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"7 ideas completely lost on people who are fiscally conservative but socially liberal'
A post in another thread reminded me of an article from a couple years ago. The "fiscal conservative but socially liberal" position reeks of ignorance.
"Well, I'm conservative -- but I'm not one of those racist, homophobic, dripping-with-hate Tea Party bigots! I'm pro-choice! I'm pro-same-sex-marriage! I'm not a racist! I just want lower taxes, and smaller government, and less government regulation of business. I'm fiscally conservative, and socially liberal."
How many liberals and progressives have heard this? It's ridiculously common. Hell, even David Koch of the Koch Brothers has said, "I’m a conservative on economic matters and I’m a social liberal."
And it's wrong. W-R-O-N-G Wrong.
You can't separate fiscal issues from social issues. They're deeply intertwined. They affect each other. Economic issues often are social issues. And conservative fiscal policies do enormous social harm. That's true even for the mildest, most generous version of "fiscal conservatism" -- low taxes, small government, reduced regulation, a free market. These policies perpetuate human rights abuses. They make life harder for people who already have hard lives. Even if the people supporting these policies don't intend this, the policies are racist, sexist, classist (obviously), ableist, homophobic, transphobic, and otherwise socially retrograde. In many ways, they do more harm than so-called "social policies" that are supposedly separate from economic ones. Here are seven reasons that "fiscally conservative, socially liberal" is nonsense.
1: Poverty, and the cycle of poverty.This is the big one. Poverty is a social issue. The cycle of poverty -- the ways that poverty itself makes it harder to get out of poverty, the ways that poverty can be a permanent trap lasting for generations -- is a social issue, and a human rights issue.
How many liberals and progressives have heard this? It's ridiculously common. Hell, even David Koch of the Koch Brothers has said, "I’m a conservative on economic matters and I’m a social liberal."
And it's wrong. W-R-O-N-G Wrong.
You can't separate fiscal issues from social issues. They're deeply intertwined. They affect each other. Economic issues often are social issues. And conservative fiscal policies do enormous social harm. That's true even for the mildest, most generous version of "fiscal conservatism" -- low taxes, small government, reduced regulation, a free market. These policies perpetuate human rights abuses. They make life harder for people who already have hard lives. Even if the people supporting these policies don't intend this, the policies are racist, sexist, classist (obviously), ableist, homophobic, transphobic, and otherwise socially retrograde. In many ways, they do more harm than so-called "social policies" that are supposedly separate from economic ones. Here are seven reasons that "fiscally conservative, socially liberal" is nonsense.
1: Poverty, and the cycle of poverty.This is the big one. Poverty is a social issue. The cycle of poverty -- the ways that poverty itself makes it harder to get out of poverty, the ways that poverty can be a permanent trap lasting for generations -- is a social issue, and a human rights issue.
For the rest of the article: https://www.salon.com/2015/05/22/7_ideas_completely_lost_on_people_who_are_fiscally_conservative_but_socially_liberal_partner/
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