Conservatism and Liberalism

Conservatism and Liberalism

The United States of America (U.S.) became a dominant superpower after World War II. It gained a global influence on political, economic, military, and cultural matters. The unanticipated growth U.S. resulted in millions of people improving their standards of living due to the construction of offices and factories. The intense growth was facilitated by American transformation from the customary isolationism to the increased international participation. Apart from this, different perceptions of people significantly assisted. Conservatism and Liberalism are the best examples of these perceptions. Conservatism is a social and political philosophy that promotes respect for the traditions in America and opposes drastic changes to them. The latter, Liberalism, is founded on equality and civil liberty and gets supported by social justice. Therefore, the present paper will focus on these two philosophies and how they define post-World War II America.

Political divide

Since late 1800, the republican part of the U.S. is mostly associated with conservatism. Although, there was a resilient Eastern liberal wing, in 1964 the conservatives became the majority in the party. Subsequently, the conservative faction of the Democratic party located in the south and opposed the civil rights grew frail. Between the years 1960 and 1990, a readjustment occurred in the political number where the republican became three times that of the democrats. The era after 1945, saw some American libertarians being conservatives as they endorse critical social and economic modifications which are viewed as the conservative guidelines. The changes they advocated include the liberalization of drug policy and the system of welfare. The two philosophies have affected who governs the United States at a national and regional level. The general strongholds of conservatives are in the south- the Rocky Mountain states, Great Plains, and Alaska, whereas, for the liberals, their areas of grip are like the Great lakes region, West Coast and Hawaii. Conservatism and Liberalism also divide states into urban, suburban, exurban, and rural zones. It is due to that, the demography of the rural Americans favors the Republican party undertakings, and the urban populace tends to be more democratic and liberal-oriented.

Economy and Welfare

In regards to the American economy, Liberalism views the best market system is that which is regulated by the government. In leveling of the playing field, the government ought to protect its citizens from greedy giant businesses. The purpose of a governing system is to protect the public interest as opposed to private firms. This belief advocate for higher taxes primarily from wealthy individuals and an enormous government structure. The argument posed is, high taxes will facilitate job and welfare program creation to the needy by the government, and its broad nature provides quality and equal services. To protect the poor, liberals support welfare, inclusive of the long-term welfare. The supporting factor gets reinforced by the welfare ability to bring fairness in the economic life of the Americans. In American history, racism was prevalent as the minorities were deprived of employment opportunities and education. It has made the minorities to lag behind the whites in every statistical dimension of success. To curb the ethnical issue, Liberalism proposes an affirmative action policy. Additionally, these individuals associated with this ideology categorize oil as a non-renewable resource. They urge the American leaders to control electric and gas industries, to intensify the exploration of unconventional energy sources and subsidize research and production of alternative energy solutions.

On the other hand, conservatives uphold for a market system that is free and has competitive capitalism. They, therefore, commend the private organizations to create the highest opportunity and standard of living. Conferring to them, this strategy is beneficial to when the government has excessive regulations as more jobs will be created, and the economy will profoundly develop. Furthermore, they claim that a reduction in taxes and a smaller governing system will have a positive significance to the standards of living. One of the reasons for America becoming a superpower was due to the lowering of taxes by President Ronald Reagan. Tax cutting promotes people to invest, work, and be involved in innovative activities. Government plans to them, make the people sluggish and dependent. They deny the aspect of Liberalism, where long-term welfare meets the needs of the poor. Rather than our decision-makers forming programs, they see it fit for opportunities to be provided as they will make individuals self-reliant and independent. Reverse discrimination, which is the process of using race as a factor to enroll students or recruit employees, is wrong to conservatives. This act in regards to liberals is termed as affirmative action. Preferential treatment, as a method to help the minorities it is contrary to the American culture, thus enrolling or recruiting is supposed to be based on the people’s ability. Oil and coal is a renewable source to the point of view of the conservatism. The two are abundant in the U.S., whereas solar and wind sources are limited and costly to utilize. Oil drilling should be enlarged according to them, as it lowers the prices and decreases the dependence of oil to other nations.

Socio-cultural aspect

The liberal group wants the reference to God in government and public settings to be abolished. For instance, displaying the ten commandments in structures of the federal government. The two, church and state, should be entirely separated, and they declare that their verdict is backed up by the Bill of Rights. However, conservatives counter their argument by stating it is not enshrined in the constitution and subsequently quote the First Amendment “”Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…” From this piece, it is clear that the government is barred from instituting nationwide denomination and removing of Christian heritage symbols from the public locations.

Over the decades, the Social Security system has faced grave financial problems, rendering it to be unsustainable. Liberals demand the system to be protected in order to reduce people from suffering to low benefits. Contrary to this, conservatives urge a significant change as the system will finally collapse if unaddressed. They recommend Social Security to be privatized, or individuals be accepted to manage their funds.

The constitution protects an individual’s property from the government. Liberalism highlights that the government should have powers to seize private property but issue compensation to achieve a public end. Whereas the other group utterly states that the public and government should respect private property privileges as it is immoral.

Conservatism and Liberalism can have a significant or negligible effect on American society. It is therefore wise for the leaders and decision-makers to carry out in-depth research on the matter before acting according to one of the philosophy.