Friday, March 10, 2017

Understanding Trump: Liberalism, Conservatism, and the Third Option

I just realized that the "Third Option" could be mistaken for the "Third Way" that has been mentioned lately in relation to politics and, for clarity, that is not what I am referring to.

One of my recent focuses has been on the concept of how Conservatives and Liberals define reality in America. Conservatives define reality through absolute principles and Liberals define reality through an evolving set of values. In my Bible and Politics series, these are the two competing belief systems that I address. There is a third.

Many people might say that the Third Option is Libertarianism. However, within the Libertarian movement there appears to be conservatives and liberals. If it consists of both, then it cannot be a third option, but more of a political movement of its own because the Republican Party and (at one time) the Democrat Party consisted of both conservatives and liberals as well. The third option is actually where the majority of people reside and will make sense of where voters are politically in this country.

The Third Option is Immediate Self Interest. Do not confuse this with selfishness, it is not selfish to be concerned with solving one's own problems. One cannot solve others problems until his or her own problems have been sufficiently dealt with. BUT, this ideological/non-ideological course can be troublesome.

Ultimately, there are no guiding principles to this option aside from success. My conviction about Donald Trump is that he is not an ideological politician. He views politicians as incompetent, inefficient, and failures in relation to their service towards the American people. He views things through the prism of Success or Failure. This is not necessarily bad, but it has been a hindrance to some of his decisions.

Although Obamacare is in the process of being replaced and the current "popular" Republican Bill has not yet been approved, it is filled with problems. To Donald Trump, he sees Obamacare as an abominable failure. One of the biggest complaints about Obamacare is that it has an individual mandate which penalizes those who do not buy insurance. The "popular" Bill gets rid of the mandate, thus Trump is satisfied.

Trump's objective is not difficult to understand. He stated his goal from the beginning, "Make America Great Again." This is the goal to achieving his personal goals and achieving this objective will satisfy the needs of the American people which are rooted in their own self interests. But let's go back for a minute and see what got us into this mess. You will be fascinated to know that it was the pursuit of self interest void of guiding principles.

I have heard the numbers in relation to the polls that show people's disapproval of Obamacare. The funny thing is that the polls have been showing these numbers ever since Obama was elected in 2008. Dare I say, I don't believe it when people say they disapprove or disapproved of the concept of Obamacare. Aside from other factors, I think the Affordable Care Act was precisely why Obama was elected and re-elected.

Although many of the promises of the ACA were later proven to be lies, it promised affordable health insurance for all Americans. It expanded government handouts in the form of Medicaid. A lot of people, many of which do not vote, I think were very satisfied with the affordable care act at the detriment of many others. Despite the failings of the Obama administration, as a whole, during his first term as President, remember his campaign slogan: Hope and Change. This appealed to people's desire to have their self-interests fulfilled. His second campaign slogan was forward implying his goal was not yet fulfilled. This helped people to trust that Obama wanted to help them, but external forces were preventing him from catering to their interests. People did not notice significant improvement in their situations at the end of Obama. Enter, Make America Great Again.

Instead of having solid ideological convictions, people are tossed to and fro from one good idea to the next. The healthcare system is broke: we need Obamacare. America is broke: we need to Make America Great Again. The mistake most Americans are making is that they believe the solution to all of their problems needs to be immediate, extreme, and centralized in one person. They are correct in the last point. Solving your problems are rooted in you, not someone else. That's why I am a conservative. My philosophy, what's best for me and for other people is for others to mind their own situations and endorse politics that make that possible.

www.williamhseng.com

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