Why Conservative Thinking Doesn’t Work, Part 3: Putting Ideology Ahead of Fact

One of the main reasons I gave up the views of my conservative upbringing and embraced liberalism was my growing realization that science did not support conservative arguments and that the clear historical record did not back up claims of positive results when conservative policies were followed. Let's look at a few examples. 

Take global warming, or climate change. The scientific consensus is near absolute. The immense amount of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases being pumped into the atmosphere by the burning of coal, gasoline and natural gas, deforestation and other human activities is causing massive changes in global climate. These include a spike in temperatures unseen in the past 400,000 years, sea level rise, increasing severity in the power of storms and changes in precipitation patterns, such as the spreading drought in the American West.The conservative argument against this is that it must be a conspiracy cooked up by academics eager to get research grants to prove their theory. Most of the publicity campaign making these allegations is funded by oil and coal companies, who spend lavishly to raise questions about the connection between the use of their products and the deterioration of the climate, but who have not been able to refute the data or the correlation between CO2 in the atmosphere and world temperatures. Imagine how much the fossil fuel giants would pay for just one conclusive study showing any truth to their contention that greenhouse gases and temperature are unrelated. There is a conspiracy all right, but not the one conservatives want to believe in.

     
The ongoing conservative fight against LGBT rights provides us another example of ideology, or perhaps plain old-fashioned prejudice, trumping not only science but the American egalitarian ethic. Some base their case against gay equality on grounds that same sex attraction is a disordered mental state, even though the American Psychological Association (APA) has been clear since 1975 that it is not. Another justification advanced against equality is that gender identification is a “choice.” This, of course, begs the question that even if it were a choice why that would justify denying someone their rights. But here again, speaking of all sexual orientations, the APA finds that “most people experience little or no sense of choice about their sexual orientation.” Conservatives fought hard to keep the “Don’t ask don’t tell” policy in force in the military, and predicted all manner of catastrophic morale problems if LGBT personnel were allowed to serve openly. They were certain of this despite the track record of twenty-five militaries around the world, including Australia, Britain and Canada, who were already accepting openly gay members without difficulty. “Don’t ask don’t tell” was officially ended in the U.S. Armed Forces on September 20, 2011. Have you heard of any serious problems resulting from this? Neither have I.

Conservative economic thinking holds that cutting taxes, regulations and government spending inevitably leads to balanced budgets and prosperity. But the facts do not confirm this.  The top income tax rate for the wealthiest taxpayers was only 24% in 1929 under conservative Republican leadership, and that is when the economy cratered and the Great Depression began. It was raised to 79% under liberal Democrat Franklin Roosevelt by 1936, and strong recovery took place. Strong recovery also took place in the conversion back to a peacetime economy after World War II under the liberal Harry Truman. During the prosperous liberal Kennedy and Johnson years of the 1960s, the top rate averaged 77%. It was still 70% when conservative Ronald Reagan came into office in 1981. He cut the top rate to 50% for starters and the deficit tripled. He then chopped it to 28% and slashed spending for social needs. During his tenure the rich got richer, the poor got poorer and the middle class stagnated. In addition, banking deregulation led to the Savings and Loan Crash of the late 80s. Bill Clinton raised the top rate back up to 39.6% in the 1990s. The 90s saw the longest economic expansion in American history and the federal budget was actually running a surplus the last three years of Clinton’s administration. Conservative George W. Bush was inaugurated in 2001, removed many regulations and initiated tax cuts back down to a 35% top rate. Once again, contrary to conservative ideological expectations, the budget returned to deficits, and the deregulated financial sector had its worst meltdown since 1929, leading to the Great Recession and the loss of over eight million jobs.

To people in a fact-centered reality, the above results speak for themselves. The adoption of conservative economic ideas has produced poor results time and time again, while liberal policies have produced a demonstrably superior record of growth and prosperity. Yet conservative thinking remains impervious to facts. They remain wedded to cutting taxes and reducing spending on human needs. They block or roll back environmental safeguards, mocking the science and human health data that testify to their effectiveness. They repeal consumer protections while protecting corporate welfare, tax dodges and immunities. When the facts and evidence refute their claims they remain unmoved, because they believe in them. Putting their pre-set ideological views into practice, regardless of the effect on real people’s lives is one of the defining characteristics of conservative ideology. That is what an ideologue is, and the main reason why conservatives do not seem to learn from the record when it comes to matters central to their core beliefs. They consistently put ideology ahead of fact.