inclusion) programs
at our universities. What do you think about this debate over DEI and equality
for different social groups?
If
family, religion, and tradition isn’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. They promote
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, to run
for President, and to 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. By the late
1900s, liberals seemed less supportive of free speech rights, as they promoted
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 “liberal” political
correctness? Any examples from your own high schools? The second Trump
administration seems to be promoting its own version of political correctness,
as they oppose DEI programs that may make white people feel guilty, and equate
pro-Palestinian speech with support for anti-Jewish hatred. Many college
students today are afraid to speak out in class about their own political
beliefs, fearing that they will anger a teacher or fellow student. How much
freedom of speech do you believe that you have in actuality, and should such
free speech ever be limited by the government?
Given
our nation’s 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. They
wish to make sure that young people have summer jobs, summer youth camps, and summer
sports. They desire to make sure that everyone has a good education, or a good
job training opportunity. If someone ends up in jail for committing a crime, they
want to make sure that they are rehabilitated. They promote giving inmates
access to a high school GED, college courses, job training, and 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 as a Senator three strikes and you’re out laws in the 1990s, and for
supporting the war on drugs, and as President he reversed his positions.
Liberals oppose the death penalty, pointing out that minorities (who often lack
the money for the best lawyers) are much more likely to be on death row. So,
what do you think about how we should seek to reduce crime? Do you know of
anyone who has been in trouble and turned their lives around? How did they do
it?
Liberals like humanitarian aid to other countries, a 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 there be 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 had a very anti-American government hardline Islamic
regime supporting terrorist groups that attack Israel. 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 do we have narrow, self-interested nations, and why
not have larger bodies? Especially when nations and nationalism have caused so
much warfare in human history and have hurt minorities within their own
borders. Nations have even caused so much pollution (like China). An effective
world body (unlike the League of Nations after World War 1 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. Democrats
have blasted Trump’s war with Iran, charging that he failed to gain cooperation
from other countries before he resorted to military action.
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 we dealt with the Covid
pandemic. Liberals and Democrats were more likely to opt for security, keep the
societal lockdown by our governments going for as long as necessary, as long as
it can save “one human life” as the New York governor said. Conservatives and
Republicans said that government had 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!