(FeaturedNews.com) – What does it mean to be a Conservative in the 21st Century? There are no checklists or hard and fast descriptions, but some issues are almost universal among people who consider themselves to fit within that category.
Equality (Conservative) versus Equity (Liberal)
Those two words may sound like they are synonymous, but they are not. And when it comes to Conservatism as opposed to Liberalism, they are worlds apart.
Equality means that someone gets the opportunity to prove themselves and earn things based upon their ability. Equity involves giving something to a person simply to satisfy a mandate or quota. One tends to build a strong society; the other tends toward mediocrity.
Imagine, for example, that a company places an ad for a new employee. Under the former concept, resumes, experience, and past employment references are the criteria used to make the decision. Under the latter system, those would be far less important, and the candidates’ race or gender becomes the overriding factor.
Self-Sufficiency
Another trait many Conservatives share is valuing the importance of putting in hard work to provide for oneself and one’s family and not expecting the government to provide for all a person’s needs. Unfortunately, some see these programs as something they are inherently entitled to even when their needs are not what the system was designed to cover.
For example, during the Great Recession of 2008, joblessness was rampant and often extended beyond the time limit of one’s unemployment insurance benefit. As a result, many individuals turned to the Social Security Administration’s Disability Insurance program (SSDI). It approved many claims that would have typically been denied — a total of approximately 400,000 that resulted in more than $50 billion being paid out on undeserved claims, according to one estimate.
Christian
According to a 2014 survey by the Pew Research Center, approximately 85% of those who identified as a Conservative shared a strong belief in Jesus Christ. The largest segment (38%) claimed that they practiced as an Evangelical Protestant.
That number dropped to just over half (52%) of those who said their political views tend to be Liberal, with Catholicism as the most prevalent denomination. And on the flip side of that coin, only 11% of the Conservatives fell into the “none” category. More than three times that many Liberals (36%) declared the same.
Patriotism is another area of division, according to a 2019 Gallup poll with a vast gulf between the two who answered that they are extremely/very proud to be an American. A whopping 92% of Conservatives agreed with that statement, with only 49% of Liberals saying the same.
While these are generalities and don’t describe every conservative person, they are good indicators of one’s political point of view.
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