The myths of liberals and conservatives

The nation is sharply split between the liberals and the conservatives, the red and blue states. Yet the fundamental mythology of both sides is faulty.

Put simply, the liberal belief in the effectiveness of government to solve all ills is unrealistic. And the conservative belief in “natural selection” and “free markets” to produce the most efficient allocation of resources is equally unrealistic.

The liberal mythology first: liberals believe that government policy and programs are the way to solve major social ills. Historically liberals have relied on government, and especially the courts, to try to impose their liberal views on the nation. And on occasion it has worked, as in the Civil Rights laws. But the executive branch, Congress, and the many government agencies respond primarily to their own agendas – to survive, to acquire and maintain power and budgets, and (for elected officials) to get re-elected. They are at best a blunt one-size-fits-all instrument, and a very expensive one at that, for tasks that really require a myriad of different approaches for different parts of the population. And all too often, despite the best of liberal intentions, liberal programs simply become one more vehicle for channeling public money to this or that special interest group or corporate sponsor, and one more means for some government agency to expand its charter and budget.

The conservative mythology is just as flawed. It might be (though it is yet to be demonstrated) that a truly free market would allocate resources optimally. It might be (though it is yet to be demonstrated) that unbiased natural selection would really let the best and the brightest rise to the top. But in fact we don’t have the free markets or unbiased natural selection that conservatives postulate. Money talks – those with money and the influence money buys skew the system, quite naturally, to favor themselves and their own offspring. Corporations arrange, through their campaign contributions and in other ways, for “friendly” legislation to give them an advantage over competitors in the market. Wealthier people arrange for their offspring to have better educations and better job contacts than less wealthy people. People with “contacts” among the ruling elite do better than the rest of us. So the conservative mythology really just supports the status quo.

Having said all of that, these mythologies will no doubt persist. People are remarkably resistant to changing their views, whatever the evidence.