Liberalism (Bites)

Compassion and Conservatives

By J. Wesley ⋅ June 17, 2008 ⋅  Email This Post ⋅  Print This Post ⋅ Post a comment

It’s an article of faith on the Left that consevatives are greedy plutocrats who would sell their grandmothers if a market existed for them. In their mythology, liberalism has a monopoly on compassion and empathy. The Daily Mail has an interesting piece up today on social attitudes and political ideology. The data is based on the General Social Survey and the World Values Survey, both large, respected studies. Let’s just say that liberals don’t come out well. If you have to put your life in someone else’s hands, best hope it’s a conservative.

Some examples:

Those surveyed were asked: ‘Is it your obligation to care for a seriously injured/ill spouse or parent, or should you give care only if you really want to?’ Of those describing themselves as ‘conservative’, 71 per cent said it was. Only 46 per cent of those on the Left agreed.

To the question: ‘Do you get happiness by putting someone else’s happiness ahead of your own?’, 55 per cent of those who said they were ‘very conservative’ said Yes, compared with 20 per cent of those who were ‘very liberal’.

There is plenty of data that shows that Right-wingers are happier, more generous to charities, less likely to commit suicide - and even hug their children more than those on the Left.

Both the World Values Survey and the General Social Survey reveal Left-wingers are more likely to rate ‘high income’ as an important factor in choosing a job, more likely to say ‘after good health, money is the most important thing’, and agree with the statement ‘there are no right or wrong ways to make money’.

If I could communicate one political truth to the American people, other than the notion that the proliferation of frivolous “rights” debases all of our historic rights, it would be this: liberal compassion is a fraud. It is actually an evasion of genuine compassion, which is personal and sacrificial. Liberalism uses government power and the money of others to accomplish certain ideological goals, and masks this in therapeutic, caring rhetoric. That’s not compassion.