Conservatives & Liberals

I have been reading a book I bought at Deseret Industries a few years ago called "Vindicating the Founders" written by Thomas G West. (Published by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. in 1997) It defends these great men against the accusations of racism, sexism, and elitism that are so pervasive in textbooks, our school system, and in our society at large. The author discusses the topics of 1) Slavery, 2) Property Rights, 3)Women and the Right to Vote, 4) Women and the Family, 5) The Property Requirement for Voting, 6) Poverty and Welfare, and 7) Immigration and the Moral Conditions for Citizenship.

I have not finished the book yet, but ran across an idea I want to share. For me, it explains the basic difference between conservatives and liberals; their perspective of mankind and the role of society/government.

John Dewey...was probably the most influential theorist of the New Liberalism... At the heart of Dewey’s liberalism was his belief in “historic relativity,” his conviction that there is no permanent human nature...the individual is always made by some historical context but is nothing in himself. “Social arrangements laws, institutions...are means of creating individuals.” Man is capable of being socially constructed in many ways. p 59
According to Dewey, man does hardly anything on his own; self-reliance and individuality are largely illusory. Qualities like “initiative, inventiveness, varied resourcefulness...are not gifts, but achievements.” Even intelligence is not “a ready-made possession of individuals.” That is because the social order, not nature, produces these qualities. “The state has the responsibility for creating institutions under which individuals can effectively realize the potentialities that are theirs.”
[That is to say] that man is essentially a victim or essentially disabled. For Dewey, it is precisely when people are left alone that they are the most vulnerable. p 60

[the Founders] saw in human nature qualities like reason, self-control, ambition, pride, and spirited self-assertion. They thought that if government protects lives and properties from being taken away by others, most people will be able to take care of themselves and their families. Lincoln’s remedy for slavery was not affirmative action or public welfare but opportunity for all people, white and black, to keep the bread they earn with their own hands. p 60
The presumption of the Founders is that normal human beings are capable of taking care of themselves, if only the artificial weight of legal privileges and restrictions is removed. “The political philosophy behind limited government,” writes Harvey Mansfield, “affirms that nature is more important than nurture: that humans have a fixed nature enabling them to overcome a background of poverty and deprivation.”
p 63