| CATEGORY |
FREEDOM VS. |
PROGRESSIVISM |
| Constitution |
Limits the government in order to protect the citizen; the Constitution and the Bill of Rights are what they are and don’t allow for imagined intentions |
A living, breathing document whose meaning changes arbitrarily; creative interpretations by activist judges, at the urging of special interest groups, fabricating new “rights” that infringe on the Bill of Rights; revisionist casting of the Bill of Rights seeks to create utopia; rights are to be rationed by the government |
| Family |
The basic unit of society: married mother and father caring for their children contributes to healthy society |
Based on adult happiness, regardless of gender; government content to spend billions of taxpayer dollars on family breakdown |
| Marriage |
One man and one woman committed to the best interests of the family |
Any coupling or grouping and based on adult happiness |
| Theology |
Jesus died for the sins of all mankind for all time; all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God; the government is not a theocracy, but religion is the moral conscience of the nation |
Secular humanism is the religion of government, public schools, and mass media; government is “god”; man is the master of his fate, the captain of his ship (Invictus) |
| Morality |
Transcendent moral order; God’s Word in the Bible; obedience to something higher than one’s self |
Relative: determined by the individual; situational ethics |
| Government |
The Constitution protects the citizen from the government; localized control preferred; powers not delegated to the federal government are reserved to the states by the 10th Amendment to the Constitution |
Centralized federal control over state and local levels; seemingly every human activity imaginable requires government regulation administered by an ever growing army of regulators; there are almost 1,000 federal agencies and divisions enforcing laws; the executive and judicial branches of government are free to usurp the legislative branch to set and enforce policy |
| Basis of freedom |
The Bill of Rights; God-given natural law; inalienable rights |
Open to government interpretation; Non-discrimination laws, “hate” crime laws |
| The Courts |
One of three equal branches of government; decisions based on originalism; bound by the Constitution, which protects citizens from the government |
Superior to the executive and legislative branches; decisions open to interpretations favored by leftists; to be used for gains that special interests are not able to achieve legislatively; the judiciary makes unilateral “amendments” to the Constitution; protects government interests at the expense of citizens |
| Supreme Court justices |
Limited by the Constitution |
Unlimited by the Constitution; open to citation of international law and the fabrication of new “rights” under the guise of constitutionality |
| The Church |
Protected from the government by the First Amendment |
Naturalism; science; government needs protection from the church based on the ACLU’s false claim of a “separation of church and state” not based on history, the Constitution, or original intent |
| Public education |
The student is to be served by the best educational choice possible; local control |
Public schools, run by teachers’ unions, are prioritized over the education of students; federal government control |
| Taxation |
Low tax rates stimulate business investment, hiring and job creation; tax rates should be fair across the board; the federal government should raise only the revenue needed to fund the activities authorized by the Constitution |
High tax rates allow government to expand social welfare programs; whomever earns the most should be taxed more; the tax rate on the wealthy could extend all the way to 100 percent; Karl Marx urged “a heavy progressive or graduated income tax” |
| Economy |
Capitalism; economic equality is unachievable because people invest differing levels of education, motivation and risk |
Socialism, which is the path to communism, and centralized control by the federal government; government intervention; the redistribution of wealth is staged by coercion |
| Market |
Free enterprise and minimal government regulation; the free market is the most transformative economic system; the free market creates the most wealth and opportunities for people |
Massing of centralized control and power over the market; high tax rates removing money from the private sector; statists oppose the free market and seek to control it; demonization of wealth creators by government and unions |
| Political competition |
Compete against opponents; freedom to disagree |
Destroy the enemy; punish anyone who opposes us (fascism) |
| Crime |
Man is fallen and susceptible to evil and must be punished with stiff sentences for law-breaking |
Man is a victim and subject to forces beyond his/her control; light sentencing |
| Government |
Constitutionally ordered, divided into three branches to provide a system of checks and balances |
Domineering and with few restraints; to be used for personal and special interests’ gains; the courts are to be used to gain what cannot be achieved through the legislative process |
| Property |
Private ownership of personal property; what belongs to one man is the object of his care and economy |
Maximum government ownership; taxation and laws intrude upon private ownership; what belongs to no one in particular is wasted by everyone |
| Achievement |
Self determination; hard work and achievement are rewarded |
It’s unfair if some have more possessions than others; everyone should have the same amount of things, with government acting as regulator; those with what government deems excessive must be punished |
| Life |
Man is made in the image of God; humans should be protected from conception to natural death; human embryos should not be used as a commodity or sacrificed for experimentation |
Man is just another animal and nothing special; human life is expendable; only “wanted” children should be born; depressed citizens should be allowed to find another person to kill them; the elderly and the disabled are using up too many medical resources and should not be allowed to continue living; people and government have the right to determine who lives and who dies |
| Autonomy |
Citizens should be left alone to tend to their own affairs; private enterprise; private decisions in work, life, education, worship; government’s intrusion into personal lives must be extremely limited |
Increasing government control of and regulation over citizens’ personal lives |
| Second Amendment |
Citizens have the constitutional right to bear arms and to self protect; a gun is vital to a citizen’s self defense and is no better or worse than the person holding it |
Only the government should have the right to own a gun; citizens have no right to protect themselves |
| Law |
Uphold the rule of law |
Selective use of the rule of law and liberal preference for applications of “law” |
