The labels we use to describe our political parties and their ideologies have turned into caricatures, devoid of meaningful content. For decades the Right has waged a campaign to tarnish the word “liberal,” linking it with elitism and people who are wishy-washy and out of touch. The term is now extremely unpopular, despite the fact that a majority of Americans support liberal policies such as progressive taxation, strong social safety nets, and environmental regulations.
Ironically, those on the Right who have demonized liberals are the ones actually working for the real elites—the wealthy and the super-wealthy—and their policies do the most to harm the middle and lower classes.
At the same time, the Right has managed to burnish the term “conservative” so that many more Americans now identify themselves as conservative rather than liberal. True conservatives espouse principles which in fact are quite admirable and promote the public good. The problem is that modern-day Republicans by and large support the opposite of conservative principles.
And yet day after day the media refer to Republicans as conservatives, and the more they deviate from true conservatism the more they are identified as conservative. This is a situation where black is white and up is down, not just on Fox News but even on the left-leaning Rachel Maddow Show, where Republicans with views the most divergent from true conservatism are labeled the most conservative.
This mislabeling needs to stop. It confuses the public over what policies our major political parties actually support (as opposed to what they profess to support), and it can lead to bad policy outcomes. Let’s look at some examples of real, and faux, conservatism.
True conservatism recognizes that tax cuts don’t pay for themselves, and that balanced budgets require sufficient revenue. Modern-day Republicans continue to subscribe to the “voodoo economics” that has been discredited by serious economists for decades.
True conservatism promotes individual choice and responsibility. Modern-day Republicans oppose the health insurance mandate and end-of-life counseling, both of which are conservative ideas.
True conservatism believes in free markets with a minimum of distortions caused by government involvement; at the same time, true conservatives recognize the importance of strong regulations. Modern-day Republicans did everything in their power to weaken the financial regulatory bill and shield the largest banks from oversight. (The new GOP Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, Spencer Bachus, recently stated that “Washington and the regulators are there to serve the banks.”)
True conservatism promotes a robust national security policy aimed at maintaining a strong military and reducing the threat of nuclear proliferation. Senate leaders of the Republican Party voted against the new START Treaty, which true conservatives championed, and against repealing DADT, which the military itself strongly backed.
True conservatives understand that trade-offs are necessary to deal with the threats to our environment. Modern-day Republicans favor fossil fuel subsidies and nuclear power subsidies, but oppose making polluters pay for the damage they cause.
True conservatives believe in a rational, scientific approach to public policy. Modern-day Republicans are anti-science, and openly promote scientific ignorance.
And the list goes on.
Instead of calling today’s Republicans “conservatives,” we should be calling them rightwing “radicals” and “extremists.” These are more accurate descriptions of a party that has embraced the worst forms of populism, crony capitalism, and reactionary social ideology. By calling them what they really are, perhaps we can show how out of step the GOP is with mainstream American values—and true conservatism as well.
Jason Scorse