Liberals Love; Conservatives Fear

I’d like to talk with you a little bit about love and fear, and about liberal and conservative principles. Many have recognized that there are only two basic aspects of life: love and fear. That is one of the core principles of A Course in Miracles, and of writers such as Jerry Jampolsky. In my book, Peace and Forgiveness (which is not a religious, but a metaphysical book), I state that there is only love and fear, and that all emotions are either love based or fear based. Peace, joy, gratitude, friendliness, acceptance, etc. are all loved based. Love is oneness, or you might think of it as the perception of oneness; but, really, everything is one and interdependent. Love is the energy of life, it is all there is. Love is the Universe.
Fear is simply the perception of separation. The feeling that we, or you, are separate from the energy, from the Universe, and from love. Of course, we are all the energy; at our core, at the level of soul, we are the energy, so we are love. Perceptions of separateness, that is, fear, give rise to fear based acts and emotions, such as anger, hate, racism, war, rape, discrimination, and everything that are is not love based is fear based. It’s just the way it is.
Let’s talk about these concepts in terms of political ideology. Basically, liberal values, more generally espoused by Democrats in the United States, are love based, and, conversely, conservative principles, typically trumpeted by Republicans, are fear based. It doesn’t mean that either is right or wrong; there is no right or wrong from the perspective of the Universe, from the level of the energy that is the all encompassing love. But it’s important, very important, to recognize what people’s beliefs actually are.
So, let’s look a few quick examples; war, taxes and the role of government, health care, religion, and abortion.
You would never fight or kill if you were not afraid of the other person, or person. This is always true. Why would you punch someone or shoot them if you weren’t afraid in some way? You may be afraid that they will take something away from you or just afraid that you will be less happy or feel less about yourself; that your self esteem will be damaged. Certainly, fighting and killing and murder are not loved based. A good example of collective fear leading to war is obviously Iraq. Some saw Saddam Hussein as a threat; what is a threat? Of course, when one is afraid of what someone will do, that’s fear based. While both Democrats and Republicans were caught up in the fear at the time, I believe it is also fair to say that those in favor of the war, those still supporting the war, are conservatives and Republicans. Liberals certainly want to stop the war. Liberals are not sure what will happen after that, but they want to stop the war. Conservatives see the war as an us versus them exercise, and thus by perceiving separateness act out of fear. Liberals see more of the oneness and interdependence and sameness of all people. In other words, love.
Think about taxes now. What are taxes? I would say contributions that we make theoretically to help us all be able to live better, happier, healthier, and peaceful lives. If you say government is mostly there just to provide for security, which I believe conservatives are more likely to claim, then you are focusing on the fear side. What is a desire for security if not wanting to be safe from attacks by other humans? Well certainly also wanting to be safe from floods, and bears, and disease, but national security is all about erecting defenses because of fear of other people. Liberals tend to see government more as the embodiment of us all, and that government’s role is to help us all in as many ways as government can; education, health care, infrastructure, housing, etc. All for one and one for all; in other words, oneness.
Regardless of the primacy of the population’s need for government, however, there is no question that taxes are to contribute to the health and welfare of the citizenry, in other words, to contribute to our own collective wellbeing. If your belief is that it is your money, and government has no right to your money, and you condemn any proposals for social improvements that involve raising taxes, then that perceives the separateness, rather than the oneness. (I will say as an aside that money and the financial system of the world operated by humans are essentially fear based in the first place, but that’s another discussion.) Conservatives and Republicans are more likely to fight taxes than liberals and Democrats, who believe we must all pay our fair share, and the more affluent must simply pay more, because we are all in it together.
Next, health care. As I just indicated, believing that we must provide health care for all Americans (and, indeed, everyone on the planet, which would truly be universal health care coverage) is love based, and contending otherwise simply is not. Again, liberals and Democrats tend to be in favor of such universal health coverage - ensuring adequate preventative and sick care for everyone, even those who can’t pay - and conservatives and Republicans are not. Nuff said on that, I believe.
Religion. Believe it or not, though religions presumably should be love based institutions and do have many precepts that ostensibly teach love, the essence of most religions is fear. When one perceives his or her god as an entity outside and different, that is a perception of separateness. When one sees good and evil as the nature of some people versus others, that is similarly fear based separation, again. Many Christians believe that humans can not get to god - get to be with god forever - except through a mythical Jesus Christ, and also believe they are not worthy, good, or divine compared to god. And, if you break religious rules, then you go to hell, to be separate forever. This belief simply underscores an enormous perception of separation, i.e., fear. Believing that we are actually all divine, worthy, and equivalent is to understand oneness. Once more, it seems to me that conservatives and Republicans tend to be more god-fearing, if you will, than liberals and Democrats.

As our last example, let’s look at abortion. I don’t truly believe that anyone is really for abortion. But liberals and Democrats tend to view a person’s right to choose to have an abortion (usually early in a pregnancy) as predominate over the right of the unborn. I am one who actually believes Roe v. Wade was a very good and accurate judicial holding based on Supreme Court precedent, which is based on an analysis of an individual’s rights against compelling needs of the state. When the latter are not proportionately compelling versus the individual’s rights, then the individual’s rights prevail. I am going to surprise you now and say that I believe being pro-choice - the more likely position of liberals and Democrats - is fear based, and that being against abortion is love based.

Certainly, as humans, we all ought to be able to figure out how to take care of any children that are not, shall we say, planned for. To destroy incipient life is simply not love based. To be afraid of the consequences of having children, to the point of killing them, is fear based. This time, liberals and Democrats act out of fear, and conservatives and Republicans act of out of love; of course, for many, they also act out of allegiance to god’s rules (which actually are made up by men) and also do not approve of sex education because of a silly fear of sex. I do believe that the most loved based approach is to teach our children about this most common and elemental aspect of humanity, and to protect against unwanted pregnancies, but also not to allow abortion to the extent possible.

So, as you can see, liberals and Democrats tend to hold beliefs generally more from a love perspective, and conservatives and Republicans usually more form a fear perspective. This is not always the case, as I have also indicated in my example about abortion. It also is true that most issues have elements of both love and fear based thought, as clearly with abortion.

I say this all only to demonstrate what is actually behind much of the thoughts and positions people have. I don’t believe one position is ultimately right or wrong, because the facts can change the outcome, and I just don’t think there is any right or wrong ultimately in the universe. I mean, some positions seem right to me, and some wrong, but that is just my perspective, not from the perspectiveless universe. But it is very important to understand whether thoughts, acts, and emotions are fear based or loved based. I always try to choose love.