All politics is moral. Progressives and conservatives have opposing moral worldviews. When a political leader proposes a policy, the assumption is that the policy is right, not wrong or morally irrelevant. No political leader says, “Do what I say because it’s evil. It’s the devil’s work, but do it!” Nor will a political leader say, “My policy proposal is morally irrelevant. It’s neither right nor wrong. It doesn’t really matter. Just do it.” [...]
In my 1996 book, “Moral Politics”, I examined how political values tend to arise from the fact that we are all first governed in our families. The way your ideal family is governed is a model for the ideal form of government. This is often a matter of how your real family is governed, though some people rebel and adopt an opposite ideal. [...]
In this moral worldview, it is the father’s moral duty to punish his children painfully when they disobey. Harsh punishment is necessary to ensure that they will obey him and do what is right, not just what feels good. Through physical discipline they are supposed to become disciplined, internally strong and able to prosper in the external world.
What if they don’t prosper? That means they are not disciplined, and therefore cannot be moral, and so deserve their poverty. In this conservative view, the poor are seen as lazy and undeserving while the rich deserve their wealth. Responsibility is thus taken to be personal responsibility, not social responsibility.
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