Why Conservative Thinking Doesn’t Work: Part 1

     The historical record is quite clear. When conservative policies are followed the results severely under perform the times when liberal policies are followed. That's a big part of the reason I'm a liberal. Conservative prescriptions have produced greater income inequality, social inequality and legal inequality. As I pointed out on February 17, when it comes to the economy they have also consistently produced poorer growth, unemployment and inflation numbers than when liberal approaches are adopted. Today I'll begin a four-part series on the basic reasons conservative thinking doesn't work. I'll start with an example.

      During the Great Depression President Herbert Hoover’s limousine would often pass families of destitute people begging, holding signs up pleading for work, trying to sell pencils on street corners or camped out in public parks. He reportedly was personally moved by their plight.  More than once he gave of his own personal funds to needy individuals and families, sometimes in person and other times through third parties. Over the objections of his staff, Hoover always refused to let his gifts be publicized in the press.  

     Yet despite these impulses, he refused to consider any form of public, governmental action to help them. With millions facing starvation, private philanthropy and the kind act of a wealthy person here and there were simply unequal to the task. The compassion in his heart notwithstanding, President Hoover’s response to the economic emergency of his presidency was an utter failure. The man who had gotten relief aid to the people of Belgium after World War I and to American flood victims as Commerce Secretary in the 1920s would not countenance engaging the resources of the United States government in his official capacity as president to alleviate the desperate condition of the American people in their hour of greatest need. 

     Hoover was bitterly reviled by the destitute Americans of his time; their shantytowns and homeless encampments came to be called “Hoovervilles.” Running for re-election, he was subsequently thrown out of office by the largest electoral margin of any incumbent president and spent the rest of his long life as a figure of mockery and derision among his fellow citizens.             

     The Hoover presidency stands as the greatest object lesson in why conservative thinking doesn’t work. The most basic and fundamental reason conservative thinking doesn’t work is because it puts ideology ahead of people. The second most common reason conservative thinking doesn’t work is because it so often puts ideology ahead of fact. And the third reason conservative thinking doesn’t work is because it puts ideology ahead of public opinion.