I'd say I'm leftist on most issues, extreme right on a few (such as the first amendment).
There are, I'm certain, plenty of idiots/non-thinkers on both sides. However, the ones on the right (in America...and in general I'd say) tend to be a lot more heinous and loud about it. I mean, what's the liberal equivalent of people hating illegal immigrants, or screaming for America to nuke the middle east after 9/11? Maybe some people on the left support social programs without much thought, but to me, that's a well-meant sentiment, whereas the unthinking opinions on the right tend to be selfish.
That's fundamentally where the difference is I think. The right tends to be selfish. Now, to some degree of course, individual liberty is at the center of the American system of government and law, and it's certainly important to protect it. And there are people that make excellent arguments of why this or that government program shouldn't exist because it steps on people's individual liberties. But ultimately, leftist views tend to be that people should be helped, even if you have to force people to help others...whereas the rightist tendency is that people should not be forced to help others, and that often translates into, "don't inconvenience me to help others, or don't tax me a little extra to provide a life-saving service to someone else."
Also, to take a high profile issue...this healthcare reform disaster. Why do people on the left support it? Well, if you're the average Democrat, you've got health insurance, you're well to do; you want healthcare reform so that other Americans, who probably don't even live in your neighborhood, don't have to go without healthcare. Again, there is a right wing case to be made against it (too much government regulation of industry) but that's not what you hear idiots screaming in town hall meetings; you hear them screaming about how they don't want to lose their health care. Ignoring for a minute that they're all morons who assume something is true because Glenn Beck said it (as opposed to assuming the opposite, a much more logical conclusion) it's still a selfish choice - you'd rather have slightly better health care yourself than have millions of other people have health care at all.
Then finally that brings me to the business side of things. Conservatives tend to love the free market because...well, because it's free. Minimal restriction of individual rights to buy and sell, right? But there's a point of diminishing returns in any balance of the common good vs. individual freedom. In business, that point comes a lot sooner than with many other issues. We already know from history what happens if you let capitalism go unregulated; a wealthy few completely dominate, exploit and destroy the helpless majority. Not to mention the wealthy few buy the government. Conservative arguments for an unregulated market rest purely on principles, but if you look at the results of playing out those principles rather than ascribing merit to them a priori, you get a very different conclusion.
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