I seldom watch Fox News, and I certainly don’t agree with Neal Gabler very often. But I did agree with something he said with regards to the divide between American liberals and conservatives – namely, that the ideological differences are not to be resolved with a few minutes discussion since they involve radically differing views of human nature, history and diverse other elements. It was a pleasant surprise to see that Mr. Gabler is clearly capable of deeper analysis than the average talking head, for whom “bipartisan” is a virtuous concept.
Still, Mr. Gabler’s summary of the conservative mindset was incorrect. He said that conservatives wish to protect business and wealth from the people. This is a significant error, as it reveals how Mr. Gabler believes people = government. This, in 21st century America, is quite obviously no longer the case, assuming it was ever true. This is also why leftists have such trouble admitting that their ideological counterparts quite regularly use the government to kill large numbers of the people. For them, the concept creates terrible cognitive dissonance. How can the people kill themselves? And why would they?
The answer, of course, is that the two are not synonymous.