If you had an opportunity to take one thing about Conservatives (principle, policy, anything at all) and explain it in such a way that non-Conservatives would be guaranteed to understand it, what would it be?
Is there a specific policy or idea that you feel is always misconstrued, or never comes across as it should? Or something that is always misunderstood? Or an idea that never gets talked about in the way you feel represents it correctly?
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The biggest difference between Conservatives/Republicans and Liberals/Democrats is their attitude toward government. Republicans never saw a government program that was successful, Democrats have never seen a problem they don’t think can be solved by government no matter how inefficiently.
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One of the biggest misunderstandings between Conservatives and non Conservatives is the idea that Conservatism is just about resisting change out of fear, nostalgia, or hate. In reality, it’s often rooted in the belief that the world is complex, human nature is flawed, and that long-standing institutions and traditions exist for reasons we may not fully understand. Change isn’t inherently bad, but it should be approached carefully, because even well meaning reforms can have unintended consequences. When Conservatives resist “progress,” it’s often a way of asking, “What are we risking by moving too fast?” or “Is this new idea truly better than what it’s replacing?”
Conservatives also tend to be skeptical of large, centralized government solutions, not out of a lack of compassion, but from a belief that such programs can undermine personal responsibility, create dependency, and weaken families, communities, and local institutions. Help is seen as more meaningful and effective when it comes from the bottom up, not the top down. There’s also a general concern about expanding government power, which history shows can be hard to reverse and easy to abuse.
This contrasts with the Progressive instinct, which tends to view the world in terms of systems and structures that need to be fixed to create greater fairness. Progressives often see tradition as an obstacle to justice, and change as both urgent and necessary. Conservatives, by contrast, emphasize individuals as the primary agents of change and view tradition as a stabilizing force. Where Progressives might ask, “How do we fix unfair outcomes?” Conservatives ask, “How do we preserve fair rules?” i.e. equity vs. equality.
Neither side is always right or wrong; they just prioritize different things. Progressives tend to value fairness in outcomes. Conservatives tend to value freedom in process. Progressives want institutions to evolve. Conservatives want to preserve them unless change is clearly necessary.
At its best, Conservatism is rooted in humility, the recognition that we don’t always know what we’re doing, that rapid changes can backfire, and that time-tested traditions often carry hidden wisdom. That doesn’t mean change should never happen, only that it should be thoughtful, not reactive.
Even if you disagree with Conservative policies, understanding this mindset can help foster more respectful and honest political conversations.
There is really a whole lot.
But let’s look at illegal immigration, and deportations.
The first thing I often see is conflating legal and illegal immigrants when this discussion does happen between the left and the right.
Now often times being pro enforcement of our immigration laws is seen as cruel and inhumane, by those on the left.
There are multiple reasons to want strict enforcement. One that I feel is really important is the safety and well being of people. The journey most illegal immigrants take is extremely dangerous. I believe 5 in 6 women and children are raped during the trip, with a death/ being taken by human traffickers as slaves is around 40%. (These numbers maybe slightly off, I’m going by memory here, but they are extremely high.).
This is something I find abhorrent. I do not want anyone to go through that. And the actions of democrats in the build up to and during Biden’s administration were very much telling these people to risk their lives to come live in America.
So this makes it where I want strict enforcement of our laws to ensure that these people are not tempted to take such a dangerous trip, because they will not be welcomed here if they come here illegally.
Then there are the negative consequences of allowing illegal immigrants into the country. We have extra strain on the existing public infrastructure. More use equals more wear and tear. We have wages being deflated because illegal immigrants are working at lower wages. We have a group of people who do not have voting rights, who count towards political power. The same thing was done with blacks by the south before the civil war. This is why sanctuary cities and states are such an issue.
Then you have cultural assimilation, most illegal immigrants hid within their ethnic communities, and do not become part of the American culture.
There are more but those are some major points.
The misunderstanding I often see pushed is that conservatives want deportation because of racial discrimination and hatred, when for many of us hate is nowhere in the equation. We want to limit suffering but we know sometimes unpleasant things need to be done to make things better in the long run.
The best analogy is a broken bone. We could leave it and it won’t heal right, or we can take some immediate pain, and then have the bone set so it heals right.
You cannot help people that will not help themselves by giving them more
We want everyone to have the chance to succeed. We believe everyone can succeed.
I guess my focus would be to help them understand that trying to make the world better not by your own action or voluntarily, but by harnessing the power of government to redistribute wealth or benefits or restricting people is wrong and immoral. Freedom from government is important no matter what the goal might soon to be.
Just because you feel bad for somebody or because it seems mean doesn’t mean you can just ignore the law, restrictions on government, or peoples freedoms.
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Thank you for sharing your perspective — I really appreciate the clarity, and I can absolutely see why the conservative cause might feel like the best fit for your future.
That said, my lived experience has led me down a different path. As a biracial, gay man raised in North Carolina, I’ve often encountered a very different version of America than the one you describe. In my world, one-on-one interactions, interviews, and everyday encounters in the South haven’t always felt fair, altruistic, or guided by a moral compass — at least not when it came to people who looked or lived like me.
Too often, people reserve their empathy and values for those who more closely resemble them. And while I wish we lived in a society free of racism, bias, and inequity — the truth is, we don’t. We’re not post-racial, no matter how much we’d like to believe it.
I say that not to assign blame, but to speak plainly from what I’ve seen — and what I’ve lived. My mother is white, so I’ve had a front-row seat to how race changes perception, even within the same family. Many white folks simply don’t see or feel the racism that people of color experience daily. That’s not a judgment, it’s a reality.
And that reality creates a deep skepticism — not of individuals, necessarily, but of whether we can rely on “the public” to consistently choose fairness. That’s why I believe in strong, just systems. Systems that, when working properly, are more likely to treat people equitably — regardless of race, gender, or sexuality — than the whims of public opinion or personal bias.
If I had waited for opportunity only from those who fully saw or understood me, I’d still be waiting. So I don’t blame individuals. But I do believe that even if someone isn’t directly at fault, they still have a moral responsibility to help create a better, more just society — one where everyone can thrive.
That’s why I’m a liberal. It’s not just political for me — it’s personal. It’s a worldview rooted in empathy and equity. And while none of us should carry shame for the journey that brought us here, we can be held accountable for how much empathy and action we extend to others now.
I hope this helps explain where I’m coming from.
What makes the United States the country it is is federalism. Liberals have a bizarre obsession with wanting everything done at the level of the federal government, despite the fact that our entire political system is designed for things to function at the level of the states. There is a real authoritarian impulse where it isn’t enough for their state to do things their way, every state needs to do things their way, ie, every state needs abortion legal regardless of how the people in those states feel about it.
There’s an emphasis on trying to make things more democratic at the federal level, talk of abolishing the electoral college, of abolishing the senate, etc. The federal level isn’t supposed to be democratic, it’s supposed to support the states. And democracy isn’t good as an end-in-itself– the founders recognized the tyranny of of the majority against the rights of the minority.