Right vs. Left

Click here to log in and continue your course. If you have not registered for The Case for Conservatism, you may activate your course here.
  • The fourth and final lecture examines the five core differences between the Left and the Right. What is discovered is that it is conservatives who are forward-looking and favor true diversity and community, while progressivism seeks to impose uniformity and preserve an inefficient status quo.
  • The first core difference is Progressives erroneously present the difference between right and left as a choice between a radical, “every man for himself” individualism, and a vision of collective action premised on using government to address social problems. In contrast to the left’s atomistic caricature, conservatives believe that a limited government must be undergirded by a vibrant civil society in which families are strong and individuals voluntarily cooperate to improve their communities.
  • The second core difference is responsibility. Conservatives believe that responsibility—both for our own actions and for one another—is a precondition for liberty. By contrast, Progressives see freedom from responsibilities as a precondition for personal autonomy, and they thus desire a state that can relieve individuals of all obligations and burdens that might hinder their freedom.
  • The third core difference is diversity. Although Progressives love to claim that they are diverse through their superficial identity politics, it is conservatives who espouse true diversity. Conservatives understand that the U.S. is an immensely large and diverse country. Therefore, it should be up to the people in their own states and localities to decide what is best for them.
  • The fourth core difference is Progressives like democracy in theory, but when the preferences of “the people” are at odds with their own, they resort to less democratic means (e.g., administrative regulations, executive orders, and Supreme Court decisions) to push through the very policies that the people—through their representatives—have rejected. Conservatives believe that the people’s choices should be respected, as long as constitutional limitations and protections are too.
  • The fifth and final core difference is our stance toward the future. Conservatism is fundamentally future-oriented, both because it is concerned with what we pass down to posterity and because American conservatism favors free markets, which by their nature drive innovation and transformation. In contrast, progressivism is stuck in the past, seeking to defend outdated big government programs and a sclerotic administrative state.