Liberal, conservative differences many

A website called Quora allows users to ask questions and have them answered by their peers.

Usually the questions are undergraduate queries like, “If Darth Vader were your father, how would you get away with staying out past midnight?”

The other day, someone posed the question “What’s the difference between a liberal and a conservative?”

That one is interesting. I didn’t see any of the responses, but that won’t stop me from coming up with one of my own.

My first distinction is this: Liberals don’t mind if the government taps your wallet but want it to stay out of their bedrooms. Conservatives say the government should pry into private lives to prevent sin but warn the government about digging into their wallets.

Libertarians want the government to stay out of both. Their approach is tempting.

There are others, of course.

Many liberals will refuse to eat foods that contain chemicals with more than two syllables, but will gladly smoke marijuana that comes from who knows where.

Conservatives will declare marijuana a menace to society but will smoke and drink with abandon, threatening health and life, because tobacco and alcohol are legal and accepted.

Liberals favor any regulation you can throw at business but defend even abusive practices of unions.

Conservatives oppose business regulations but favor all government restrictions on unionizing.

Conservatives blame Obama for all current evils. Liberals blame corporations.

Liberals favor strong teachers’ unions, even as they tenure ineffective and incompetent teachers, and locking the door on alternatives to even failing public schools.

Conservatives favor school vouchers for private schools as an alternative to public schools, even though many private schools favor indoctrination over education.

They also favor more local control of public schools, even though local boards tend to worry about sports programs and grades, rather than overall physical fitness and what kids actually learn.

Our nation’s performance against other advanced nations in education seems to show that neither approach is working very well.

As our politics polarize toward both liberal and conservative extremes, it becomes plainer to open-minded observers that practical reality diminishes as one approaches the poles of both sides.

Unfortunately, the bulk of the money for political campaigns seems to come from advocates for the extremes. And so does the rhetoric.

The question now is how do you get politicians to listen instead to voters?

Steve Hansen writes about our life and times from his perspective of a retired Tucumcari journalist. Contact him at:

stevenmhansen

@plateautel.net