Why Liberals And Conservatives Clash

Why Liberals and Conservatives Clash offers an explanation for the extremepolarization between liberal and conservative that is the hallmark of theAmerican poli... » 

Why Liberals and Conservatives Clash offers an explanation for the extremepolarization between liberal and conservative that is the hallmark of theAmerican political landscape today. It suggests that liberal thought isintrinsically different from conservative thought and that each constitutes aselfsubsistent worldview with its specific qualities and rules. The bookoffers a set of guidelines to predict a persons views based on other views she holds given that each worldview is what it is for structural reasons andis more than merely a sum of discrete positions. It explains for example whypeople who support gay marriage also typically support the womans right to anearlyterm abortion and why people who demand that citizens support themilitary understand this as meaning support putting members of the militaryin harms way. Because liberal thought and conservative thought eachconstitutes a closed worldview neither side will ever convince the other inan argument. The most we can hope for is an acknowledgment by each side of theusefulness of the other a goal Fleming proposes as the most reasonable one forour times.Why Liberals and Conservatives Clash makes logical the most striking andhitherto puzzling feature of the contemporary American political landscape itsacrimony its air of being an argument between the deaf neither sideunderstands the other. Fleming suggests this is so because neither side acceptsthe bases underlying the others particular positions. We can howeverunderstand that they are different and that trying to force the other sideinto submission wont work. We need to go beyond liberals dismissingconservatives with horrorand conservatives dismissing liberals with disgust.Conservatives arent merely imperfect liberals theyre something elseentirely. Liberals arent merely potential conservatives they actually thinkdifferently. «