Viewpoint: The left’s political philosophy? Use a government club
Roger Koopman
In my last month’s column I promised to revisit the partly-answered question of why civil discourse has become so rare in American politics, and why so much animus exists between left and right.
The attitude of “Let’s shake hands and agree to disagree,” is being replaced with a warring camps mentality where, on a very personal level, the other guy is seen as “the enemy.” My final explanation for this is perhaps the least obvious – and the most important. It requires an understanding of the fundamental difference between the left and right.
Disclosure: What I am about to say comes from the perspective of a lifelong conservative.
Thousand-page books have been written, dissecting the difference between left and right, liberal and conservative, progressive and libertarian. Read them if you wish. In the meantime, here’s my observation of the fundamental philosophy of the conservative right that expresses itself morally, socially and politically. More than anything, conservatives simply want to be left alone. They possess an equally strong conviction about leaving other people alone. They are naturally peaceful and passive, and want to mind their own business. This, of course, reflects a love of freedom.
By contrast, the socialist/liberal left is always aggressive, never passive. It is always on the offense, pressing its force-based agenda that guarantees a better life for everyone, by harnessing the power of the state to impose their will on you and me. This is the basic authoritarian nature of the political left. Concentration of power, and the arrogance that is its constant companion.
A thousand examples come to mind. Certainly, the left’s unending battle cry for bigger government, more powerful unelected bureaucracies, more powerful and constitutionally disconnected federal courts, and for ever-increasing government spending. This spending is directly paid by confiscating more of our property (taxes), and indirectly by deficit-driven inflation that transfers the people’s savings, profits and wealth to the government spenders and the hoards of government-funded organizations and coddled corporate profiteers.
On the local level, consider just how much our leftist-controlled city and county governments cram their agendas down the throats of a peaceful citizenry that just wants to be left alone. Laws that force neighborhood-busting density development on peaceful residents who love their homes, yards and neighbors. Laws that impose penalty taxes on homeowners who dare to rent their property on a short-term basis. Laws that impose insane, identity-based “equity, diversity, inclusion (DEI)” policies on hiring and employee relations, laws that insult conservative values and make politically-based LGBTQ flags officially sanctioned by the city. Need I go on? Power, power, power. Force, force, force. Is there any question how peaceful, passive, pro-freedom conservatives will react to this constant, in-your-face aggression?
To me, abortion is necessarily the biggest of the differences between left and right. The left advocates for unrestricted violence against yet-to-be-born human beings. They wrap their death sentences into the rhetoric of free “choice” and freedom. But killing children, yet unnamed and yet unknown, is not freedom. It is the worst of human tyranny and the most brutal of human sacrifice. I see their faces. Their frowns. Their smiles. Their very souls. I cry out for every one of them. I as a conservative, I commit myself to defending the defenseless.
I have long felt that the desire to control other people, and to substitute by force, their will for yours, is a form of psychosis. It is abnormal, and inflicts great human harm. All of the dictators who have plagued humanity throughout the ages, had this psychosis in common. Hitler is a glaring 20th century example of brilliant but mentally deranged political leader, who could not leave one solitary aspect of German society uncontrolled by him. We forget that Hitler was democratically elected by a majority of Germans. Liberals never get the memo. They still live in an American version of 1933, where political power negates the freedom of a life-affirming, free market society. Ironic, isn’t it, that they would turn definitions on their heads and label conservatives “Nazis.”
The animus that prevails over Montana and national politics isn’t going away any time soon. The conservatives are furious over the authoritarianism imposed by an authoritarian left. And the left is furious over conservatives’ resistance to their elitist attitudes of self-righteous political control.