Conservatism vs Liberalism is a LIE | How Americans Have Been Tricked

You've been lied to about what conservatism and liberalism mean. But not just you; pretty much every American has been lied to, including popular political commentators and politicians. What if I told you the reason why you've been lied to is so that certain politicians can mislead you into supporting causes you otherwise wouldn't, and have you fighting with people over issues neither of you fully understand instead of focusing on the big important issues you would both agree on?
Well that's exactly what's happened in American politics since the 1950s, and as I will explain, if more people understood what conservatism and liberalism actually mean, there would be less of a political divide in America and many of the social issues that persist in America would be resolved. In this video essay I am going to attempt to restore the proper frames of reference regarding what conservatism and liberalism actually mean in political philosophy in the hopes that more people will come to understand that neither the Republican Party nor the Democrat party are championing either of these philosophies, and that conservatism and liberalism actually mean the exact same thing. Through the course of explaining this to you I hope to convince you that, contrary to the popular divisive rhetoric that claims America is a systemically racist and evil country, America was actually founded to be an Enlightened liberal society where equal opportunity for all of its citizens was obtained in less than two-hundred years. And by exploring the roots for why this confusion began about America we can identify the solution for how to restore the proper frames of reference and heal the wounds in the soul of the nation. By doing so I think we can make America truly great again, for all of its citizens.
Conservative, loosely speaking, is a defense of traditional values. In the context of politics conservatism is the defense of the traditional political ideology of the nation that is the subject of discussion. So in the USA this SHOULD mean a defense of liberalism, as the political philosophy that is at the heart of the US government is classical liberalism and the US also employs some social liberalism policies in things like welfare, public schools and social security.

It is because most Americans have little understanding of political philosophy or the actual history of the country and its development that they assume these labels are what they have been subverted as in modern times. Personally speaking, to me it is rather horrifying that so many people think the US Constitution is compatible with Christian nationalism, as liberalism was expressly developed as a rebuttal to Christian theocratic governments -- particularly, a rejection of the claim of the divine right of kings and other religious leaders to dictate law to the masses. Classical liberalism replaced this form of Christian nationalism with the view that people have an inherent natural right to liberty and that the role of government is to protect this liberty. It is this emphasis on establishing a government of the people, by the people and for the people that led to the creation of the United States and these principles of classical liberalism are engraved into the words of the US Constitution.

I believe there needs to be a movement to restore the proper frames of reference and get people to understand real American conservatism is liberalism, and the Marxist Progressivism that often is championed by the political left in the USA is not liberalism. At no point in the US's history has it been a theocracy or socialist, it has always been a liberal country and those citing the US Constitution as the source of their rights are championing a liberal perspective of politics when they do so, not a Christian nationalist nor a Marxist Progressive one. Both Christian nationalism and socialism are completely incompatible with liberalism -- in fact, socialism was created specifically as a rebuttal to humanistic forms of government such as liberalism, which is why Marx was so critical of capitalism, which is a liberal economic model.
If more people understood this I believe there would be far less of a political divide in the US, as it would be much easier for the average American to reject both theocratic and Marxist efforts to alter our form of government and trample on the US Constitution.

So, let’s take a short history lesson so that we may understand why so many people today are confused about what conservatism and liberalism actually are, so that we can then restore the proper frames of reference to popular discourse about American politics. By doing this I believe we will close the widened gaps between the political right and the left, and help heal the culture of the country.

#politicalanalysis #politics #philosophy #uspolitics