Who's More Radical: The Left or the Right?
What would America look like if the Left got everything it wanted? What would America look like if the Right got everything it wanted? PragerU’s Will Witt fleshes out each of these scenarios in this provocative thought experiment.
Some of the crazy position of the Left are _____________________________.
that a man can get pregnantthat the world is going to end in a decade if we don’t cap carbon emissionsthat the real purpose of the American Revolution was to preserve slaveryall of the aboveHow do the voices on the Right compare to the voices on the Left?
Voices on the Right have a loud voice.Voices on the Right are celebrated.Voices on the Right live mostly on the fringes of the internet.Voices on the Right are predominant in higher institutions of learning.If the Left got everything they wanted, illegal immigrants would receive free healthcare, free education, and free housing.
TrueFalseWhat would happen if the Right got everything it wanted?
everyone in the medical field would be government employeesincome, capital gains, and corporate taxes would be permanently cutdrilling for fossil fuel would be sharply curtailed or eliminated altogetherspeech codes would be enforced throughout American lifeYou are not radical if you ___________________________________________.
want to fundamentally transform Americawant less freedom for citizenswant bigger governmentare committed to individual liberty
- If leftists got everything they wanted, we’d have a much bigger government and much less individual liberty.
Leading voices of the Democratic Party — among them multiple Democratic presidential candidates — have promoted increasingly radical big government policies, including fully government-controlled, single-payer healthcare, universal childcare, free college tuition, and raising taxes significantly to try to pay for it all.
View sourceThe Green New Deal, promoted by democratic socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and embraced by a growing number of Democrats, calls for a radical reformation of the United States’ economy, including eliminating the use of fossil fuels and nuclear power, which currently provide 80% of the nation’s energy. The cost of the program has been estimated to be anywhere from around $50 trillion to $90 trillion over a period of 10 years.
View sourceDemocratic leaders overwhelmingly support stricter gun control. Some of the policies promoted by recent Democratic presidential candidates include the banning of all “assault-style” weapons, federal gun licensing, and gun “buyback” programs.
View sourceThe Left is increasingly pushing openly anti-free speech notions and policies, including through politically motivated attempts to equate speech with “violence” and accusations of “hate speech” designed to silence opposition to left-wing ideas.
View source- The radical left is openly demanding that we “abolish” immigration enforcement and “defund the police.”
Prominent Democrats have openly backed the “abolish ICE” (US Immigration and Customs Enforcement) movement. Radical pro-immigrant activists openly call for decriminalizing illegal immigration. These “open borders” policies would include offering illegal aliens full access to taxpayer-funded health care.
View sourceThe “Defund the Police” movement gained significant momentum among the Democratic left in 2020 following a series of police-involved deaths of African Americans.
View sourceRelated video: “Are the Police Racist?” – Heather Mac Donald
View source- The Left defines America by its failures rather than its transcendent founding principles.
The New York Times’ “1619 Project” attempts to rewrite American history by claiming that a primary reason for the American Revolution was the preservation of slavery, a claim which widely respected historians have debunked and for which the Times has since been forced to issue a significant “clarification.”
View sourceAlong with trying to define America by its “original sin” of slavery, the Left sees America’s dominant military as a negative rather than a good for the world. Many progressive Democrats want to slash America’s military budget.
View sourceRelated video: “America Was Founded on Freedom Not Slavery” – Ben Shapiro
View source- If conservatives got everything they wanted, the government would get much smaller and citizens would have more freedom.
Conservatives generally look for ways to reduce taxes and unnecessary regulations on businesses to put more money in the hands of individuals rather than the government.
View sourceConservatives believe that since the U.S. Constitution does not address abortion, its legality should be decided on the state level.
View sourceConservatives generally embrace school choice, policies allowing taxpayer dollars to be directed to charter schools, private schools, and other alternatives to traditional public school.
View sourceConservatives advocate for the constitutionally protected rights to free speech and the free exercise of religion.
View sourceRelated video: “The Least Free Place in America” – Greg Lukianoff
View source
There are crazy positions on the far left and crazy positions on the far right.
On the left, there are people who believe a man can get pregnant; that the world is going to end in a decade if we don’t cap carbon emissions; that the real purpose of the American Revolution was to preserve slavery.
On the right, there are people who deny the Holocaust happened; who believe that whites are inherently superior to other races; that no one should pay taxes.
But there’s an important difference between these two extremes: The crazies on the right have no voice—they are shunned. They live mostly on the far fringes of the internet. The crazies on the left have a loud voice—they are celebrated. They live in the halls of Congress, in state legislatures, and in governors’ mansions.
In light of this distinction, it might be interesting to ask ourselves this question: Which group, the left or the right, is more radical?
We can arrive at a commonsense answer by posing this thought experiment: What would America look like if the left got everything it wanted, and what would America look like if the right got everything it wanted?
Let’s start with the left.
Taxes would go up on individuals and corporations to pay for more social programs—everything from universal childcare to free college tuition. Many on the left call for income taxes as high as 70%. Private health insurance would be abolished; the government would provide all health care services. Everyone in the medical field—doctors, nurses, and administrators—would be government employees. Americans would pay for this government health care through much higher taxes.
Illegal immigration would be decriminalized. It would still be illegal to enter the country without proper documentation, but no one who made it into the US would be prosecuted for doing so. Illegal immigrants would also receive free health care, free education, and free housing.
The Green New Deal would be adopted. Hundreds of billions of dollars of subsidies for wind and solar power would be added to the federal budget. Drilling for fossil fuels, the current source of 80% of our energy, would be sharply curtailed or eliminated altogether. So would nuclear power. As a result, consumers’ electric bills would be much higher.
Reparations would be paid for the past injustice of slavery. How it would be paid—and exactly to whom—is not clear. Legally acquiring a gun would become much more difficult. College debt would be cancelled. Those who had already paid for college would get nothing.
Transgender women—biological men who identify as women—would be allowed to compete against women in sports. America’s military budget would be slashed by 25 to 50%. Speech codes would be enforced throughout American life.
And that’s just a partial list.
Now let’s ask what would happen if the right got what it wanted.
Income taxes would be cut. Capital gains taxes would be cut. Corporate taxes would be cut. And those cuts would be made permanent. All regulations that make doing business unnecessarily difficult and don’t protect public health would be repealed. The issue of abortion would be sent back to the states for each state to decide its own abortion rules for itself.
Many more charter schools would be opened, and it would become much easier to fire bad teachers. In order to vote, citizens would need to present a valid ID. The border with Mexico would be secured. The only way to enter the United States would be through designated border crossings. In order to qualify for welfare assistance, you would have to prove you could not work.
The health care system would be opened to free market reforms. For example, insurance companies could sell policies across state lines. Students in elementary school would recite the Pledge of Allegiance at the start of each school day.
So what can we conclude from our experiment? It’s not hard to figure out.
If the right got everything it wanted, the government would get much smaller. The citizen would have more freedom.
If the left got everything it wanted, the government would get much bigger. The citizen would have less freedom.
You’re not radical if you want America to be what it’s always been: committed to individual liberty. You’re only radical if you want to fundamentally transform America into something it’s never been.
Which country do you want to live in?
I’m Will Witt for Prager University.
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