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A Guide to Basic Differences Between Left and Right
The Dennis Prager Show ^ | 1-17-17 | Dennis Prager

Posted on 01/17/2017 9:53:22 AM PST by DeweyCA

Source of Human Rights: Left: government; Right: the Creator

Human Nature: Left: basically good (Therefore, society is primarily responsible for evil.); Right: not basically good (Therefore, the individual is primarily responsible for evil.)

Economic Goal: Left: equality; Right: prosperity

Primary Role of the State: Left: increase and protect equality; Right: increase and protect liberty

Government: Left: as large as possible; Right: as small as possible

Family Ideal: Left: any loving unit of people; Right: a married father and mother, and children

Guiding Trinity: Left: race, gender and class; Right: liberty, In God We Trust and e pluribus unum

Good and Evil: Left: relative to individual and/or society; Right: based on universal absolutes

Humanity’s Primary Division(s): Left: rich and poor; strong and weak; Right: good and evil

Ideal Primary Identity of an American: Left: world citizen; Right: American citizen

How to Make a Good Society: Left: abolish inequality; Right: develop each citizen’s moral character

View of America: Left: profoundly morally flawed; inferior to any number of European countries; Right: greatest force for good among nations in world history

Gender: Left: a social construct; Right: male and female

Most Important Trait to Cultivate in a Child: Left: self-esteem; Right: self-control

Worth of the Human Fetus: Left: determined by the mother; Right: determined by society rooted in Judeo-Christian values

Primary Source of Crime: Left: poverty, racism and other societal flaws; Right: the criminal’s malfunctioning conscience

Place of God and Religion in America: Left: secular government and secular society; Right: secular government and religious society

American Exceptionalism: Left: chauvinistic doctrine; Right: historical reality

Greatest Threat to the World: Left: environmental catastrophe (currently global warming); Right: evil (currently radical Islamist violence)

International Ideal: Left: world governed by the United Nations, and no single country is dominant; Right: world in which America is the single strongest entity

Primary Reason for Lack of Peace in Middle East: Left: Israeli settlements in the West Bank; Right: Palestinian, Arab and Muslim denial of Jewish state’s right to exist

Purpose of Art: Left: challenge status quo and bourgeois sensibilities; Right: produce works of beauty and profundity to elevate the individual and society

Guns: Left: ideally universally abolished, except for use by police, the armed forces and registered sportsmen; Right: ideally widely owned by responsible individuals for self-protection and the protection of others

Race: Left: intrinsically significant; Right: intrinsically insignificant

Racial, Ethnic and Gender Diversity at Universities: Left: most important; Right: far less important than ideological diversity

Black America’s Primary Problem: Left: racism; Right: lack of fathers

Greatest Playwright: Left: entirely subjective; there is no greatest playwright; Right: Shakespeare

War: Left: not the answer; Right: sometimes the only answer

Hate: Left: wrong, except when directed at the political; Right: wrong, except when directed at evil

Cultures: Left: all equal; Right: some are better than others

America’s Founding Fathers: Left: rich white male slave owners; Right: great men who founded the greatest society

Purpose of Judges: Left: pursue social justice; Right: pursue justice

National Borders: Left: a relic of the past; Right: indispensable for national survival

View of Illegal Immigrants: Left: welcomed guests; Right: illegal immigrants

Nature: Left: intrinsically valuable; Right: made for man


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: leftism; liberalism; values
Nice summation of the differences between the Left and Right. We have entirely different worldviews and thus very different values.
1 posted on 01/17/2017 9:53:22 AM PST by DeweyCA
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To: DeweyCA

How much longer can both sides occupy the same piece of real estate?


2 posted on 01/17/2017 10:02:28 AM PST by bankwalker (groupthink is dangerous ...)
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To: DeweyCA

I have a few minor quibbles but basically right on.


3 posted on 01/17/2017 10:03:33 AM PST by xp38
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To: DeweyCA
I would add this key difference:


4 posted on 01/17/2017 10:06:00 AM PST by InterceptPoint (Ted, you finally endorsed. About time.)
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To: InterceptPoint

Ironic that Karl Marx was a real advocate for Free Trade.


5 posted on 01/17/2017 10:07:24 AM PST by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: xp38

Me too.


6 posted on 01/17/2017 10:12:42 AM PST by FamiliarFace
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To: DeweyCA

Yes, well summarized, as I would expect from Dennis.


7 posted on 01/17/2017 10:17:46 AM PST by Sans-Culotte (Time to get the US out of the UN and the UN out of the US!)
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To: DeweyCA
IDEAS OF LIBERTY: (from America’s Founders and Presidents)

“The God who gave us life gave us liberty at the same time; the hand of force may destroy, but cannot disjoin them.” (Jefferson - 1774)

“Statesmen may plan and speculate for Liberty, but it is Religion and Morality alone which can establish the principles upon which Freedom can securely stand.” (John Adams - 1775)

“The Sacred Rights of Mankind are not to be rummaged for among old parchments or musty records. They are written, as with a sunbeam, in the whole volume of human nature, by the Hand of the Divinity itself, and can never be erased or obscured by mortal power.” (Alexander Hamilton)

“Without God, there could be no American form of government, nor an American way of life. Recognition of the Supreme Being is the first and the most basic expression of Americanism. Thus the founding fathers saw it, and thus, with God’s help, it will continue to be.” (Dwight Eisenhower)

“The same revolutionary beliefs for which our forebears fought are still at issue around the globe, the belief that the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state but from the hand of God.” (John F. Kennedy - 1961 Inaugural)

“…it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly implore His protection and favor….”(George Washington)

“Now the virtue which had been infused into the Constitution…and was to give it…the stability and duration to which it was destined, was no other than…those abstract principles…proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence—namely, the self-evident truths of the…unalienable rights of man…the…sovereignty of the people, always subordinate to a rule of right and wrong, and always responsible to the Supreme Ruler of the universe for the rightful exercise of that sovereign…power.” (John Quincy Adams, on the occasion of The Jubilee of the Constitution - 1839)

COUNTERFEIT IDEAS: (from some of those whose views have dominated national educational policy)

“The idea of God is the keystone of a perverted society. The true root of liberty, equality and culture is atheism.” (Karl Marx)

Our thinking is enlightened “in the degree in which we cease to depend upon belief in the supernatural.” (John Dewey, father of ‘progressive education’ and 1st President of American Humanist Society)

“…democracy is a human faith and movement, unencumbered by supernatural preconceptions.” (John Childs, a protégé of John Dewey at Columbia)

“…the majority of our youth still hold the values of their parents, and if we do not alter this pattern, if we do not resocialize ourselves to accept change, our society may decay.” (John Goodlad, 1971 Report to President, Schooling for the Future)

“As in 1933, humanists still believe that traditional theism, especially a faith in the prayer-hearing God, who is assumed to love and care for persons, to hear and understand their prayers, and be able to do something about them, is an unproved and outmoded faith.” (Humanist Manifesto II, 1973)

“…the most important factor moving us toward a secular society has been the educational factor. Our schools may not teach Johnny to read properly, but the fact that Johnny is in school until he is sixteen tends to lead toward elimination of religious superstition.” (Paul Blanshard, The Humanist, March-April, 1976)

“It [the Nat’l. Education Association’s publication list] includes the delegitimizing of all authority save that of the state, the degradation of traditional morality and the encouragement of citizens in general and children in particular to despise the rules and customs that make their society a functional democracy. The NEA is drifting into exceedingly dangerous waters, and probably carrying more than a few teachers and pupils with it.” (Chester E. Finn, Jr., Former Ass’t. Sec. of Education & Prof. of Education & Public Policy, Vanderbilt Univ., 1982)

“Now, my countrymen, if you have been taught doctrines which conflict with the great landmarks of the Declaration of Independence…let me entreat you to come back. Return to the fountains whose waters spring close to the blood of the Revolution.” (Abraham Lincoln) “These principles form the bright constellation which has gone before us and guided our steps through an age of revolution and reformation. The wisdom of our sages and the blood of our heroes have been devoted to their attainment. They should be the creed of our political faith, the text of civic instruction, the touchstone by which to try the services of those we trust; and should we wander from them in moments of error or of alarm, let us hasten to retrace our steps and to regain the road which alone leads to peace, liberty, and safety.” - President Thomas Jefferson – First Inaugural Address

8 posted on 01/17/2017 10:30:51 AM PST by loveliberty2
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To: xp38
I have a few minor quibbles but basically right on.

My only significant quibble is with the last entry, re "Nature".

Otherwise, quite succinctly stated.

9 posted on 01/17/2017 10:31:36 AM PST by Seaplaner (Never give in. Never give in. Never...except for convictions of honour and good sense. W. Churchill)
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To: DeweyCA
One minor point:

Worth of the Human Fetus: Left: determined by the mother; Right: determined by society rooted in Judeo-Christian values

The worth of the human fetus to the Left is determined by society, based on short-term utilitarian choices: if the society wants mothers to abort, they either entice (Planned Parenthood) or force (China one-child policy) mothers to abort, and if the society doesn't want mothers to abort (Ceausescu), they force mothers not to abort.

The worth of the human fetus to the Right is determined by God, as reflected in Judeo-Christian values. The exception to this is the atheist libertarian right, which leaves the decision solely to the mother, with neither societal or divine intervention.

10 posted on 01/17/2017 10:32:29 AM PST by chajin ("There is no other name under heaven given among people by which we must be saved." Acts 4:12)
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To: DeweyCA

Bttt.

5.56mm


11 posted on 01/17/2017 10:36:39 AM PST by M Kehoe
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To: DeweyCA

Somebody owes you a living versus nobody owes you a living.

You serve the Government versus the Government serves you.

It’s always someone else’s fault versus personal responsibility.

I have Rights versus your Rights end at the tip of my nose.


12 posted on 01/17/2017 10:41:25 AM PST by Kickass Conservative ( Democracy, two Wolves and one Sheep deciding what's for Dinner.)
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To: Kickass Conservative

If your are Meryl Streep, Trump mocked a Disabled Reporter versus you can Abort a Child who is Disabled.


13 posted on 01/17/2017 10:43:17 AM PST by Kickass Conservative ( Democracy, two Wolves and one Sheep deciding what's for Dinner.)
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To: DeweyCA

The single biggest basic difference between the Left and the Right is that those on the Right believe that those on the Left are either uninformed or stupid or naive. In other words, with a little effort they are capable of changing into informed people with opinions that reflect reality to some degree. However, the Left views those on the Right as being evil. Thus, they are unable to ever change and become good. Therefore, they must be demonized and made both irrelevant and powerless.

Remember that before you ever allow another Leftist to gain power over you or your country.


14 posted on 01/17/2017 12:05:31 PM PST by Ancesthntr ("The right to buy weapons the right to be free." A. E. van Vogt)
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