Written October 30, 1996
Are You A Liberal or a Conservative? (And are those the only choices?)
On CNN Live today there was a segment on the book Are You a Conservative or a Liberal? The book was authored by two guys — one an admitted Conservative, the other a confessed Liberal. What the book attempts to do, as near as I could tell, is explain the liberal and conservative positions on 120 issues and help the reader determine which flavor of politics — liberal or conservative — is the better designation for that individual.
Many people today find themselves “liberal” with respect to some issues and “conservative” when it comes to others. As a result of long exposure to the “liberal-conservative” paradigm, they thus mistakenly identify themselves as “moderate.” The political spectrum, however, is not the simple two-dimensional model portrayed by, among others, the authors of the subject book who would like us to believe that everyone falls somewhere on a line running from extreme conservatism to extreme liberalism. People are naturally confused when they find their positions on various issues scattered all along this line running from Right-Wing to Left-Wing.
Why does this happen? Well, like the real world, the political landscape is three-dimensional. In addition to “left” and “right” there are also “up” and “down” plus “back” and “forth.” We are not simply varying amounts of liberalism and conservatism. There are other dimensions involved. Liberals and Conservatives are actually pretty similar.
Both Liberals and Conservatives want to mold society to their liking. Conservatives want a moral, God-fearing society while Liberals want us all to be nice to each other (or else!) and share everything like good socialists. Both Liberals and Conservatives are willing to use police powers (government) to enforce their idea of a perfect society and proper behavior. Viewed in the three-dimensional universe, “conservative” and “liberal” are actually pretty close together. They are two sides of the same authoritarian coin.
For those enamored of a one-dimensional political spectrum, may I suggest a line running from Authoritarian to Libertarian. Those who want government to force people to conform to their vision of a “good” society (as both Liberals and Conservatives do) live down at the Authoritarian end of the spectrum. Those advocating less government and more personal freedom, more personal responsibility, are toward the Libertarian end of the spectrum.
Rather than buy a book to find out where on some non-existent, two-dimensional political spectrum they are, people should perhaps consider all the dimensions. For starters, take the World’s Smallest Political Quiz.
For many people, the answer to “Are you a liberal or a conservative?” is “No.”