Why Conservatives Hate Progressives
If you had to sum up the entirety of progressive values as they stand in the current movement it would be the push for everyone to have their basic needs met and for everyone to be treated equally just for being alive. These values are something that is relatively new to humanity. Not so new that whole movements haven’t been created around it before, for instance, any socialist or communist movement, but new enough that while being such a wholesome value it has never been executed with arguable success. It is for this exact reason that, by default, progressive policies and ideas are atrocious to conservatives.
Conservatives are not just fighting for a policy or a law, they’re fighting for the entire way of being that has existed up to this point.
Aside from the fact that conservatives are just that, conservative, these policies are not just new, they’re radically new. They break every rule for survival up to this point in humanity. Everything we’ve known up to this point is to work to survive and to take care of us and our own. There is a major reflex happening out there right now in response to an attempt to change everything. Conservatives are not just fighting for a policy or a law, they’re fighting for the entire way of being that has existed up to this point. In truth, you can’t blame them either. This has been the only system that has worked for the entirety of our species’ existence. Although the idea of working together in bigger groups has been an idea for a long time, watching out for everyone still reaches some resistance. And even for those who understand the value of providing everyone their necessities are put-off about it because having our basic needs met is synonymous with socialism to a lot of people, even some people that identify on the left. To be honest, in the past, and even in some people’s current arguments socialism is the only way to provide people their basic needs.
Because of this, conservatives are against anything that sounds like providing basic needs over concerns of a bloated and overly powerful government and the risk of losing freedoms that comes with that. Additionally, it doesn’t help the problem that some progressives are chanting about socialism and either don’t care or aren’t aware of the consequences that inevitably come with it and which go directly against conservative values. This mindset is so entrenched because these were the values a lot of conservatives were raised on and the values our country was originally based on. The economic and government model of the United States figured out something revolutionary. It figured out that we could transmit the model of pre-civilization to civilization on a large scale while still allowing individual freedom. In practice, this simply means that if you work for your survival you get to survive. This model is as raw as it was before but now just applies in the new ways of living in society rather than foraging and hunting to survive. At the time, this was spectacular and people alive today still greatly appreciate this model but there is one problem which is that it exists in a mindset of scarcity.
What makes this all possible, and what has brought this movement is that we have reached such a prosperous point in humanity that it seems unthinkable to us born at this point that everyone wouldn’t just be given what they need.
In this mindset, there is not enough to go around and especially not for free if there was extra because someone had to work for it. In today’s world, though, both of those facts are either completely untrue or soon to be there. In reality, there is something completely new about the possibility of providing everyone with their basic needs in our modern time. That we can do it, on the scale of a country like the United States, without handing over complete control to the government and sacrificing the free market. What makes this all possible, and what has brought this movement is that we have reached such a prosperous point in humanity that it seems unthinkable to us born at this point that everyone wouldn’t just be given what they need.
Regardless of how we pitch this idea, there will be push-back because it’s new and changes a lot. But what exactly our policies and message are, still change a lot. For one, we don’t want socialism and to any progressive reading this, please stop talking about it. Not only is it not what we’re after but it’s also the surest way to immediately turn off more than half the country, in other words, the quickest way to lose. Next, the idea that we ought to provide for people living here that are not citizens will not fly and it shouldn’t. The idea of borders and citizenship is what allows for a place to become well enough off that it can start to help things bigger than it, without borders, that all falls apart. This isn’t to say that we should say screw you to anyone wanting to be a citizen. In fact, we should make the process to become a citizen much easier and quicker still. This is a value we should listen to the conservatives about though. There are still some tried and true ways of doing things that work.
Human-centered capitalism is the idea that we shift the values of our society towards human well-being now that everyday life no longer has to just be about survival. This would mean valuing things such as mental health, taking care of our environment, education, and basic needs being met over just looking at GDP.
Lastly, we need to talk less about providing resources to communities and instead talk about providing individuals with money. This is the idea of welfare vs. UBI. The idea of human-centered capitalism vs a federal jobs guarantee. Human-centered capitalism is the idea that we shift the values of our society towards human well-being now that everyday life no longer has to just be about survival. This would mean valuing things such as mental health, taking care of our environment, education, and basic needs being met over just looking at GDP. This would mean we could step away from a system where those at the top are working with a mindset of abundance and everyone else is just working to stay alive with zero or very little hope for something more and towards a system where everyone truly does have opportunity to succeed and access to abundance. The moment has brought us a major opportunity to recognize our ability to provide for everyone and not ruin the system that has provided us with great freedom and a say in our system. This is what the moment has brought us, it is the next logical step in our social evolution.
The moment has brought us a major opportunity to recognize our ability to provide for everyone and not ruin the system that has provided us with great freedom and a say in our system. This is what the moment has brought us, it is the next logical step in our social evolution.
So while conservatives hate progressives for the language they use and are scared about the change they threaten to bring, in reality, there is a system we could create that emphasizes the new progressive values while still listening to conservative concerns. We obviously will never apologize for bringing change in general but if we talk about the right change we can open more minds to the world we see possible. With real conversation on these things, we can move the needle on the conversation a substantial amount, more than we could with a message of anger and resentment and with a message that actually threatens to crumble the system our country has discovered to be so valuable in return for providing basic needs. Instead, we can create a system that provides people with the money they need to get the resources they need thus allowing our economic system to operate the same and not bloating the government with money, resources, people, and power. We won’t be able to reach everyone, some conservatives are stuck in their ideologies about tax cuts for the rich and zero-government spending, but with a message and plan that considers and communicates the values of both sides we progressives can easily win and win with the policies that have everyone’s best interests at heart and in reality.
