More Conservatives, fewer leftists and moderates.
The title given of the report linked to above is "Conservatives Maintain Edge as Top Ideological Group." You would think from such a title that leftists or moderates had swelled their ranks at the expense of conservatives, leaving the latter as a slim plurality, but you would be wrong. The number of conservatives has actually increased at the expense of leftists and moderates. How is that maintaining their edge? If the temperature climbed from 70 to 74, you wouldn't say "temperatures avoid falling" unless you were trying to deceive someone.
Kinda makes you wonder about the ideological bend (aka honesty) of the Gallup organization. I've heard rumblings about dishonesty from them in the past. This latest skewed title kind of confirms that.
But in any case this is good news for me since mainstream conservatives and libertarians have a great deal in common, far more so than libertarians and leftists. So much so that many libertarians self identify as conservative when asked simply to avoid confusing people whose understanding of political philosophy is stuck in the left vs right paradigm.
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The Coming Civil War
America is much divided on whether individual or community interests are most important. One side says people's interests are harmonious with their neighbors in community. It’s a simple premise and the base of the American political system, as expressed by the 19th century Democrats (see THE CHANGING FACE OF DEMOCRATS on Amazon books and www.claysamerica.com). Men labor, exchange, learn, band together, act, and react upon one another, and in this way, there can result from their free and intelligent activity, order, harmony, progress, prosperity and all things that are good and better. Just observing the free market and the prosperity of America proves this premise.
Communities are made up of men and women, and each in America is a free agent. As free agents, they can choose. Since they can choose, they can be mistaken. Since they can be mistaken, they can suffer. Many make mistakes and suffer; as they start from ignorance, and in their ignorance they see before them an infinite number of unknown roads, all of which, except one, lead to mistakes. Mistakes breed suffering. Suffering falls upon the person who was mistaken and requires personal responsibility. Their actions, coupled with the intelligence that has been given them to see the connection between cause and effect, will bring them back, by their suffering, to a path of truth.
Many, on the other side, believe men's interests, left to their own devices, will never combine harmoniously. They believe those interests, allowed to develop freely, lead mankind to injustice, inequality and poverty, simply because of the ugly and sinful nature of men. Therefore, they must oppose that simple premise. They must destroy American society as it is now because it grew from the sinful nature of man. They want to try another way. They believe the interests of community are more important than are the interests of the individual, the long established world governing principle of the few elite ruling the many. We just elected a President and political party that claim this position.
Individual freedom advocates do not deny mistakes exist; but recognize their purpose in community. If wrong-thinking is to fulfill its purpose, community must not encroach artificially upon individual responsibility. This is the tendency of most of our governing institutions, like parents and those offering remedies for the mistakes that afflict us. Under the philanthropic pretext of giving us a helping hand, the individual's sense of responsibility fades. The freedom of the individual to make mistakes is not respected.
Trying to force all Americans into a system of slavery, where government is the master, may cause a new civil war to erupt. Our tradition, based upon the first premise, has proven better than any system ever devised on this planet. If we look at the rest of the world, where eighty percent are starving and struggling to stay alive, America looks bright and wholesome. Many Americans may prefer to fight than capitulate to Obama and the modern Democrats serving the collective interests.
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