Something I’ve noticed recently is that people frequently separate the results of an ideology from the ideology itself. For example: “Those conservatives aren’t conservatives, because the government’s expanded and become less efficient, so they must be liberals.” The problem with this statement is that if people who are identified as, and identify themselves as, conservatives cause government to expand and become less efficient, they are still conservatives.
Their actions are a result of their ideology, and the values of that ideology are determined by the fruits of the ideology. In this way an ideology is different from a universally held and absolute value judgment. If a good guy kills an innocent, their status as a good guy should be held in doubt. However, if a conservative does something good or bad, he’s still a conservative, and his actions are result of his value system and beliefs.
In short, if conservatives expand the federal government and cause a budget surplus to crumble into a record budget deficit, then conservatives stand for increased debt and big government.
No comments:
Post a Comment