American Politics | Teen Ink

American Politics

April 25, 2009
By Anonymous

I have a conservative mother and a liberal step-father. I am caught in between these two different sides. I am a strong believer that the government is supposed to be in control at all times and has to do what means it sees fit to retain that control. That belief has conservative influences. Then again I am also torn over the need for individual liberty and rights and that would tie into liberalism. The motto of the French Revolution is perhaps one of my favorite mottos-“Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity.” Libertarians stress liberty, liberals stress equality, and conservatives stress fraternity, or the focus on community and tradition.
This is one of my favorite quotes by Steve Symms-“a liberal will let you do anything with your body, but not everything you want to do with your money. A conservative will allow you to do anything you want with your money, but not anything you want to do with your body. A libertarian will allow you to do anything you want with both your body and your money.” Although I believe in a lot of libertarian values, they are far too close-minded in the sense it focuses too much on liberty. Liberals and Conservatives do share the same three classic values of classical liberalism. Libertarianism does not point out any balance of the three values and only emphasizes liberty. Libertarianism is in opposition to classical liberalism, which is the basis of the United States government. I cannot find myself devoted to each of these three parties so I consider myself a mixture of the three.

I believe American government has forgotten its roots. The French and the American Revolution fought for classical liberalism. Classical liberalism declares that mankind has the opportunity to pursue life, liberty, and happiness. These two revolutions were in opposition to classical conservatism. What kind of government has the philosophy of classical conservatism? A monarchy. Classical conservatism declares that kings and males have the divine right to rule over their subjects. It is obvious which philosophy are country was built upon. This means that our country was built with the idea of one ruling party rather than a separation, such as it is today. Conservatives and Liberals are supposed to accept the ideas of classical liberalism; unfortunately it has only caused a division

American government is gradually becoming more democratic. People want their vote to begin becoming more and important in issues. I find this to be a danger. This is the prime example of what Karl Marx said that “democracy is the road to socialism” and Vladimir Lenin’s “democracy and socialism are inseparable.” Democracy is accepted as the road to socialism and the final result is communism. The United States has become increasingly socialistic. The United States is becoming more and more individualistic due to the growing acceptance of liberal ideas. Liberalism shares many attributes of socialism. Socialistic liberalism destroys the support of responsibility and community involvement. These are aspects of conservatism. When responsibility and community involvement is undermined this will ultimately lead to communism. The United States wants to become more and more a direct democracy when in actuality it should become more and more a pure Republic.

The author's comments:
My teacher made me

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This article has 1 comment.


on Apr. 22 2011 at 4:35 pm

Hi! I think your a really good writer! But I want to direct your view to something real quick.

You said you believe the government should be in control at all times. That is not what America was founded on. America was founded on limited government. We didn't like that England was making us pay higher taxes because there was too much government.

Look at Cuba. Why do you think Cuba is so poor and people there want to come here? Because Cuba has too much government. To much government in a person's life is not good by any means becaue it means and that is socialism.