by Timothy Justice

Created on: November 25, 2009

I grew up in a pretty hard core Democratic household. My grandfather had worked through the Depression with the WPA, and my father and my other grandfather were union men through and through. Two frequent errors that recurred in my upbringing were: 1) that Democrats were liberal, while Republicans were conservative; and 2) that liberals cared about the poor, while conservatives cared about the rich. Not only are those assumptions overly simplistic, they are also very, very wrong.

In my experience, th primary difference between liberals and conservatives can be summed up in the following statement: when you are down and out, conservatives would rather give you a job, while liberals would rather give you a check. Liberals are often swayed by emotion and interested in solving the problem at hand, while conservatives are often driven by reason and interested in solving the underlying problems. Conservatives usually do not provide money because they believe that social problems can be taught through a strong work ethic and perseverance.

Another characteristic of liberals is that, while they throw money at the problems, it is often other people's money they are most interested in spending. The rich are a class to be hated in liberal society, even as they ironically ignore wealth among their own members. The picture of the "tax-and-spend liberal" came about because liberals often overload the government with programs, needing increasing tax revenue to fund these programs.

Conservatives, contrary to their stereotype, are not short on compassion, they just want a say in where there money is spent. Study after study has shown that conservatives spend more on charity than do liberals, and, in fact, there are countless third world villages that can attest to the generosity of conservatives, as they boast hospitals, schools, and food storage facilities funded by the wealth of rather conservative people of faith.

So which approach is right and which is wrong? As a centrist, I see a little bit of the legitimacy on each side. If someone is truly down and out, sometimes a check can be a balm through troubled times. But if we don't put a limit on it, it becomes an entitlement, as many of our inner city projects have shown, and instead of helping people we end up making them dependent on government aid to survive. In times of overwhelming crisis, offering a job just may not be enough. So, love it or hate it, both conservatives and liberals bring a voice to the debate that we badly need to hear.

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