A Post For Me – Or The Myers Liberal/Conservative Scale

This post is for me. I have recently found myself reflexively writing my post for other people and apparently trying to influence them in some way. I have known for a long time that that is a futile effort and I think I just lost my way a little. My blog was never meant for that and was only ever meant for my own musings. So I'm getting back on point and track.

The following thoughts are the results of some of my recent conversations with my conservative friends.

It seems to me that it's pretty obvious that the two major political parties are a reflection of the general social leanings of the population of this country. It also seems to me that those who claim to be independents or members of other parties or non-parties still "lean" toward the ideological views of one of the two major parties, some being more extreme and some more moderating. At any rate it seems to me that that is the way of it.

I have, for some time, struggled to discern and just kind of wrap my mind around the general characteristics of these two broad general groups. I'm sure there are probably shelves full of books on the subject, but I have just wanted to get a general common sense perspective on the whole thing. So here is what I'm thinking.

I believe that it's pretty well accepted that the two extremes of the liberal/conservative spectrum are either communism or anarchy. Now for ease of understanding I have tried to numerically quantify this thought and here is how that works. On the Myers Liberal/Conservative (Myers L/C) numeric scale a radical liberal or communist would be a -10 (left) and a radical conservative or anarchist would be a +10 (right). Using this scale I believe that the citizens of our great nation are for the most part in the middle of those two extremes or somewhere around 0 plus or minus one or two points (Myers L/C -2 to +2). Now, using the Myers L/C scale I think that recently most conservatives that I have been interacting with are somewhere around a +7 or +8 and most liberals I have been interacting with are around a -5 to -6. Now here's why I think they are falling into these general rankings on the Myers L/C scale.

As I have mentioned in many earlier post I believe that the once reasonably moderate Republican Party (Myers L/C +1 to +3) has been hijacked by a neocon radical right wing group (Myers L/C +9 to +10). Now the way they have hijacked the party is through the use of what is contemporarily referred to as "wedge issues". Some but not all of these issues are abortion, homosexuality, the ever popular gun control along with many others such as the death penalty and religion. This neocon radical group then uses these issues in conjunction with smear political campaign tactics along with money funneled through shill groups and various PAC's to manipulate the public at large. Now what one must understand is that this is an extremely complex and sophisticated operation that is succinctly planned and orchestrated on a national level. It covers every aspect of the national political life from adjusting voting districts on the State level to garnering and co-opting K Street lobbying and money resources. Additionally what these radicals have come to realize is that you can, through use of these wedge issues, implement and use scare tactics to manipulate the voting population and specifically your political base which is the critical group required to maintain control. They have also discovered that manipulating the population in this way and keeping them in the Myers L/C +8 to +9 frame of mind is the easiest way to stay in power but let's don't go down that road at this point.

Now, let's examine why the normally moderate liberal population is registering in the -5 to -6 range on the Myers L/C scale? It is my belief that American liberals, progressives, and moderates are not by nature radical as a general rule and I believe they fundamentally abhor communism so it is my thought that they are only registering at this somewhat elevated liberal level as a defensive response to the radical right. Liberals do not tend to be aggressive as a rule and therefore tend to be more thoughtfully reactive and deliberate. I believe if one were to go back to the "Republican revolution" of 1994 and analyze the liberal and conservative movements one would see the Myers L/C scale swing not necessarily proportionately but in opposite directions. Meaning simply that as the conservative movement shifted more to the right the liberal or progressive movement shifted to the left but not as rapidly or radically as the conservative movement.

Now I have to ask myself what all of this means in a practical sense and I think this is it.
I believe that simply put the basic difference between the conservative and liberal movements is their perception of the degree of government responsibility to the citizenry. This is the reason that historically people have heard that the conservative movement believes in less government, less taxes, and more individual "responsibility" and the liberal movement believes in more government, more taxes or less individual responsibility. It is my belief that these stereotypical views are not reality and that the truth lies somewhere in between, hence most Americans lay somewhere in the -2 to +2 range on the Myers L/C scale.

Let's discuss an example of what I mean. Let's use social services as an example. A radical conservative (Myers L/C +9 to +10) would probably say there should not be any social services for anyone and if you can't earn a living, tough then just die. And, a radical liberal (Myers L/C -9 to -10) might have a communist state view where every single individual gets everything from the state. Now in our great nation once again I believe the reality is in the middle. Most Americans conservative and liberal believe that everyone deserves a chance. That everyone who works hard deserves a good job and if they are "down on their luck" they deserve a "hand up" and not a "hand out"(Myers L/C -2 to +2). And, I believe that most Americans are willing to pay reasonable taxes for good roads, good schools, good defense, and good law enforcement and yes even good social services programs if they are a hand up and not a hand out. The inherent problem is the radicals of both movements tend to hijack the rest much like today when the neocon radicals of the right have hijacked their party and garnered complete control of the government.

The bottom line in my opinion is this. This nation needs leadership and an administration with a vision and not a message, and a plan and not a sound bite. This nation needs an administration with integrity and moral focus and values and not one with a radical political or religious agenda. This nation needs an administration that respects the law and not one that scorns and ridicules the law. This nation needs an administration with a domestic and foreign policy and not one with a blurred vision and shortsighted ambitions. And to answer the question I started out with, there is very little difference between and American Liberal and an American Conservative. They both want a prosperous free nation with a bright future for every citizen and a government that takes care of the needs of the nation and not the needs of a special few.
Those Are The Sergeant Majors Thoughts On That.