Political Purity and the Political Spectrum

of course there were some slave owners in the north and some abolitionists in the south.

Problem is. one of the major causes of the war was the slowly worsening tension over the string of compromises between slave and free state parity in congress breaking down after the incident of Bloody Kansas.

Republican Party former teen rebel who had its wild party days in the 1800's and then by the mid 1900's it started to throw away its rebel ways for adulthood.

Yeah, thats a lovely analogy. Implying conservative is the adult way to think and liberals are stupid idealist teenagers who need to grow up.

Dreadfully sorry to resurect this point (to compensate I will return in three pages to pitch in on the Civil War discussion), but I would like to post this anyway.

That's a reasonable sentiment, but I think it presents a problem when one considers the increasing tendency towards broadly rightist economic policy amongst the Religious Right. Shouldn't a good Christian government try to improve conditions for the least in society? Shouldn't they use their power to promote a more Christ-like attitude towards the poor? It seems to me that most of the politicians who make a big deal of their religious faith are only interested in the gay people.

I'm not profoundly religious or anything. I guess it's a question of how one interprets the Bible.

No, it's actually got a basis in psychology.

Once you, as a liberal, have what you want, you then have to fight the next generation of liberals who want take it in a different direction.

Today's conservatives and reactionaries are yesteryear's liberals and progressives.

A valid point, but what I wanted to address was the Christian element on the rightist side whose actions seem somewhat incongruent with what one might expect them to believe.

edited 11th Sep '11 3:46:54 PM by TheGloomer

Good observation but most people Religious Right people really rely on charities rather than government because mainly they see goverenment can goof up helping the poor rather than improve things.

Snowman@I wasn't trying to insult anybody I was using anomorphic personification.I was saying that people as they age grow more conservative.

edited 11th Sep '11 3:37:20 PM by joyflower

Oh, I agree with your post entirely. You ninja'd me, is all.

@Joyflower, maybe in the United States they do.

I used to be waaaay more socially conservative when younger.

Well, when you're young, you take whatever it is your parents tell you to think as immutable fact. If your parents were conservative, you'll be conservative, and vice versa.

It's the teen years where kids (usually) become different from their parents. It's obviously not a hard-and-fast rule, though.

Well, provided they are well-organised and well-resourced, charities can certainly function as on the primary benefactors of society. There's no denying that.

However, provided there are good Christians at the helm, "government goof-ups" shouldn't be an issue, should it?

EDIT: I hope that last bit didn't come across as too sarcastic. Apologies if I caused offence.

edited 11th Sep '11 3:46:11 PM by TheGloomer

Nah, I was such a conservative bigot that even my parents were calling me a nut. I have to admit that it's actually OTC changed my views, and helped me see that the other side actually makes a lot more sense. It's probably due to the fact that Serbian liberals are such smug asshats that it overrides any arguments they give.

Generally speaking, I think that you're right, though.

@Joyflower: some do. I've found as I grew out of my high school days and into my 20's, I've instead grown further and further left.

Snowman@Then again there are the exceptions.But wasn't this thread about political purity and the political spectrum.

If we were going by hetalia logic then the Democratic party would be considered older than the Republican party.The Republican Party were once the young whipper snappers while the Democrats were the more stuffy old folks.

Its not an exception thing. Theres a lot of older liberals. some do turn conservative for various reasons, sure. but to assume its the norm for people to massively change up their basic moral ideas is unlikely as it is for what the party platform supports to change. Dixiecrats didnt change their ideals when they switched parties, the parties switched stances.

edited 11th Sep '11 4:22:58 PM by Midgetsnowman

Depends on their individual context.

Democrats turned from the conservatives to the liberals while the Republicans turned from the liberals into the conservatives.

Yeah,that's politics for you I wonder if it will change again in our lifetimes.

If you think about it also that makes the Democrats(England) and Republicans(America) with all the Foe Yay coming from each other.You know I am talking about the Hetalia characters.

edited 11th Sep '11 4:27:32 PM by joyflower

Well, on the topic of age and the political spectrum, I have two things to say.

1) Most people don't change their viewpoints a whole lot after they reach adulthood. But each generation tends to be more liberal than the previous one (see gay marriage; the thought of its legalization was absurd 20 years ago, but now a topic of mainstream discussion today). People who are 50 are going to be more liberal on average than the people who are now 80, and more conservative than those who are 20. That is, it's not that an individual gets more conservative, but rather that successive generations get more liberal.

2) There's definitely a case to make that from an economic perspective, people do get more conservative as they age. When you're young and have nothing going for you, it's only natural to want things to change to make things easier for you, but when you're older and have accumulated a good bit of wealth, you're a lot more hesitant to support things that could take said wealth away.

edited 11th Sep '11 4:31:47 PM by DarkConfidant