Are conservatives more morally responsible than liberals?

Question

I've heard some conservatives claim that liberals lack moral responsibility. I find this rather interesting. Some of these folks like to keep bringing up Clinton's marital infidelity, but they seem to have conveniently forgotten about Newt Gingrich's leaving his cancer-stricken wife for his mistress and Mark Foley's indiscretion with teenaged interns. Also, taking care of the environment is something that affects everyone, and not just a few. However, some conservatives express little or no interest in this. Also, a lot of conservatives like to say that abortions should be outlawed, because women should take more responsibility when it comes to their sex lives. This may be true, but as much as the right-wingers rail on about the rights of the unborn, they don't want to pass legislation that would benefit the children who are already born. Is it really morally responsible to rail against public schools instead of trying to improve them and giving kids a better chance at succeeding?

Answer 1

Wow. This is a tough question that I couldn't even begin to respond to. I think that people that are conservative are more "morally" responsible in some area and think that liberals are more responsible thinking in others. It's a very hard thing to group people into just two categories of being liberal or conservative since there are a few degrees to side. I like to call myself a middle of the road or on the fence conservative since I agree with more of what the conservative or Republican party believes in than what the Democratic party does. This does not say that I don't agree with some things that liberals believe in such as abortion. I believe that abortion should be legal. I believe in stem cell research but I also support our military to the fullest and the war in Iraq. I do not really go for conservation much especially if it stands in the way of economic progress. On the flip side of that I believe that if we bulldoze somewhere then we should try to do things in other places to help nature and preserve our source of oxygen. So you have ultra conservative right wingers as you called them and then you have my kind. On the other side you have liberals that march for anything against the dems and then you have some that are kind of on the fence in some issues. I know this really doesn't help but when you look at it ultra liberals think that they are better then conservatives and ultra conservatives think they are better then liberals so the debate over all these things goes on. And debate is always a good thing

Answer 2

I think you'd find that almost all Americans who did not support it were conservative, and that many of the conservatives who did support it would not have considered it as high-priority as some other issues. If anything, I'd guess that it got some of those conservative votes in Congress simply because they didn't have to worry about it actually passing. So, some politicians are probably having it both ways. (That's just a theory; I have no one in mind and no evidence to support that theory.) Still: Last I heard, they were nowhere near overriding the veto. Seems to me that says something... Anyway, how about we stop expending so much effort & resources on an endeavor that has yielded nothing useful yet, and first further pursue the research that is yielding real results on humans. See links:

Answer 3

There are enough high profile hypocrites on both sides to satisfy anybody.

Now keep in mind, just because a person CALLS themself a conservative, does not mean they are one.

But in general, conservatives believe in personal responsibility. As much as possible, you should be in control of your own life. If you need some help, your friends, neighbors and local government or local NGO (non-government orgranisation) should help. They know you, and know what your needs really are. Conservative states have a lot more volunteerism than liberal ones, in general.

Liberals believe all problems should be solved by government, who also has the right to say how you live, where you live, and what you can do with your property.

Obviously, the way I have explained it, I tend more towards conservatism.

I do agree on your statement on abortion, and have made that point a couple of times here: If you are going to dictate that a child be born, you are morally responsible to make sure it has a chance. The kid isn't the one making the decision.

Look at the issues, not the mind set. Just because the Liberals want something does not make it wrong, just as because the conservatives want it does not make it right. And reverse that if you are coming from the oposite side.

BTW - Conservatives have traditionally been concerned with the environment, particularly the environment around them. Leaving insults aside, look at how disasters are handled in liberal areas and conervative ones. With the conservative ones, people tend to support themselves through it all, with the help of those around them. They had not overburdened the land to start with.

Liberals live in higher concentrations where you ARE more dependent on big government - there is no way to fend through a disaster on your own (New Orleans being an example). It isn't that the people there were waiting for a hand out, it is that there was no way for them to fend for themselves in that locality no matter what they did.

My two cents worth anyway.

-Dio

Answer 4

Take along hard look at the politics of the last 7 years and the answer should be obvious to anyone with an IQ above 100. Which of course eliminates anyone who chooses network television as their primary news source. In case the answer still isn't obvious to you yet....no conservatives are not morally responsible. In fact if you look up the definition of morally responsible, you'll find it's the opposite.

Answer 5

If you want to graphically see what is wrong with America's schools, rent the movie, "The Boys of Baraka".

It documents how only about 23% of black boys graduate High School in Baltimore. If you're observant, you might notice how the parents do very little to solve their own problems. In one galling scene, a distraught mother wants her son to go back to the Kenya school because she is certain he will fail in the U.S. Well, where has she been all during her son's school career? If she can't personally help him with his homework (I certainly hope a parent is capable of handling 6th grade assignments), the parents could organize tutoring sessions. But they seem to just wait until the situation is dire.

Public schools are doomed to fail because teachers aren't even allowed to maintain discipline. Hence, they can't compel a student to do much of anything.

I knew a guy from Slovakia who was invited to teach math in a New York school. He called the students his "Zoo Kids". Just keeping them from jabbering nonstop or jumping around like animals was all he could hope for, forget math.

Improve the schools? Impossible with our permissive society. The only solution is vouchers for education. Schools would be privately run, and parents would have to sign a contract allowing the teachers to discipline their students.

What the schools really need are some 1950's era Catholic nuns! They would make students pay attention, believe me.

Answer 6

First, I don't know how being pro abortion could ever be considered taking the moral high-ground. Also, people of both parties have had their share of sexual indiscretions.
As far as schools, the Dems just want to throw money at the problem which seems to have made matters much worse. The Dems are against school vouchers, which would force schools to compete and would make them either excel or close. Vouchers would fix the problem and allow families to have a choice, why aren't Dems pro choice as far as education?

Answer 7

Liberals are much more morally responsible than conservatives if you mean social conservatives. The reason is because liberals tend to believe more in the constitution, equal rights and attempt to correct discrimination more.

Answer 8

You cannot generalize like that. I am conservative and have many morally responsible liberal friends. The only problems I have with libs are their stands on abortion and I am for abortion but only in the first trimester and only in the case of rape, incest or the mothers health. I don't believe that abortion should be treated as a viable form of contraception. I think the jury is still out on cloned stem cells.

Answer 9

oh my, my parents are conservative and you just described them, not really at all. First off, they are high in the morals department, don't go to church though, recycle everything, even used cloth diapers for their 5 kids. And at the same time only having 2 garbage bags a week for a family of 7. Yes we have our problems, but when a conservative family conserves more than what some single liberals do, who is morally superior?

Answer 10

You can't make a point with individuals. They don't represent either side. Here's how I express the moral bankruptcy of liberals as a whole:

they actually believe in killing babies
(they cover it up by calling it "reproductive rights", "right to choose" or "women's rights"--can you say "smoke screen"?)

they believe in mercy killing old people (they call it assisted suicide--can you believe that? will they be killing Down's Syndrome victims next?)

they call their president evil, but they would never think of forming a demonstration against the dispicable acts of terrorists, such as filling bombs with ball bearings, and just for fun, hanging them in a gymnasium filled with school children and setting them off

they believe that Iraq would have been better off if Saddam were still in power (and massacreing his own people by the hundreds of thousands)

they demand that the government support poor people, but they don't care or know how to teach poor people how to take care of themselves

they support the subversion of legality to allow immigrants to walk through the desert into our country (even though we allow hundreds of thousands into the country through the embassies)

Liberals didn't used to be this way. 50 years ago, liberals were cool. They stood for things like civil rights and equal rights and they owned the moral high ground on these issues.

Now it's all about hatred, lying to support their positions and shamelessly ignoring the most terrible suffering around the world if it means scoring points for their side.