Where are the conservative cities? Maybe they exist but I don’t live near any. During elections the maps always show that the more densely populated an area is the more liberal they vote. Why?
I honestly think it’s got something to do with human nature. I think that if there are a bunch of people congested with one another and if someone is doing very well and being successful then jealously kicks in with others. That’s when a “right” of entitlement starts up. It takes a certain discipline to not compare yourself to others. Seeing successful people should inspire yourself to do better, not become jealous of others that have done well in their endeavors. But that thought process takes discipline to achieve, I don’t think it’s instinctive. We as people are instinctively selfish. Just look at children and you see that. We have to teach them to share. We have to teach them to work together. We have to teach them to not be jealous of what other people have.
Now certainly not all liberals are jealous, that’s not what I mean. I just notice that the more liberal an area is the more inclined it is to have higher taxes, more social programs, etc. The more of the “right” of entitlement seems to be apparent. Any thoughts?
August 14, 2008 at 5:39 pm
Well Im pretty certain what you are stating is a fact, not just a stereotype.
If you want to think of it in tribal terms, who is more likely to survive, the lone caveman or the pack? One man will really have to work to take down a buffalo, but 10? Not so hard. I hate to (but always seem to) relate it back to animals and nature, but all the dominant species travel in packs, hunt in packs, and live in packs. The difference is all the members in the pack are expected to contribute, and there is a pecking order. The male lion is the protector, he keeps the pride safe and keeps the them in line. The females hunt, the juveniles learn to do one or the other.
Our “civilized” ways dont require everyone to contribute, but for some reason allow everyone to reap the fruits of the fews labor. Seem counter-productive? Because it is. People live in cities because, like you said, they have been trained to understand that they can reap rewards without contribution by themselves. Its a repetitive cycle that can only be broken by stopping the reinforcement (ending entitlements), and mainstream America wont have any of that. We are too busy feeling good about ourselves by helping out “those less fortunate”.
People move out of the city because they want to stand on their own two feet. People stay away from the cities because they are comfortable putting forth the effort they have to in order to survive. They want the government out of their business for the same reason, I can work harder than other people might want to, I can survive without your handouts, I dont need you taking from me and giving to the people who refuse to do the same.
It comes back to the same thing as always. “Civilization” seems to mean the strong supporting the weak, the wealthy supporting the poor, the intelligent thinking for the ignorant. It might be something we just have to accept, because the alternative will never be attractive to the masses. As long as our elected representatives pander to those who cry the loudest instead of the silent majority nothing will change
August 26, 2008 at 2:40 am
Conservatives don’t flock to cities because cities are melting pots of diversity, and if there’s anything a conservative hates more than taxes, it’s people who are different from himself.
In a city, you are forced to deal with all types of cultures — neighbors who play loud ethnic music or people speaking other languages in public. You may even have to witness gay people walking down the street, holding hands *gasp*! Conservatives flock to the suburbs and rural towns where they can establish their own insular communities (even if it’s a community of one person) and filter out anything they disagree with.
It has nothing to do with entitlements. If people flock to cities, it’s because that’s where real economic opportunities are and because they are vibrant cultural centers. Meanwhile, because most of the federal tax dollars are earned in the cities, city-dwellers end up subsidizing the rural conservatives who rail against government handouts. It’d be funny if it weren’t so sad.
Maybe a “conservative city” is a contradiction — if conservatives were open-minded enough to live close to other kinds of people and interested enough in their fellow human kind, they wouldn’t be so conservative anymore.
August 26, 2008 at 2:00 pm
A response to dcs:
Your comments are indicative of how much liberals misunderstand conservatives. I’d like to address three key points here:
1. I am conservative and it is not true that I hate people that are not like me. I understand that it is a diverse world and that all kinds of people share this world with me. It’s not about me and it doesn’t belong to me. No problem with that. We all have the freedom to make the choices we want. You gave an example of seeing “gays walking down the street”. I can disagree with the lifestyle without hating the person. And I am free to choose not to visit the gay bar. I hear liberals talk so much about how tolerant they are. If they were truly so tolerant, they would be tolerant of everyone including conservatives. However, I have found that when liberals discover that I’m conservative they are not friendly toward me. Why? I’m different from them and I don’t agree with them! You say conservatives move to out to get away from people who don’t agree with them, but I don’t see liberals making any moves to mingle with conservatives. I have found liberals to be very angry people if you see things differently from them.
2. Yes, the cities are the places where federal tax dollars are earned (as you say). Earned? How does the government earn my money? I do that! It is where there are economic opportunities, many of them provided by many businesses large and small Many of those business leaders are conservatives. So isn’t it nice that there are conservatives providing economic opportunities to such a diverse group of people? The problem with handouts is that it discourages personal development.
3. What rural conservatives are you speaking of that are being subsidized? Do you mean farmers? So why do farmers need to be subsidized? You can blame this on gov’t taxes. Higher taxes on everything from their property to what they need to buy to produce their crops. The gov’t actually pays farmers not to grow crops! You say these rural conservatives rail against government handouts and I say they are hardworking people that provide for others and don’t expect handouts.
In closing, I used to be a liberal. I became a conservative as a result of opening up my mind to different views. After much deliberate thought, those views began to make sense to me. With that, I say if liberals were more open-minded and truly see the what real conservatism is and not their own distorted view of it, they wouldn’t be liberal anymore.