COLUMN: Liberal or traditional conservative?
Almost 40 years after his death, Martin Luther King, Jr.’s iconic dream lives on in the heart of the progressive movement. Civil equality, justice and cultural understanding are the core of the progressive movement’s ideology. Conversely, conservatives have been and are notoriously resistant to the changes required to create an equally accessible society. The party names and issues have changed over the years; parties are born, their platforms evolve and they eventually die.
Ultimately, however, the conservative-liberal divide has always existed in society. So though the far right might brand us as anti-American Godless socialists, the reality is that it was Progressive abolitionists who sought to end the slave trade. It was the Progressives who fought for the expansion of worker’s rights, the Suffrage Movement, the Racial Civil Rights Movement, Women’s reproductive and employment rights, the Gay Rights Movement, anti-discrimination legislation and anti-hate crime laws. And that’s the short list.
But surely America was founded on orthodox Christian and conservative values, right? No, there is no greater a myth. Most of our founding fathers were radical progressive visionaries; many were also Deists, not Christians, and either highly critical of organized religion or recognized the importance of a clear division between the church and state. The very philosophy of a government for and by the people is a liberal value because conservative parties have and always will support the special interests of aristocracy and corporate greed at the expense of general society.
Conservative policy is about maintaining the status quo. They fight for tradition and for the interests of the economic elite: America’s new aristocracy. Conservatives ultimately serve the interests of the powerful and the few and win elections only because they simultaneously provide lip service to religious interest groups. Jesus wasn’t a politician or an activist, but he told his disciples to give to the poor, and he ate and sat with the social outcasts and condemned the religious institution of the day. If anything, Jesus would have been a Democrat, a hippy at that. Will conservatives hear any of that? Of course not. Instead, they condemn and judge and vote based on issues like gay marriage and abortion.
Religion is used to further both noble and evil agendas. King used biblical passages and allusions to communicate equality and justice. But it has also been used to justify racism, the oppression of women, slavery, xenophobia, homophobia, murder, war, genocide and terrorism across all periods of time. Many of the most powerful and evil people in history used God to justify their actions and, like the racism King sought to end, God’s name is still used to justify evil. It got us into this Iraq conflict, and we have got to bring the knowledge of these abuses to the attention of our conservative friends and neighbors or they will remain affected by those lies.
When it comes down to it, hatred and bigotry are not American values. Most Americans wouldn’t dare identify themselves as a Conservative if they saw the conservative legacy for what was truly is, not as it is dressed up to appear to be.
If the abuses of mankind and the lies made in the name of God infuriate you then you might just be a Liberal too. I assure you that you do not have to be an Atheist to be progressively minded. In the Supreme Court case Everson v. Board of Education we learn the state and federal government can neither “pass laws which aid one religion, aid all religions or prefer one religion over another.” Liberalism is then not anti-religious or anti-God, just constitutional.
Class dismissed.
Matthew Blackham is a junior majoring in sociology. Comments can be sent to matblackham@cc.usu.edu.