Left and Right Political Differences: Five Reasons and Five Videos

This is a combination re-visiting of two previous posts — one, an excerpt from an article by John Hawkins, and two, five videos from Prager University. Both nicely cover the basics.

5 Reasons Big Government Can Never Work The Way Liberals Claim It Does

“The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’” — Ronald Reagan

Relying on big government to help you out would be like relying on the Girl Scouts to spearhead an invasion of Iran. It’s the wrong people, in the wrong place, doing the wrong job. Whether Democrats or Republicans are in charge, our government is barely functional. That’s certainly not a shocker. Anyone who has had dealings with the federal government can tell you that it’s slow, stupid, expensive, belligerent and incompetent. But, here’s the $64,000 question: WHY is the federal government so slow, stupid, expensive, belligerent and incompetent? It’s not a mystery.

1) It’s not the government’s money: One of the biggest reasons a “kid in a candy store” acts like a “kid in a candy store” is because he didn’t have to earn the money he’s about to spend. It’s no different for the government. Government employees are not the ones working double shifts when they’re exhausted to collect enough money to pay their taxes. They just collect the sweat of someone else’s brow and spend it the way they see fit. If you’re irresponsible with your money, you may lose your house. If a company is irresponsible with its money, it may go out of business. Yet if a government employee is irresponsible with YOUR MONEY, he’s not on the hook for it personally. If he borrows billions and it gets frittered away, it doesn’t come out of his wallet. To them, it’s all monopoly money and no matter what happens, they’re going to get more to play with next year.

2) The government is doing things it shouldn’t be doing: How do you think Burger King would do at selling perfume? How would you feel about eating Purina brand hamburger? How about discount shoes sold by Rolex? If the government were simply building roads, throwing up a few street signs, securing the borders and making sure rotten horse meat isn’t being sold as steak in the local supermarket, it would probably be relatively good at its jobs. But, when we have the government declaring your yard a wetland because it rains, micro managing what kind of light bulbs you’re allowed to buy, bailing out big corporations and forcibly taking over our health care, of course the government does it badly. Just as you couldn’t be a talented brain surgeon, race car driver AND Navy SEAL all at the same time, the federal government simply cannot be all things to all people.

To continue reading about #’s 3) It can’t go out of business; 4) It doesn’t effectively measure success and failure; and 5) There’s a lack of responsibility…visit townhall.com.

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Left and Right Differences: A 5-Part Video Series

Many people – including those who keep up with politics – cannot articulate the differences between the Left and the Right in a way that is fair and objective. In this five-part video series, Dennis Prager does exactly that. In under 30 minutes, you’ll understand the essential differences between the two.

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How big should the government be? And what is its proper role in the daily lives of Americans? The Left and Right have opposite answers.

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When setting public policy, what’s more important: intentions or results? Feeling good or doing good? When it comes to being guided by the heart or by the mind, the Left and Right are very different.

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Is the United States an exceptional country that has played a uniquely good role in history? Or is it a typical country, perhaps even a uniquely bad one considering the legacy of slavery and Jim Crow? On this, the Left and Right do not agree.

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The Left and Right perceive the world differently. One side sees it as it exists, accepts fundamental truths and facts–even if they are painful–and then adopts a worldview. The other side adopts a vision, and then views the world through that prism. Which side sees the world as reality? And which as it imagines?

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How do you want to improve America? By focusing on improving and refining yourself? Or by transforming society? The answer to that question will reveal whether you’re on the Left or the Right.