WHY WE NEED BOTH LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES

Let’s face it: Liberals and conservatives are more polarized than ever. It isn’t too hard to notice someone calling a conservative a “misogynist,” “homophobic,” or just plain “evil” and to notice liberals being called “libtard” or a “snowflake” in the media.

However, this warlike mentality of liberals vs. conservatives is not the right way to think. Whether you identify as a liberal or a conservative, we need “them,” as well as “you”: Politics is not a game of sides where are supposed to fight to conquer/eliminate, but instead, produce a scale of balance. Both viewpoints are necessary for all governments and society to live, and to diminish their weaknesses. It is simply a matter of having a balance of liberal direction and purpose, mixed with conservative caution.

Liberals are probably the most important component of cultural, social, and government progression for the nation. Cognitively speaking, liberals are more likely to accept new things and value novelty more than conservatives. This means that for most major changes that have ever happened, there was a “liberal” driving the force behind it.

Thinking back to early American history, George Washington and his “rebels” were liberals who wished to establish a nation with what they deemed “fair representation” – a progressive thought for the time. If conservative factions genuinely had their way at the time of the American revolution, the colonies would still be a subject of the British empire.

In addition to the revolution, another examples stems from the history of minority rights. Before the landmark Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education, settled in 1954, American government largely operated under the rules set by Plessy v. Ferguson, which stated that discrimination was acceptable under the “separate but equal” phrase. If it weren’t for liberals standing up to the Plessy case, it is plausible that you may not be able to eat with your friend of a different color at the same restaurant today.

Without liberals in the country, we might not have a country to be proud of; this is why liberals are an essential part of having a nation.

Meantime, conservatives can rightfully be described as the rail that keeps us from falling off the cliff, or the brakes in a car that prevent accidents. Cognitively, conservatives are intolerant of anything that could potentially be considered a threat and, most importantly, value security as the largest priority.

This means that at every single breaking point in history, there was a conservative protecting it from getting worse.

Looking back, we can observe that it was the actions of the northern conservatives who sacrificed the total recognition of slaves as “other persons” prior to the Three-Fifths Compromise to guarantee that the southern colonies would join and form the United States as we know it today. If the liberal movement to abolish slavery before the Three-Fifth Compromise was pursued more aggressively, it’s entirely plausible that the southern colonies would have refused to join.

In addition to that sort of crucial compromise, it’s important to consider the failures of conservatism. The failure for the incumbent system to defeat the rebel forces in Russia, China, and Cambodia eventually paved the way for the attempt to produce a communist government in each. And in the struggle to produce those communist governments, millions of people died. This example of failed conservatism highlights the point that lack of a conservative brake in the path of progression leads to the disruption of morals – often with deadly consequence – in the name of a better life.

I had the fortunate experience of being an assistant to someone who was very politically involved. To say she was one-sided for her favored political ideology would be considered an accurate portrayal of her views. In passing we would chat about politics, and if I initiated a conversation about a political issue she was unaware of, she would ask, “Well, which side are the liberals on and which side are the conservatives on?”

When I explained the topic she then proceeded to say, “Then I agree with that side, because my team is on that side of the debate.” As much as I love to discuss and debate politics in passing, I was honestly disturbed at her reasoning and I believe it is the root cause of the bitter relationships and lack of cordiality both ideologies display.

Choosing to rely on political “sides” instead of choosing our positions on our own thoughts only causes division often based on opinions that may not be held by many of us. More importantly, it creates a false and negative perception about the opposing side, about those people with a dissenting opinion. This is most evident on the topic of abortion where liberals may claim conservatives are people who wish to control women’s bodies, while conservatives call liberals “baby killers” – when in reality, many conservatives view being pro-life as saving a child from getting aborted and the majority of liberals view being pro-choice a privacy right in which the government cannot/should not intervene.

While the polarization is increasing on the surface, we as good people have reason to remain optimistic. Most Americans consider themselves “moderate,” and many others would declare that they are a “moderate liberal” or “moderate conservative.” This means there is still room for all of us to recognize, including me, just that in our world.

Without liberals, we would become slaves to ourselves because we’ll never advance from our original spot. Without conservatives, we would open the gates to more problems in the pursuit of some higher “good,” therefore creating our own tyrants. In sum, liberals are like the acceleration in a car, propelling us forward; conservatives are like the brakes, stopping us from making mistakes. Both are needed for the car to move safely.

Advocate Staff