Ethan Clark
Mr. Greco
English 3H
9 April 2019
Prior to the Civil War, President Lincoln declared,once said “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” He said this before the Civil War which was caused by the very division which bled throughout the country. While it is unlikely that a Civil War will emerge from the hyper polarization and divisions facing the Nation today,. iIt is still easy to draw parallels and see how we are returning to a climactic point of division. Misunderstanding, Hatred and Radicalism flourish in this environment. While contemporaries in California and in many parts of the country would claim that this is mostly due to the conservative and right counterparts of American ideology, they would be mistaken. While the Right and Left are both Responsible for escalating the polarizations and divisions which impact the United States today, they differ in the way they treat their opposition drastically. A Highschool student who identifies as a conservative noted “ I am a little bit concerned to basically come out as a conservative to a large group of people.” Hise’s name is Nick and he is a founding member the Conservative Student Union in Los Altos, Ccalifornia. Los altos is a Liberal dominated city more so than other parts of california. When asked why he would be concerned about being known as a conservative to a group of people he replied with,. “I will be demonized as a neo-nazi fascist racist because of… you know these associations that are often made with conservative…I am…fearful” While this is case is of course is not the case for everyone, it does highlight and resonate a very prevalent issue in Liberal dominated areas. I say Liberal dominated areas because what Nick has described is Unique to liberal dominated areas. Liberals in Conservative dominated areas are not treated as aggressively or hated in the same fashion conservatives are in Liberal areas. This trend, as well, has been increasing rather than decreasing. aAfter the Election of Donald Trump in 2016. Following this election, the number of attacks often times grew more violent and more frequent. Exact numbers are difficult to find but an article by the Daily Wire written in 2017 has a graph with the number of attacks on conservatives following the election of Donald Trump. The Number of Attacks against conservatives before Donald Trump was elected 2016 (June-October) Increased by more than 500% from November 2016 to June 2017. These attacks were not minor as well; descriptions of each attack are also given by the article. One of the most violent attacks occured in San Jose California in June 2016 and is summarized by the Daily wire as so: “Protesters jumped on cars, stole hats, fought with and threw eggs at Trump supporters outside a Trump rally in downtown San Jose, Calif.” This is near Los Altos High School, where Nick helped found the CSU. When asked about a moment where he felt hopeless or afraid because of his views he has this to say. “afraid and hopeless… I was kind of been very open conservative in middle school…i felt…demonized…you know i would say something cuz over there than i would have the entire class coming to basically screaming in my face and you know it just kind of made me angry in a little bit upset…I shouldn’t be attacked by the teacher” This returns back to the Focus this paper will have. Why is does the of “tolerance” and “acceptance” that American Liberals believe is sacred not being applied fairly? Are conservatives intolerant towards liberals? These questions and more will be answered in detail in at the conclusion of this paper.
To begin discussing the causes of the hatred and why in general liberals hate conservatives to a greater degree than the latter it is first necessary to gain an understanding of the nature of each of the combative groups. Conservatism and Liberalism are uniquely complex and vibrantly different but in the current political climate most the intellectual beauty surrounding them has been masked by the partisanship of modern american politique.
Conservatism is complicated and in many ways the very word “Conservative” does not accurately betray or represent american conservatism. The word conservative was first developed in England around 1832 (Conservatives existed before them but the modern word was developed at that time) and it was used to describe those who oppose reform (Jstor-Conservatism) This definition could have been applied and been accurate in the past but in modern conservatism it no longer applies. As American conservatives are not in total opposition to reforms but due to the nature of conservatism (which will be covered shortly) Conservatives are very careful when it comes to reform. This is why it is often very difficult and in some cases impossible to simply create a definition for both Liberalism and conservatism. Instead both should be viewed as a collective of assumptions surrounding human nature and beliefs and values which shape them. “The Three premises of conservatism can be thought of as separate foundations that lead to a conservative worldview. They also combine to form a cohesive whole, To accept one of them would lead you to to conservatism; to believe all three virtually guarantees it” (Morgan Marietta) This would be an example of how to somewhat define or look at conservatism. Using complex understanding can explain many of the questions surrounding conservatism. Many people in America share the old definition of conservatism and view it as an opposition to reforms. While the somewhat consciousness of conservatives towards reforms can be explained by the Fragility which is summarized by Morgan marieta as so “Perhaps the most basic conservative premise is the fragility of a democratic society…There are two parts of the fragility premise:that all human society is fragile,and that our society in particular is even more so..If our society and the achievements of the founding are fragile,than we need a strong military,a unified culture,the Protection of God, and individual gun ownership, or in short all conservative political goals…” The same can be done with other beliefs of conservatism. With that understanding the next step is understanding the core of Modern American conservatism. “The best phrases for the conservative core value is ordered liberty, or liberty without license… Liberty in an of itself would be itself the core value. However, the situation it more complex. If we want liberty but know that people are problematic…Individuals were free to live their own lives, but we’re also expected to act decently and contribute to the defence of the system, The primary responsibility of able bodied males was to defend society against threats…We should not degrade the same society that support us. This is the ethic of self imposed restraint that is central part of a conservative vision of a good society” page 20-21. Ordered Liberty in itself is complex and could require its own paper but think of it as a middle path attempting to balance, tyranny and disorder. American conservatives also assume a negative perspective on human nature. Humans in general are bad, and cannot be trusted. Humans are not born good but become good with the proper role models, teachers and parents. One of the final and most important elements necessary in understanding conservatism is the Anti-Utopian Premise. “Anti utopian premise or a fundamental rejection of the utopian dream…Whether marxist or maoist,religious or secular, a technological metropolis or an agrarian commune, they are all false. And not merely wrong but lead directly to more misery. The utopian impulse always leads to oppression and violence, because dissent will rise and dissent must be destroyed in order to maintain unity and control. This occurs in all utopian movements，as the group orientation deastroys individual dignity etheir slowly or quickly.” page 18 . The complexities and vibrance of conservatism as show about denies simple explanation or understanding it which is a cause of conflict for many people as a whole. If you understand someone based upon a simple assumption or a basic premise you will not understand their perceptions or beliefs which of course creates conflict. An example with this is the abortion debate and the common view that conservatives are hypocritical on standing against abortion while having no issues with the implementation of the death penalty. This is also discussed and explained thoughtfully in Morgan Mariettas book an American guide to ideology. On this topic he explains it as such:. “ In regard to the death penalty conservatives are often accused of being contradictory. Or hypocritical, especially in light of their support for the sanctity of life. The difference lies in what is earned and unearned, what is deserved or unjust. Conservatism does not support blindly the existence of all life, but instead uphold a regard for innocent life” It is difficult to understand conservatism as it is very susceptible to simple explanations and misunderstanding due to its very nature of appearing to contradict itself at times. The best way to understand this is to view Conservatism’s complexities and natures as such:, “Conservatism is a more complex ideology than one that only envisions movement in a single direction, such as merely exampnding the freedom or maximizing material output. It can militate in either direction in order to maintain balance. This approach requires wisdom, balance judgement and recognition of values that are worth upholding” page 25
Liberalism is distinct from conservatism in many ways. Its complexities, as well, in many ways are uniquely different from conservatism. While Conservatism believes in a negative form of human nature,s liberals believe Humans and society can be perfected. A cross examination of liberal beliefs generally reveals that would be this “Liberalism begins with distinct ways of understanding humans and society. Individually we are meant for growth and collectively we are capable of improvement.Perhaps capable is the wrong word; it may not be too strong to say destined, if we have enough trust in each other and will stay the course until a better world arrives.” With a positive view of human nature and with a core value of social justice the liberals have a more optimistic view of the possibilities of the future. The most important is the idea that society as a whole can and will be perfected and some point. To achieve that requires testing different things until one works and the use of a government as a means to achieve a perfect society. “Perfectionism relies on the ability of government to aggregate the goodwill of individuals…A positive view of human nature is a bedrock of the liberal world view. Disputing the conservative view that humans are innately aggressive. The liberal premise is that behavior is not natural or innate but instead is the result of circumstance, usually deprivation or oppression. The common and natural state of man is peaceful, cooperative and willing to see common interest” With the understanding of both liberalism and conservatism the problems become clear.
Several points of conflict are clear when looking at both liberalism and conservatism. Ranging from Views on Humanity and human nature to the role of government and the Utopian premise. The distinctions between the two can be described as “emphasiz[ing]e protecting versus perfecting society. Is our primary goal insulating us from decline or preparing us for improvement?” Since conservatives are orientated to protecting their view of a fragile establishment they take a more protective cautious approach which is the opposite of the liberal approach which is perfectly fine with trying things that fail simply to test them out and find a better solution. While making it difficult to cooperate it does not make it impossible. This however does not explain the fractionalization of American politics and why there is so much hatred. Understanding this comes with understanding how they view each other. Conservatives view Liberals generally as foolish and dumb. While this is still a negative assumption it is not one which emphasizes anything truly negative or bad about the ideology merely believing that the ideology is too idealistic and not realistic. The liberals in general view the conservatives as bad people. Claims like this need to be backed up and at first seems radical or entirely biased, however there are some logical reasons for this and examples and data to support it. While the Conservatives cores and values go against liberalism they are values do not create the possibility of fundamentally viewing liberals as antagonist instead it creates the view of Fools. While the liberal focus on social justice and the idea that society can be perfected creates major issues and a drastically different view of conservatives. When looking at conservatives from a social justice premise without respecting the conservative premise of fragility many liberals view that conservatives voting against social initiatives or disagreeing with identity minority orientated bills or proposals are only masking their intent to oppress others. This lead to conservatives being the enemy and the villain of liberal goals. Similar results occur when viewing from the perspective of liberals attempting to perfect society. Since conservatives blatantly reject the utopian principle they are intent of slow modifications of the status quo as necessary but not pushing to create the perfect society because to them it does not exist. This of course can lead to the idea that due to the conservatives lack of will to experiment or attempt to create a perfect society that they are doing so because they have more control or power in an imperfect society than a perfect one. This creates an inherently antagonistic view of conservatives in the eyes of liberal viewing them as racist,oppressive and brutal. The two perceptions can be summarized accurately by =viewing them like this “[to conservatives] it is likely the [liberal worldview] of not understanding the realities of the real world…not the willful misdeed of bad people it is more error than evil. But the liberaal leads to viewing conservatives as perhaps the opposite. To liberals conservatives are bad people” Due to the fundamental misunderstanding of each other premises hatred and polarization is common but thanks to how the liberals view of conservatives (dictated by their world view) it is exemplified more on the left today on the right. The denial of humanity of people on the right is not uncommon and the attacks both verbal and physical exemplify that. Hillary Clinton calling all trump supporter “Deplorables” and Ilhan omar denying trump’s humanity by claiming he is not even human are recent examples but they go back further.
While an argument would be that conservatives also attack liberals in conservative dominated areas to the same if not more so than liberals do to conservatives. The data does not support that however as attacks on liberals for their political views are insignificant on a national and state scale. Liberals in conservative dominated areas are usually not harrased but are ignored or in other cases laughed at. As discussed previously this is in large part due to the conservatives view liberals as foolish instead of bad people.
While it is simple to talk on a podium and cry at the horrible treatment of conservatives and demonize them for being largely hypocritical, that is not the solution. As with everything discussed so far it is largely more complex than that. Requiring more effort and to understand and even more so to fix. It is difficult to blame the liberals and call them hateful because their logical party core beliefs suggest that conservatives are bad. While this is not correct and due to a large misunderstanding it does not excuse acting on that belief. The solution is most likely to get more people understand and talk more about the complexities and beliefs of the ideologies rather than view them simply but if anything has been shown by this paper that can be harder than it seems.