The left’s political philosophy: Persuasion with a government club

In my last column, I promised to revisit the partly answered question of why civil discourse has become so rare in American politics, and why so much animus exists between left and right.  

The attitude of, “Let’s shake hands and agree to disagree,” is being replaced with a warring camps mentality where, on a very personal level, the other guy is seen as the enemy. My final explanation for this is perhaps the least obvious – and the most important. It requires an understanding of the fundamental differences in the thought processes of left and right. 

Disclosure: What I am about to say comes from the perspective of a lifelong conservative. 

Let’s begin by discarding the bromide that conservatives oppose change. That’s nonsense. The controlling principle here is that both conservatives and libertarians seek change through the power of ideas, voluntary action and persuasion – not force. Not compulsion. It follows then, that on a personal level, conservatives greatly value their individual sovereignty, and more than anything, simply want to be left alone – while honoring that same right of others to enjoy peace and personal freedom. Put simply, they mind their own business  

By contrast, the socialist/liberal left is always minding someone else’s business, always on the offense, pressing its agenda to change our lives for the better, if only we will give up a little more of our freedom. They seek change by harnessing the power of the state to impose their will on us all. This is the basic authoritarian nature of the political left. Concentration of power, distrust of freedom, and the arrogance of knowing what’s best for everyone else. 

A thousand examples come to mind. 

Certainly, the left’s unending battle cry for bigger government, more powerful unelected bureaucracies, more powerful and constitutionally disconnected federal courts and ever-increasing government spending. This spending is directly paid by raising taxes and indirectly by deficit-driven inflation that transfers our savings, profits and wealth to the government spenders, and to those who profit from the spending. 

On the local level, consider just how much our leftist-controlled city and county governments cram their agendas down the throats of a peaceful citizenry that just wants to be left alone. Laws that force neighborhood-busting density development on peaceful residents who love their homes, yards and neighbors.  

Laws that impose penalty taxes on homeowners who dare to rent their property on a short-term basis. Laws that impose insane, identity-based equity, diversity and inclusion (DEI) policies on hiring and employee relations. Laws that insult conservative values and make politically based LGBTQ flags officially sanctioned by the cities in which they live. 

Need I go on? Power, power, power. Force, force, force. Is there any question how peaceful, pro-freedom conservatives will react to this constant, in-your-face aggression?   

To me, abortion is necessarily the biggest of the differences between left and right. The left advocates for unrestricted violence against yet-to-be-born human beings. They wrap their death sentences in the rhetoric of free choice and freedom.  

But killing children, yet unnamed and yet unknown, is not freedom. It is the worst of human tyranny and the most brutal of human sacrifice. I see their faces. Their frowns. Their smiles. Their very souls. I cry out for every one of them. I as a conservative, I commit myself to defending the defenseless. 

I have long felt that the desire to control other people, and to substitute by force, their will for ours, is a form of psychosis – an abnormal mental condition that through the ages has inflicted great harm on humanity. Those on the left who try to justify oppressive government in our time by saying it was democratically arrived at need to be reminded that some of history’s worst tyrants were democratically elected. 

 Conservatives are well aware that the more we drift away from constitutionally limited government, the more the “can’t happen here” will happen here someday. 

And so it is that the anger and fear that prevails over Montana and national politics isn’t going away any time soon. Conservatives are tired of being controlled, told how to think and told how to live by the authoritarian left. Meanwhile, the left is furious that conservatives would have the audacity to resist their self-righteous political control. 

Roger Koopman is president of Montana Conservative Alliance. He served four years in the Montana House of Representatives and eight years as a Montana Public Service commissioner. He operated a Bozeman small business for 37 years.