Brushfire of Freedom
Ram Rants
If you want to see the difference between Conservatives and Liberals, you need only look as far as their definition of equality. Both Conservatives and Liberals will tell you that they believe in equality, and both are telling the truth. The difference lies in where they believe equality should be realized, and how it should be preserved.
For the Liberal, equality should be realized in the outcomes of life. They talk about the equality of income. Income is the outcome of a job and Liberals believe that no matter the job, everyone should have the same income, or at least the same money left over after income tax. That is why they support a progressive income tax system. Those who make more not only pay more, but they pay a larger percentage. This reduces the outcome of their labor, making it more equal with those who make less. In addition, the Liberals use a process called the “redistribution of wealth” to further level the outcomes of labor. This is a favorite practice of the Liberals. They believe it creates equality because they believe in an equality of outcomes. Finally, labor unions enforce equal outcomes through “collective bargaining” meaning no matter how much harder you work, you get the same pay as the guy in the next cube. You know, the one taking two-hour lunches and talking to his girlfriend on the phone while you work to complete his project.
We can see a similar Liberal perspective when it comes to education. Liberals believe that an increased high school graduation rate is an indication of equality. So, to ensure everyone graduates, they create education systems that lower the level of requirements to ensure every student can make the grade. Liberals call this, “leveling the playing field”, but that is an incorrect description. What they really do is even the score, so that everyone looks exactly the same on paper. The result is an effective “dumbing down” of education systems to the lowest common denominator. This ensures an even outcome for every student, and thus the equality that Liberals desire. For the Liberal, equality of outcome is just as important in education as it is in labor.
Equality is part of the Conservative lexicon as well, but it is focused on equal opportunity. Where Liberals want to regulate income levels using the tax code and other methods, Conservatives work to ensure that every person has the same opportunity to increase their income. If your hard work and dedication raise you to the point of corporate CEO, you should receive whatever salary and bonuses the company is willing to pay. Where the Conservative establishes equality is in the opportunity to attend the schools, get the training, and build the skills that allow you to reach the position of CEO. Conservatives believe that if you are willing to do the work and make the sacrifices, you can guarantee your own outcome. You don’t need someone to do it for you, you only need the same opportunity as everyone else in the country. Conservatives will not promise you a job or a six-figure salary. They will tell you that you have the opportunity to achieve all that and more, if you are wiling to take advantage of the opportunity.
In a Conservative classroom, students are given the materials to learn, and then tested on their knowledge. If a student receives enough points for an ‘A’, he or she receives an ‘A’. If a student receives only enough points for a ‘D’, he or she receives a ‘D’. There is no curve that will raise the ‘D’ to a ‘C’, or higher. The ‘D’ student had the same opportunity to receive an ‘A’, but did not. Now it is up to that student to make a decision; to dive deeper into the material and learn enough to make the ‘A’, or to accept the ‘D’. The opportunity is there, the outcome is not guaranteed. That is the Conservative classroom.
If you think that’s cruel, imagine what it would be like to get through one school with all ‘A’s’, only to get to the next level and not be able to understand what was being taught in the classroom. Cruelty is to lie to someone to cover their errors, causing them to make greater and greater mistakes until those errors can no longer be covered. Honesty allows a person to learn from mistakes and overcome obstacles to achieve greater things. If someone had convinced James Earl Jones that a stutter was natural and normal thing to have, the voice of Darth Vader would be distinctly different.
The Liberal will tell you that all these opportunities are only available to certain people of a certain class, race, religion, or background, but that is not true in America today. The fact is, there is absolutely no limit on what an American, immigrant, minority, man, or woman can achieve in this country. If you don’t believe that, look at Barak Obama. Look at Colin Powell. Look at Sonya Sotomayor. Each of these people came from poorer backgrounds but, through their hard work, perseverance, and the equal opportunities that exist in this great nation, they have risen to some of the highest points in their careers. They did not get there because someone put them there to ensure an equal outcome for all. They achieved their goals because they took advantage of opportunities, and they made their own success.
One of the most significant differences in the equality of opportunity and outcome is in how each are established and maintained. Equality of opportunity is created when obstacles are removed. An excellent example was the effort to eliminate school segregation in the South. Conservatives wanted to allow anyone of any race to attend any school, giving them the opportunity to achieve in this great nation. George Wallace, a Liberal Democrat, tried to maintain the road block, but fortunately he failed. Removing obstacles, getting regulation out of the way, is a primary method employed by Conservatives to create opportunity. When Reagan broke up the government monopoly on telecommunications (divestiture), new opportunities sprang up all over America. New technologies were born, and the resulting dawn of the information age heralded many new companies and industries. By removing barriers, Reagan ensured equality of opportunity, and many people took advantage.
This effort continues today in the form of “School Choice”. Conservatives want to provide an opportunity for all children in a given area to have access to all schools throughout that area. They don’t want the defined districts established by the city or state to be the boundaries that confine a child to a single school. To ensure the students can afford the school of their choice, they have devised a voucher system that provides the financial means for a child whose family has little or no money to attend a school that will provide the education they deem valuable and appropriate. This has two effects. First, it enables any child to go to any school they choose and get the education they need to succeed. Second, it creates a market influence on the schools, driving improvement in education, because better schools would draw more students, more money, etc. Though demonstrably successful in every area it has been tried, Liberals oppose School Choice, though most claim to be “pro-choice”. The voucher system breaks the bonds of regulation and financial slavery needed to control outcome, with the students and the teacher’s unions, and creates unequal outcomes, an anathema to Liberals.
On the other side of the coin, equality of outcome requires legislation or regulation to establish and maintain. School districts control the outcome of the education process, and the progressive tax code limits the growth rate of an individual’s salary, creating more equality in the compensation outcome. Recently, Congress even threatened to create a 90% tax on specific bonuses (that they had unknowingly approved) to ensure a more even outcome in certain companies. They have taken from “the rich” and given to “the poor” through stimulus packages and welfare programs. Yet just like every outcome-based program, there is a hidden cruelty. Because their constituents have never taken advantage of the opportunities, they have not achieved anything on their own and they become enslaved by the financial “support” provided by Liberals. To ensure continued outcome equality, the Liberals need to expand their programs further and further, bringing all outcomes to the lowest common denominator. The eventual result is Socialism, where the government controls all outcomes, from each according to his ability, to each according to his need (as defined by the government). For outcomes to remain equal, they must be continually regulated. This is what the Liberal wants. It ensures their power, because it creates complete dependence. Equal outcome satisfies the people as it slowly enslaves them. This is the greatest difference in Liberals and Conservatives.
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