Can the People be Trusted?

At their best, liberals make it possible for people to achieve what they want. At their best, conservatives make it possible for people to choose what they want. Unfortunately, they are rarely at are rarely at their best. Conservatives can be clumsy in their attempts to encourage people and often rely too heavily on enticing people through incentives and tax relief. Liberals tend to be impatient and too quick to resort to regulation and coercion out of frustration. Neither are very good at discerning what people want. It is hard enough to figure out what your spouse wants, yet we are inclined to believe we can know what the nation wants - and how to get it.

There is a difference between trusting people to do the right thing and compelling them do the right thing. Foremost is determining what the right thing is. Conservatives (as opposed to Republicans) tend to trust people to know the right thing, and are optimistic that, if allowed the room, people will do it. They seek to maintain the liberty necessary for people to pursue goals of their own choosing and live their lives in a manner that makes sense to them. They trust that people will act decently and with restraint in the pursuit of those goals. Liberals, despite their professions of looking out for the people and championing their interests (or perhaps because of it), are sceptical of the people's ability to recognize the right thing and pessimistic about people's inclination to do it. They are predisposed to mistrust the willingness of people to act with decency and restraint, and doubt the people's ability to discern beyond their own interests and do what should be done. They prod, bribe, exhort, manipulate, legislate, and if all else fails, threaten in an attempt to overcome what they see as the failings and shortsightedness of the citizens. Moreover, liberals believe people, unsupervised, cannot be relied upon to acquire and maintain the proper sentiments and "values" necessary to the harmonious society they envision. In their unceasing vigilance, liberals constantly meddle with society by monitoring speech, text books, curriculum, opinions, beliefs; virtually everything said, done, and believed, lest people stumble into intolerance and error.

Liberals do not trust the efficacy of tax breaks or deregulation because they do not trust people to behave or spend appropriately, i.e. not to behave and spend in a manner contrary to their own best interests as those interests are understood by liberals. Simply put, liberals do not trust people. They fear that without the constant guidance and restraint of government, people would act, believe, and spend their way into misery and oppression. Conservatives do not trust government. They resist attempts by the government to encroach upon concerns and issues more properly left to individuals and trust that people will act appropriately in their own interest. Clearly, not all Republicans are conservative, nor are all Democrats liberals.

The risk of liberty is that others might act in ways and pursue goals that you disapprove of. The benefit of liberty is that you can act in ways and pursue goals that others disapprove of. The question is whether the risk is worth the benefit.