Conservatives long for the world of Leave it to Beaver, Christmas Story, and Babe Ruth. A world of everyone looking the same, talking the same, eating the same foods, and enjoying the same sports. Everyone loves Jesus, America, Baseball, and tries to work hard so he can be rich and enjoy well-deserved luxury. A core belief of this group is that those who are successful and rich deserve to live luxuriously because they are individually and personally responsible, through the making of good choices, for their own prosperity. And conversely, those who are not successful deserve, to some significant degree, their lower station because they failed to make the correct choices.

Liberals long for the world of Star Trek. This is a world of equality and exotic diversity, where there’s no repulsion to being surrounded by people, foods, or ideas that are different than their own. It’s a world where money has less value, and where art, science, and exploration are placed as the highest of cultural priorities. Those who hold this ideal tend to believe that one’s success or failure, wealth or poverty, depends more on circumstances outside of their control, and thus see the elevation of the underprivileged to be a communal effort that should be willingly funded by those in society who have been fortunate enough to be successful.

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