I suggest that most moderates, along with a goodly portion of professed conservatives, effectively support one or more liberal ideals and policies in one way or another. Witness, half of all US
When it comes to politics we are a double minded citizenry. As described in an opinion piece that appeared in the Christian Science Monitor (Jan. 2011), “American political opinion looks in two directions – both left and right, or liberal and conservative – at the same time...most Americans have conservative attitudes concerning the size of government, and liberal beliefs in support of programs to protect themselves economically. This leads majorities to favor smaller government, individual initiative, and local control while endorsing major governmental programs ranging from social security to student grants and loans.” But of course these attitudes are conflicting. Something must give and generally that something is the small government/individual initiative/local control posture in favor of the more self-serving direct-government-payments-from-federal-transfer-programs option. As our citizenry has demonstrated, it is difficult to refuse offers of government payments particularly when one is being told that someone else will be footing the tab—usually the “rich.” But the bottom line is that a large segment of U.S.
There is another important reason, I would argue, that our nation’s largely conservative bent yields liberal governmental policies. Many moderates, and conservatives as well, do not pause to weight the aims and costs of government policy proposals against their professed political ideology. Perhaps they don’t have a thorough understanding of which government decisions and policies are consistent with conservative ideologies and which are not. The political cacophony is most evident among independents, many of whom seem to have abandoned any cohesive political ideology in favor of a pick-and-choose-according-the-mood-of-the-moment approach. Being an independent means being free to have an eclectic, frequently changing mix of political arrows in one’s quiver. Not surprisingly, the arrows that are bowed most often are the self-serving, liberal ones, regardless of one’s “core” beliefs. A similar criticism could be levied against many conservatives, though their mix of arrows is likely to be at least somewhat more politically consistent.
Finally, the majority of voters of all persuasions tend to judge government programs by their professed social aims with far less attention paid to the economic cost, or to the realistic prospects of attaining the stated goals. Politicians promote their legislation using titillating buzz words and catch phrases that emit emotional responses, much like the recent television ad that had Republicans pushing granny over the cliff in her wheel chair. In practice, the stated aims of most government programs are but partially achieved, and in some cases the results are even counterproductive to those aims.
Most of us want to be viewed by our neighbors as a good guy. Moreover we expect to get our well deserved, fair share of the massive and rapidly growing government pie. The end result is the contradictory juxtaposition of a myriad of liberal government policies endorsed (if passively) by a largely conservative electorate.
