8 Comments

Well, I'm late to this one, which is another keeper.

The aspect of current political ideologies that I spend most time ruminating on is their moral dimensions. The politics I grew up with seemed to focus on how best (technically) to achieve what was broadly a shared goal - everyone being more materially comfortable and healthier, with better opportunities. How quaint that now seems.

Expand full comment
Jan 26, 2022Liked by Thomas Prosser

To me the most important part of this article is the statement that thinking people can mix their views. As generally a moderate liberal, if I feel that if a position on an issue is correct, I can't refuse to adopt that view just because it is generally labeled as right wing.

Theodore Olson is a well known conservative lawyer. Yet, he was the one who successfully argued before the Supreme Court for constitutional protection for same sex marriage. There is no contradiction between such a position and, for example, wanting lower taxes.

A person may take the view that given the extent of the current pandemic, mandatory vaccines are appropriate. Yet, that same person might take the view that the United States must enhance border security because a nation has a right to make sure all people enter it lawfully. Whether either or both of these positions are ultimately right or wrong, they are not mutually exclusive. They don't contain innate contradictions of each other, even though one can be seen as a "liberal" view and the other can be seen as a "conservative" view.

It is a negation of the independence of the human mind to claim that just because one is generally a liberal, one must adopt each and every policy position that is currently designated as the liberal position. The same is true for those calling themselves conservative.

The total cluster of issues deemed to be within the left of center framework is arbitrary. The same goes for the total cluster of issues deemed to be within the right of center framework. Depending on the issues, it is not inherently inconsistent for someone to choose policy positions derived from one camp as well as policy issues derived from the other.

Expand full comment

Holy cow, Mr. Prosser, I only just discovered your Substack this morning and have been reading several of your essays, and I swear we're in a mind-meld!

As I said in another comment, my politics are far left, but I have no truck with political correctness or identity politics. And I've been telling friends for ages now that I subscribe to no ideology, that I think ideologies are dangerous. And here you are. Bravo!

Expand full comment