What are the liberal and conservative views on affirmative action and the economy?
Liberals, more rightly called Leftists, believe that socialism is an economic theory (it’s not, it’s a political theory), and that you can bring peace and prosperity to all by robbing everybody else, and killing anybody who objects. They believe that charity means stealing money from other people at gunpoint, so you can give it to others in exchange for political power and votes. They also believe that the proper way to achieve a more free, race and color blind society is to eliminate the fundamental freedom of association and organize everyone and everything by race, color, ethnicity, sexual orientation, sex, handicap, etc. etc. ad nauseum. Basically, Leftists hate liberty, sanity, and everything that made America great.Conservatives believe that America was great when Americans were free to live their lives without overwhelming government interference. They believe that the free market economy has created more wealth and lifted more people out of poverty than any other idea in human history. They believe that communism destroys everything it touches, and that socialism is communism wearing a smiley face mask. They believe that charity means giving freely of your own time and wealth, to recipients of your choice. They also believe that the Leftists are deliberately trying to destroy America by constantly attacking the very ideas of freedom, liberty, and personal responsibility. They believe that affirmative action is fundamentally inconsistent with the Constitution, and is an abominable infringement of the basic human rights of free association and religious liberty. They believe that if you want to stop discrimination by race, then the government should stop enforcing discrimination by race. They believe that if people are given objects or status by government fiat, they will not value these things or positions. They believe that if unqualified people are hired or promoted in the name of the great god “Diversity”, then the relatively rare qualified minority will not be recognized because of the flood of incapable diversity hires. Conservatives believe that “Diversity” is a code word for “shut and die already, white, Christian, cis-male scum!” These beliefs have been proven to be correct on numerous occasions since 1965. For reference, read or view almost any news broadcast.
Do Affirmative Action policies discriminate against Whites?
Actually a friend of mine worked on the "Workplace 2000" and "Workplace 2020" book series and they (a Conservative think tank) came out in support of Affirmative Action (to a degree). In their studies Affirmative Action is proven to be a correction for past actions. It's benefit is readily noticable. It is noticable in future generations of the families. The family that does better financially in this generation provides for better education for the next generation. In several generations it provides for a better-educated work-force, which is better for everyone concerned. Oh, and the concept of reverse-racism or "discrimination against white" is only possible in a setting where white are no longer the plurality (note, I didn't say majority). Thus, no: there is nothing discriminatory against white people. Those who claim such have limited understanding of ecomomics, etc. The concept is to increase the size of the pie, not to force the same pie into smaller slices. And if you are in a 1 to 50 ratio of applications to jobs and you're blaming on something else, I know why you didn't get hired.
Why do conservatives always eventually lose?
Because they have forgotten the quote attributed to John f. Kennedy, " Ask not what your county can do for you, but rather, what you can do for your country ." I am one of those conservatives eg. Teddy Roosevelt . You know the " Teddy Bear " was named after him.
Why do conservatives think massive wealth disparity is a good thing?
Ordinary conservatives suffer from a serf mentality. Rich conservatives direct the propaganda that is addressed to middle class and poor conservatives.
Why is affirmative action so unfair?
Growing up, I have always thought that affirmative action was the most righteous thing out there. Fast forward 10 years, and I have completely changed my mind. Instead of leveling the playing field, it has toppled the foundations. I am not trying to act like a redneck conservative or a hippy liberal, because I am neither.I just think it is unfair to whites and it is based on the principle, "whites were above other races for so long, so to level the playing field, we are putting them above you." My friend got denied from Georgetown with a 4.1 but a friend who is black got in with a 3.6. Is this really fair. I am not trying to rant although I am, but I feel like affirmative action goes against the moral and ethical ideals that this country was based on. Success is based on merit, not race, creed, religion, or birthright. By the way, I am not white. I am Jewish, came from Israel, and technical am entitled to affirmative action.
Are there any conservative values that liberals can agree with?
I find this to be a question that actually illuminates what I see as “the fundamental” difference between conservatives and liberals.Are you ready for it?Their values are pretty much the same.Fiscal responsibility? Everyone wants that. We differ on what that means though. I think, as an example, it’s more fiscally responsible to use my taxes to pay for everyone’s healthcare than to let my taxes pay for their emergency health care anyways.Lower crime rates? Sign me up! Just don’t do it by increasing incarceration or capital punishment rates, since those are highly correlated with increased crime (esp. violent crime).“Family Values”? Everyone wants to have a moral and ethical family. I just don’t think it’s ethical to deny someone that right based on feeling icky about their sexual or gender orientations.A secure nation? Who doesn’t want that? I just don’t want a “secure” nation that comes at the cost of bombing a ton of innocent people in the desert, or torturing people in an offshore prison. Those things tend to actually make a nation more likely to be targeted, not less.A strong economy? Has anyone ever said they wish they could live through the Great Depression? No. Everyone benefits from a strong economy. But evidence suggests that a strong economy is best built by strengthening the safety nets for the lower class to help push more people into the middle class instead of pouring cash into the upper class and hoping they piss some of it down to the unwashed masses.Our values are, at their core, the same. Where we differ is in how we want to address these things and implement them.I’m a progressive because I personally value compassion, care, and statistics based evidence when choosing a strategy.If something has worked to achieve these ideals in most other developed nations there is no reason to believe it won’t also work here, especially since we have enough data to know that warmongering, increasing incarceration, supporting the death penalty, trickle down economics, full-privatized health insurance, persecution of religious or ethnic minorities, etc…, are all antithetical to achieving those values.
Are there different variations of social conservatism in the United States?
There is a large diversity of thought among the different types of conservatives within the U.S. Many social conservatives became such after the Roe v. Wade decision overrode 50 state laws on abortion, turning a local moral/legislative issue into a national political football for the next 60+ years (thanks, Warren Court). Many more became such after other similarly charged and similarly non-Constitutionally justified “decisions” overrode the people of the 50 states on issues that have no business being federal issues, let alone being decided by one old person in black robes.It sounds like you need to get some more news sources, if you’ve heard of horribly disgusting behavior of so called “Christian” conservatives. Can you provide examples of this disgusting behavior?I’ve been in the conservative movement for 30+ years, and a Christian longer than that, and the most disgusting behavior I’ve seen was from so called “Christian” and otherwise progressives, with their biased attitudes on inferiority of minorities and women that justified policies like affirmative action, government control of pay scales, amnesty for “underrepresented” countries, or relaxed law enforcement if someone commits a heinous crime claiming to be doing it in the name of Allah. Blech.But, to wrap up, yes, there’s a wide variety of conservatism, even among social conservatives, even among Christian social conservatives. It sounds like you are a conservative that leans libertarian, ala a frequent poster on here - Charles Tips, who calls himself a “real liberal” in the tradition of the Founders, Framers, and most of what would now be called the conservative movement outside of Wilsonian and Rooseveltian progressive statism.