Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 133 ｜ Conservatives, Liberals & the Constitution

00:00:00.240 Hello, hello. Hope everyone is having a wonderful day, a wonderful week so far.

00:00:07.160 Today we are going to discuss the fundamental difference or the fundamental differences between conservatives and liberals.

00:00:15.980 Now, there's a lot that we could discuss in relation to this, but I want to kind of go down to the basics

00:00:22.640 because this summer what I'm trying to do is to kind of peel back the layers a little bit.

00:00:30.060 Get out of the 24-minute news cycle that we are all so caught up in and say,

00:00:35.780 OK, what is underneath all of this?

00:00:38.240 What are the issues and the topics that transcend all of this to help us get a better framework

00:00:43.920 from which we can kind of analyze the problems that we're facing or the disagreements that we have?

00:00:49.260 So I want to talk about the differences between conservatives and liberals from kind of,

00:00:55.520 I don't want to say it's a heart level, I guess, just as I've already said, a basic level.

00:01:01.920 If you listen to this podcast, if you watch the news, it might seem like the biggest difference

00:01:07.240 between conservatives and liberals is whether or not we like Donald Trump or whether or not we

00:01:12.240 believe that there are 26 genders or just two genders or whether or not we believe in abortion.

00:01:16.820 And all of those are big disagreements that we have and they do kind of dominate what we talk about,

00:01:22.600 but they're really not the heart of our differences.

00:01:25.920 It's true that these are the disagreements that we have today, but they stem from more

00:01:31.280 fundamental disagreements that really go back, you know, all the way to when conservatives

00:01:36.760 and liberals were first birthed onto the world scene.

00:01:41.300 Uh, so one of the biggest questions when you are deciding yourself, whether or not you think

00:01:46.960 that you fall under the conservative or the liberal or the moderate umbrella, the question

00:01:52.240 is, where do you believe that our rights come from?

00:01:56.660 So where do you think your rights come from conservatives in general?

00:02:01.940 And I always want to say that I'm speaking in generalities because not every single person

00:02:07.460 who identifies as a conservative might agree with my assessment of conservatism, same thing with

00:02:13.300 the liberal side. But in general, conservatives believe that your rights come from God, your rights

00:02:19.560 come from a creator, your rights come from some kind of transcendent power. Liberals in general

00:02:25.960 believe that your rights come not from God, but from the government where the government has the

00:02:32.640 power to give rights. Even if a liberal does believe that rights come from God, they believe

00:02:37.500 that the government still has the power to give and to take away rights. Conservatives do not believe

00:02:43.100 that they believe essentially that the government has the power to recognize particular rights.

00:02:49.100 And we'll talk about what that really means. So these are really the only two options, whether you

00:02:53.360 believe that your rights come from God or whether they believe, uh, that they come from government.

00:02:58.280 Now, some people are going to push back on that and say, no, I just believe that we have rights.

00:03:02.240 I don't believe in God. I just, I just believe that they're just there. And I also don't believe

00:03:06.340 that they come from government. They're just there. They're just here, but that doesn't actually make

00:03:09.820 very much sense. If you don't believe that your rights come from an authority, why do you call

00:03:14.660 them rights? What are rights? What right do you have to rights? If no kind of authority gave them to

00:03:20.840 you, uh, why do you believe that you have a right to anything? Uh, the existence of rights,

00:03:26.200 something that you are entitled to something that you should be given or should be recognized

00:03:31.960 or should be protected necessitates the acknowledgement of the existence of some

00:03:37.700 kind of authority. Otherwise we live in this just completely subjective society where no one agrees

00:03:43.340 to play by the same rules. We have no basis for saying that we have rights. No, we have no basis

00:03:47.660 for laws and we have total anarchy because you don't have a right to your own body. You don't have a right

00:03:52.880 to your own property. You don't have any kind of rights to life because who says that you do?

00:03:58.280 So, uh, both conservatives and liberals believe that human beings have rights. We both agree on

00:04:04.000 that. We both believe that humans are entitled to certain things. We disagree on where these rights

00:04:10.640 come from essentially. And because we disagree on where these rights come from and what the

00:04:16.000 government's role is in these rights, we often disagree on what they are. Uh, conservatives believe

00:04:22.560 that rights are inherent that they are as the declaration of independence says they are endowed

00:04:27.560 to us by our creator and among them are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, also known

00:04:33.160 as property. So endowed by our creator, these four words are really important to conservatives. Uh,

00:04:40.740 the founders believe that the rights of people are inherent and they are recognized by a government,

00:04:47.240 by a good, decent government, not given by the government. They are given by God, recognized and

00:04:54.000 protected by the government. Uh, Thomas Paine wrote in common sense, but where says some is the king of

00:05:00.840 America. I'll tell you friends, he reigns above and doth not make havoc of mankind like the royal

00:05:07.080 brute of Britain. So Thomas Paine published common sense at the beginning of 1776. Most of you probably

00:05:12.260 know that it had a huge impact on how people thought about freedom and tyranny during this time. Uh,

00:05:17.700 Paine regarded government as a necessary evil that was necessary to restrain our vices. And so that was

00:05:24.680 really the extent of what he thought government control should be. And that was a very popular idea

00:05:29.780 when the country was being founded. It doesn't exist to give us stuff. It doesn't exist to give us our

00:05:35.120 rights. It exists to recognize our rights and restrain other people or powers from infringing on those

00:05:41.900 rights. Uh, there was a place for government. They believed there is a place for government,

00:05:46.620 uh, needed to protect people, needed to protect these, uh, these rights to life, liberty, uh,

00:05:52.700 the pursuit of happiness or property needed to bring about justice and to punish wrong. But

00:05:57.780 the Americans obviously rejected the idea of a monarch. They rejected the, uh, the idea of an island

00:06:05.220 across the sea, ruling them and taxing them out of their minds, oppressing them. So they formed a new

00:06:10.180 form of government, a government of the people, for the people, by the people. This was a radical

00:06:15.400 concept, somewhat of a radical concept at this time. So the founders believed that the idea that

00:06:20.940 traditional conservatism rests on, uh, that individuals have rights given to them by a creator,

00:06:27.920 given to them by God that shall not be taken away by the government, except if you have committed a

00:06:33.640 crime, then you are not entitled to all the same rights, uh, as you, that you were as a law-abiding

00:06:38.860 citizen. Uh, conservatism holds that the government exists to protect our God-given rights, not to

00:06:45.740 take care of us. So government should be as limited as humanly possible. Um, our God-given rights,

00:06:52.040 as the founders saw them, are listed in the Bill of Rights, which are, of course, the first 10

00:06:55.820 amendments to the Constitution. They are first amendment, and you can go past this if you already

00:07:00.940 know. I bet a lot of you probably don't know, and that's perfectly fine. Uh, the first amendment,

00:07:05.060 Congress can't establish religion or prohibit the exercise of religion. They can't inhibit the freedom

00:07:10.120 of speech or the press. They can't stop people from peacefully assembling. They can't stop people

00:07:14.680 from, uh, petitioning the government. Second amendment can't take away, the government can't

00:07:18.340 take away the right to bear arms. Third amendment, no forced peacetime quartering of soldiers. Fourth

00:07:22.580 amendment, no unreasonable searches or seizures, no warrants given without probable cause.

00:07:28.820 Uh, fifth amendment, can't be held accountable for a crime unless indicted by a grand jury. No

00:07:32.620 double jeopardy, so you can't be charged with the same crime twice. Can't be forced to witness

00:07:37.080 against yourself. Can't be stripped of life, liberty, or liberty without due process of law,

00:07:42.280 uh, or property. Can't take, can't be taken away without just compensation. Sixth amendment,

00:07:47.840 right to speedy and public trial with an impartial jury. Must be informed of the nature of the accusation,

00:07:52.380 right to counsel. Uh, seventh amendment, guarantees a jury trial for civil cases in federal courts.

00:07:58.300 Eighth amendment, no excessive bail, impose no cruel or unusual punishment.

00:08:02.620 Ninth amendment, there are other rights that may exist outside of the ones that we explicitly

00:08:07.680 mention here. Uh, even though they are not listed, that doesn't mean they can be violated.

00:08:12.060 Tenth amendment, any power not given to the government, federal government is given to the

00:08:16.000 people, uh, or to the state. So as you can tell from this bill of rights, that every one of these

00:08:21.820 rights is meant to protect the people from tyranny, to allow people to legally, uh, maintain the rights

00:08:28.040 the founders believed were God given. So the reason why the founders believed in free speech,

00:08:32.940 the right to bear arms, the protection against cruel and unusual punishment, uh, the reason they

00:08:37.660 believe these were essential was because they saw them all as necessary protections from tyrants and

00:08:43.460 part of life, liberty, and the pursuit of property. Um, to them, they were all intertwined. Uh, you cannot

00:08:50.740 have liberty without free speech or a free press freedom of information. You cannot have life or property.

00:08:56.260 If you have no means by which you can protect your life or property. Uh, so that is why conservatives,

00:09:01.480 for example, are against abortion. The right to life is God given without the right to life, 0.95

00:09:06.720 which is lifted listed first in the declaration of independence, neither liberty nor happiness can

00:09:11.740 exist. Uh, a child is scientifically alive at the point of conception. They immediately have a right

00:09:16.880 to life. That right we believe cannot be given or taken away arbitrarily by the government

00:09:21.800 conservatives say, uh, because it was never the government's in the first place.

00:09:26.260 That is why we are for the freedom to own guns. We believe that we have a right to defend

00:09:31.260 ourselves and our families because we have a right to life and so on. Um, all of conservatism

00:09:36.360 really boils down to the fact that God is bigger than government and government should not become

00:09:41.680 God. So we should do whatever we can to make government small. Now, there are plenty of people

00:09:48.980 who identify as conservatives who don't identify as Christians and who say that they don't believe in

00:09:53.880 God. Well, I think that's a kind of a hard case to make that you have rights that transcend what

00:09:59.620 the government can recognize or the government can give and take away. If you don't believe that

00:10:03.660 your rights were endowed by a creator to you, you have no right to say that you have a right

00:10:08.400 that the government hasn't given you if you don't believe in God. But there are people who just kind

00:10:13.600 of believe in some kind of maybe transcendent power that gave them their rights. Again, it doesn't

00:10:17.940 make a whole lot of sense to say that your rights are just there, but there are plenty of people who

00:10:22.720 identify as atheists, identify as conservatives. Maybe they haven't thought about where their rights

00:10:26.760 come from. Nevertheless, they just believe that the government doesn't have the power to give and

00:10:31.020 take away all of their rights. Um, this is also why conservatives are typically for, uh, lower taxes.

00:10:37.560 That's why conservatives are for limited welfare. That's why conservatives are for deregulation. The more

00:10:42.280 money you give the government, the more you rely on the government to take care of you. Uh, the less freedom that

00:10:47.280 you have, the more tyrannical the government, uh, can get. So conservatives don't believe that there's

00:10:53.600 no place for government. There is. Most conservatives, uh, believe in some kind of social safety net.

00:11:00.160 Conservatives believe that one of the government's jobs is to protect people from harm, from exploitation,

00:11:05.200 from theft, from physical harm. It is to bring about justice. Uh, even the most small government

00:11:11.500 libertarian believes that the government should protect innocent life from being taken or harmed

00:11:16.300 and should punish, uh, wrongdoing. Uh, cause we often hear the argument from the left that if

00:11:22.320 you're really small government, how can you be against abortion? I thought that you weren't for

00:11:26.680 the infringement of the government onto your life. Yes, but even the most, the, the smallest governments,

00:11:32.440 uh, should have the responsibility to prevent its most vulnerable from being slaughtered. The government

00:11:37.400 has the responsibilities outlined in the constitution to protect the basic rights of its citizens,

00:11:42.940 because again, rights come from God and the government is simply a protector of them.

00:11:48.940 So conservatives emphasis on law and order also leads them, uh, to advocate for a strong border

00:11:55.660 policy. We have an emphasis on law and order because we believe that the government's job is to protect

00:12:00.520 our rights, to protect life and liberty. So that means that we advocate for things like a strong

00:12:05.740 border policy. We believe in sovereignty. We have a low tolerance for lawlessness and anarchy.

00:12:10.820 Uh, in general, we believe in the value of citizenship. We believe in our nations, uh,

00:12:16.440 our nation's sovereignty of personal responsibility of morality that leads people to a right way of

00:12:21.440 doing things. Uh, that's also why many conservatives believe in a strong foreign policy. Uh, a lot of

00:12:27.960 people believe that freedom everywhere helps freedom here, protects freedom here. Tyranny anywhere poses

00:12:34.040 the threat of tyranny here. Not every conservative believes that of course, libertarians and, uh,

00:12:39.400 conservatives with a libertarian leaning basically believe that we shouldn't be involved abroad.

00:12:44.360 And they also have conservative reasoning in that, uh, because it costs Americans money. It limits us

00:12:49.240 from being able to take care of the problems here. So there are two different sides on that that are

00:12:53.500 both conservative, uh, conservatives believe in the value and the potential of the individual. They

00:12:59.180 are typically, uh, advocates of this kind of like up by your bootstraps philosophy or mentality that

00:13:05.260 you can do anything in this country. That's what makes America so beautiful. You can do anything

00:13:09.920 here that you set your mind to. That doesn't mean you won't have obstacles. That doesn't mean that you

00:13:13.720 there, that prejudice doesn't exist. That doesn't mean that things are sometimes going to be unfair

00:13:18.440 or really hard, but if you do work hard, uh, you can do anything that you want. Uh, conservatives are

00:13:25.040 believers in hard work and the necessity and the dignity of work. Um, it is this self-reliance that

00:13:30.900 again, protects people conservatives believe from depending on the government. And we believe again,

00:13:36.380 that a bloated government leads to tyranny. That is also why conservatives believe in capitalism and

00:13:41.620 the free market and supply and demand. Don't believe in the, in the government, um, setting a minimum

00:13:47.280 wage or offering universal basic income. It's also why a lot of conservatives don't give a whole lot

00:13:54.660 of credence to things like systemic racism, not all conservatives, but it's why a lot of conservatives

00:14:00.760 don't, uh, systemic racism, not just in general, but being the only, or even the primary reason that

00:14:07.780 certain groups have gotten ahead. That doesn't mean conservatives deny that racism exists. It

00:14:11.800 doesn't mean that conservatives say that systemic racism has never existed, but most conservatives

00:14:16.500 will deny that that is the primary reason why someone hasn't been able to get ahead is systemic

00:14:20.740 racism. That's just true of conservatives. Uh, now conservatives are statistically more religious

00:14:26.680 than their liberal counterparts. They're more likely to believe in God than liberal

00:14:30.740 are. Uh, they're also cultural and social things because of that, that they are likely to believe

00:14:36.260 that liberals are not typically believe in the sanctity of biblical marriage, or we're more likely

00:14:40.960 to, I would say than those on the left. Of course, that's changing. Conservatives typically believe

00:14:46.060 that gender is binary, different things like that. Now this is all fundamentally, theoretically,

00:14:53.520 ideally what conservatism is that doesn't necessarily reflect, like I said, in the beginning,

00:14:58.360 today's Republican party, uh, maybe theoretically, but not in practice. A plenty of Republicans

00:15:04.700 have added to the size of the government. Plenty of Republicans have raised taxes. Not every

00:15:09.060 Republican or conservative believes in God, as I've already said, uh, this is a general and

00:15:14.120 ideal description of the foundations of conservatism or the basic aspects of conservatism. I should

00:15:19.880 say, uh, liberals, and we're going to call them liberals. Um, it's difficult to come up with

00:15:25.480 the right term. A lot of people say leftist. Some people say progressive. Some people don't like

00:15:30.060 saying progressives because it denotes progress. I don't really have a problem with that. Progressive

00:15:35.100 has a negative connotation in my mind. And so it's fine to say progressives. I understand that I don't

00:15:41.360 really mean progress. Some people don't like to say liberals because classical liberals or classical

00:15:46.260 liberalism was really part of the foundation of conservatism. But you know what I'm talking about

00:15:51.360 when I say liberals? Um, so liberals, on the other hand, those that are on the left to believe that

00:15:57.140 the rights outlined by the constitution are not necessarily inherent, not necessarily. And they

00:16:02.840 can be given or taken away by the government as the government sees fit for the welfare for the rest

00:16:09.580 of society. So an example of this, um, would be guns. It is more important. It is less important that

00:16:16.500 people have the freedom to own guns than it is in their mind that a solution is enacted for people,

00:16:21.140 not to be killed by gun violence. And they believe that the solution is that people just don't have

00:16:26.140 guns. Uh, so individual liberty, uh, is not quite as important to the left as it is to the right

00:16:32.040 freedom from the tyranny of government, not as important to a liberal, uh, as what Jonathan Haidt

00:16:37.380 in his book, a righteous mind describes his fairness and care. Those are the two highest values that

00:16:43.240 manifest themselves in unique ways among, uh, among liberals. It is more important,

00:16:48.280 more important than liberty. That's not to say that no liberal cares about liberty, but more

00:16:52.960 important, uh, more important than liberty to many on the left is that the government ensures a fair

00:16:58.360 society and that people are taken care of. Uh, the liberal idea of fairness, especially today is

00:17:04.460 typically described as equal outcome rather than equal opportunity. So this is why you will hear

00:17:10.680 liberals talk about wealth inequality. Uh, they don't talk about work inequality. They talk about

00:17:15.600 wealth inequality that those at the top have so much more than those at the bottom. And they believe

00:17:20.660 that there is a corrupt system that is systemically holding the people at the bottom down. Uh, liberals

00:17:26.040 believe that the government has the responsibility to step in and to do something about that. Uh, liberals

00:17:31.840 typically attribute inequality to oppression rather than choices, uh, because they see oppression as a

00:17:38.800 limit to people's happiness and wellbeing. They believe it is the responsibility of bureaucrats to fix it.

00:17:44.340 Even if that means limiting the freedom or the rights of someone else. So another example of this

00:17:48.800 would be Jack Phillips, the Colorado cake baker who refused to bake a wedding cake, uh, for a gay 0.99

00:17:55.520 couple, not just any cake, but a wedding cake. Now this is a guy who also doesn't bake Halloween cakes.

00:18:00.660 Like he's a very religious person. He didn't want to bake a wedding cake for a gay couple. The gay 1.00

00:18:05.100 couple sued him. Colorado agreed with the gay couple, but then the Supreme court ruled in favor of Jack

00:18:10.480 Phillips. Uh, there's more to the story of the ruling, but we'll stop there for now.

00:18:14.340 Uh, the left said in response to this, no, sorry, you can't discriminate against gay people

00:18:20.020 for any reason. Uh, this is a marginalized group. The right said, um, this is, this is the first

00:18:26.200 amendment. Like he has a freedom to practice his religion. However he wants to. Plus you could say

00:18:30.680 that his, uh, cake baking is artistry. It's an artistic rendering. And so it should be also covered

00:18:37.440 under the realm of the first amendment protection of free speech. So the left in general believes that

00:18:43.080 the government should have the power to give and to take away that freedom as it benefits those who 1.00

00:18:47.700 they see as being harmed. Um, that is why most on the left, uh, like I said, are okay with kind of

00:18:54.980 limiting or doing away with the second amendment as well. Um, ideally most liberals would like for

00:19:02.140 everything to be on an even playing field. They would like everything to be equal that no disparities

00:19:07.520 would exist because like I said, they see any disparity as sexism, as racism, rather than just

00:19:15.020 as choices. We see this when they talk about the gender wage gap, that the average woman makes 79

00:19:20.560 cents to every dollar that the average man makes. Of course, that number, that ratio has nothing to do,

00:19:26.860 um, with any factors contributing to that. So it doesn't have to do with job title. Doesn't have to do

00:19:31.460 with education. Doesn't have to do with experience. That's just the average woman compared to the 1.00

00:19:35.580 average man. But when you look at it, when all factors are contributed are, are considered are

00:19:40.520 factored in, there is no actual wage gap between men and women. And yet they look at any difference

00:19:46.000 between men and women as sexism rather than maybe a lot of women just choose to stay home because

00:19:51.440 that's their natural inclination. They don't want to work as many hours as a lot of men do just average.

00:19:57.280 Uh, they don't want to consider that because in their mind it is, uh, it has to do with discrimination

00:20:06.240 rather than just choices. And that is why they advocate for laws that protect and even uplift who

00:20:13.340 they see as marginalized groups. That's why they advocate for things like affirmative action. Uh, 0.93

00:20:17.800 they really see things as a hierarchy of oppression with kind of like wealthy Christian white people 0.50

00:20:24.320 at the top and then everyone else being trampled in one way or another. So in order to make things

00:20:29.140 fair, in order to care for people, the two things that they really believe are important. They

00:20:33.960 believe that those traditionally who are privileged or who are traditionally in power have to be taken

00:20:39.960 down a notch and those traditionally underprivileged and not in power needed need to be lifted up. And all

00:20:45.400 of this should be by the government. And so they say healthcare for all is a right. Free college is a

00:20:51.680 right because the government defines these as our rights. And this is fair. And this takes care of

00:20:57.540 people. Now, the other side of the equation, of course, is that this costs people a lot of money,

00:21:03.060 but, but they are more willing to take away the freedom of some people, the freedom of some people,

00:21:09.120 for example, uh, to choose their own healthcare plan in favor of caring for people who don't have

00:21:14.940 healthcare. Um, conservatives would say no one has a right to my money. That's not what the bill of

00:21:21.000 rights, uh, says the bill of rights is to protect people from too much government, not ensure them

00:21:27.900 or not ensure more government. So conservatives would also say it's not systemic oppression that

00:21:33.180 mostly keeps people down. They would say like we've already established its choices and the government

00:21:37.520 pushing some people down to lift some people up is in itself unfair. It doesn't guarantee equal

00:21:43.940 outcomes. Conservatives for the most part know that there's no such thing as equal outcomes. There's no

00:21:48.340 such thing as a fully even playing field. Uh, we don't believe that there's ever going to be

00:21:52.800 complete equal, completely equal outcomes on this side of heaven, because that's just never going

00:21:58.320 to be the case. As Thomas Sowell said, I think he said, geography is not egalitarian. So where people

00:22:04.200 live matters. People's gender matters. The kind of family that you're born into matters. Your IQ level

00:22:10.600 matters. The choices that you make matter. There's no way to eliminate all of those factors to make

00:22:15.600 things equal. So conservatives would say, yes, we should try our best to create a country in which

00:22:20.460 we are all playing by the same rules and where justice is evenly distributed. That's what I

00:22:26.360 believe. Justice should be evenly distributed, but we cannot guarantee equal outcomes by pushing some

00:22:32.460 people down in favor of lifting other people up. There will always be winners. There will always be

00:22:37.580 losers, even in a socialist society. Um, liberals would rather have, they would rather have equal

00:22:45.060 and I say, what's a better word to say this? That doesn't sound so negative. Equal, uh,

00:22:53.280 middleness. I really want to say mediocrity. That's what I'm trying to say. They would rather have

00:22:58.320 equal mediocrity than having huge disparities between the wealthy and the poor. And I think

00:23:03.500 that they would probably openly admit that, um, liberals typically base morality on what harms someone.

00:23:10.440 Conservatives don't necessarily base morality on that. There is a higher definition of morality.

00:23:15.800 It's based on what you as an individual are doing or not doing, not the reaction of someone or not

00:23:21.940 whether or not something offends someone. Um, so these are a lot of the fundamental disagreements

00:23:27.240 between conservatives and liberals. There's so much more to say. Conservatives believe that more

00:23:32.140 government equals more problems. Liberals believe that more government equals less problems. Uh,

00:23:38.260 conservatives believe that a compassionate, responsible government protects their rights

00:23:43.020 to life, liberty, and property. Liberals believe that a compassionate, responsible government ensures

00:23:47.820 equality in suffering. Um, here's the thing, uh, giving both sides the benefit of the doubt here.

00:23:55.740 Uh, both sides believe that they care for people more than the other side does. Uh, both sides think

00:24:01.940 that their side has the correct solution for helping people. Both sides believe that they are morally

00:24:07.020 superior. Uh, the right will point to abortion, uh, to claim that the left is heartless. The left will

00:24:13.780 point to kids in cages to, to claim that the right is heartless. You guys know where I stand on that.

00:24:18.760 You guys know that I don't think that those are really morally equivalent, but that's how the

00:24:21.740 conversation typically typically goes. Uh, the point is both sides think that they are correct and

00:24:26.780 righteous and compassionate and pragmatic and good. Uh, and the truth of the matter is you guys know

00:24:31.360 that I'm a conservative, but the truth of the matter is we need both sides to push and to pull.

00:24:35.960 We need this back and forth. It's important for us to have both in this country. It's important.

00:24:40.720 It is important for liberals to remind conservatives where systemic injustices do exist. Um, that is

00:24:47.300 crucial. It's important for conservatives to remind liberals of the dangers of over taxation and big

00:24:51.300 governments and the importance of liberty. It's important for us to debate how to balance, uh,

00:24:56.100 mercy with the rule of law. It is important for us to debate the role of governments. Um,

00:25:02.420 I believe, of course, you guys know, you guys know this already. I believe that our rights are

00:25:07.480 inherent. Uh, they were given to us by God and that the rights outlined in the constitution are not up

00:25:12.840 for negotiation because they were given to us by our creator and they shouldn't be infringed.

00:25:17.980 I believe in the dignity of the human being, starting at the point of conception,

00:25:22.500 a logic nor morality gives me really any other option on that. I believe bureaucracy is inefficient

00:25:27.800 and ineffective. Therefore, I believe that over taxation is equally inefficient and ineffective.

00:25:34.060 I believe that individuals in the private sector do a much better job of taking care of the poor than

00:25:39.560 the government does. Uh, I believe in religious liberty and free speech. I think that you should

00:25:44.820 have the right to protect your family however you see fit with a firearm if you so choose. I believe

00:25:50.500 in private property, uh, in ownership as we see reflected in the 10th commandment and the Bible,

00:25:55.820 which prohibits covetousness. So I don't believe in forcibly redistributing someone's wealth,

00:26:01.700 uh, that they earned to the poor, forcibly redistributing that. Uh, I believe in the dignity

00:26:08.820 of work as we see reflected in the creation account that work actually existed before the fall. So human

00:26:14.080 beings were made to be productive, not to rely fully on the government. I believe in law and order.

00:26:19.560 I believe in borders and sovereignty and citizenship. Uh, I think that you should have a choice in your

00:26:23.880 healthcare. And I think that single payer, a single payer system like Medicare for all will hurt our

00:26:28.980 economy and our ability to get quality care. I am a conservative in every sense of the word really

00:26:35.000 that I can think of. And now people assume that that means that you don't care about justice, that

00:26:40.220 you don't care about the poor. That's not true. I want a justice system that is impartial. I want a

00:26:46.740 prison system that is both effective, merciful, and humanitarian. I want us to figure out our

00:26:51.920 immigration system so that women and children don't have to suffer at the border. Uh, I believe

00:26:56.700 where systemic injustice truly exists, that it should be called out and something should be done

00:27:00.540 about it. I believe that we have to have the conversations that balance liberty and care

00:27:06.180 between freedom and protection and provision. I think that these conversations and discussions

00:27:10.980 are important and I am not so associated with my party or with partisanship that I cannot see a

00:27:18.140 solution where there truly is one that I cannot see a merciful option that may exist outside of my

00:27:24.060 little partisan bubble. Of course, I believe in doing the right thing and the righteous thing and

00:27:29.400 having righteous judgments. Um, and if that means venturing outside of what traditional conservatism is,

00:27:35.320 of course, I'm willing to do that. I haven't come across that yet. Uh, that doesn't mean that

00:27:41.760 I have sided with everything the Republican party has ever done. That's certainly not true. That's certainly

00:27:46.780 not true, but it's about values and that's what everything goes back to. But I do think that

00:27:53.140 these conversations, these discussions, these debates are important and it does require giving

00:27:57.900 the other side, even if you disagree with them as adamantly as I disagree with the values of the

00:28:04.040 left, it does mean giving them the benefit of the doubt and realizing that we really do have a lot in

00:28:09.460 common in that we both think that we have solutions that are best for our country. We both want to put

00:28:15.840 our, put our country on the right track and to move our country forward in a good way. Now, a lot of

00:28:21.740 people on the left think that that means that we need to look more like Europe. I don't believe that

00:28:27.380 at all. We have some fundamental disagreements about liberty, about morality, about God that are very

00:28:35.760 basic and they're hard to move past. But I understand that most people on the other side are not evil just

00:28:42.800 because of their views, that they don't purposely want to harm people, that they think that they're

00:28:48.400 doing the right thing. And maybe if we can disagree or maybe if we can agree on some very basic things,

00:28:54.200 we can get to a point to where we talk about what this best solution is. Maybe my mind is open to

00:28:59.420 something. Maybe their mind is open to something. Now, a lot of you have asked me, how do I talk to

00:29:04.580 someone on the other side of the aisle? I have a boyfriend, I have a girlfriend, I have a friend,

00:29:07.780 I have a mom who disagrees with me and I don't know how to talk to her without her completely

00:29:11.880 shutting down or saying she doesn't want to talk about politics. As a conservative, this is

00:29:16.700 typically a conservative asking me how to talk to their liberal friends. And what I encourage you

00:29:21.280 to do is to be curious. Quite frankly, there's a lot that I don't understand about what the left

00:29:26.340 believes. And I think that a really good way to kind of figure it out and to be able to have

00:29:30.900 productive dialogue is to be curious without being on the defense or without being on the offense

00:29:36.140 either. So just say, why do you believe that? Or what do you think about this? Oh, where did you

00:29:41.540 get that information in a way that's not, you know, doesn't sound like you're attacking them?

00:29:45.560 Or why do you think that? And maybe that's the only conversation that you have at first. Maybe it

00:29:51.120 doesn't turn into a full blown argument. Maybe it's not even an exchange. Maybe for a little while,

00:29:55.860 you just ask them why, why do you, why do you believe that? Okay. I've never thought about it like

00:30:01.440 that. And you kind of internalize those things and you make sure that you know what you

00:30:05.580 believe and why you believe what you believe. And maybe that builds a foundation for a good

00:30:09.720 conversation with them. So they know that you're not just trying to attack them. You're not just

00:30:13.500 trying to break them down, but you're really trying to understand if you are friends with a liberal,

00:30:18.200 if you are friends with, uh, anyone who are, who is on the left, or, you know, someone who's on the

00:30:23.620 left that you want to engage with, realize that their priorities are fairness and care. And your

00:30:28.480 priorities probably are not, or your definitions of fairness and care don't look the same as theirs

00:30:34.200 because you are also prioritizing, uh, liberty very highly. And so just realize that even though

00:30:40.180 you might have some of the same goals and you might have some of the same, uh, things that you

00:30:44.980 care about, your priorities and your values and the lens through which you're seeing the world

00:30:48.640 are, are different. That doesn't mean they're not wrong. They could be very wrong, but their

00:30:52.980 intentions might not be wrong or their intentions might not be bad. So you can lay a foundation for a

00:30:57.840 healthy conversation that way. So I hope this was helpful. Like I said, we barely scratched the surface.

00:31:02.300 There is so much Jonathan Haidt wrote this really complex book, I think called a righteous mind

00:31:08.120 that talks about the different values that conservatives and liberals have. I'm not saying

00:31:12.840 that it is a foolproof philosophy that he has built, but it's helped a lot of people, um, kind of

00:31:18.420 understand where the other side is coming from without completely demonizing them. So I think it's

00:31:23.040 important for us to have that perspective, not always easy to do what we're talking about, everything

00:31:27.200 that's going on in the news, but take a step back and realize that, okay, we probably have a little

00:31:31.480 more in common than we thought. Maybe we're just coming at it from two different, two different

00:31:36.000 perspectives. So, okay. Hope you guys have a great day and I'll see you next time.

Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - July 03, 2019

Ep 133 ｜ Conservatives, Liberals & the Constitution

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