Freedom vs. Progressivism

CATEGORY	FREEDOM                   VS.	PROGRESSIVISM
Constitution	Limits the government in order to protect the citizen; the   Constitution and the Bill of Rights are what they are and don’t allow for imagined intentions	A living, breathing document whose meaning changes   arbitrarily; creative interpretations by activist judges, at the urging of  special interest groups, fabricating new “rights” that infringe on the Bill of Rights; revisionist casting of the Bill of Rights seeks to create utopia;   rights are to be rationed by the government
Family	The basic unit of society: married mother and father caring for their children contributes to healthy society	Based on adult happiness, regardless of gender; government content to spend billions of taxpayer dollars on family breakdown
Marriage	One man and one woman committed to the best interests of the family	Any coupling or grouping and based on adult happiness
Theology	Jesus died for the sins of all mankind for all time; all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God; the government is not a   theocracy, but religion is the moral conscience of the nation	Secular humanism is the religion of government, public schools, and mass media; government is “god”; man is the master of his fate, the captain of his ship (Invictus)
Morality	Transcendent moral order; God’s Word in the Bible; obedience to something higher than one’s self	Relative: determined by the individual; situational ethics
Government	The Constitution protects the citizen from the government;   localized control preferred; powers not delegated to the federal government are reserved to the states by the 10th Amendment to the Constitution	Centralized federal control over state and local levels;  seemingly every human activity imaginable   requires government regulation administered by an ever growing army of regulators; there are almost 1,000 federal agencies and divisions enforcing laws; the executive and judicial branches of government are free to usurp the   legislative branch to set and enforce policy
Basis of freedom	The Bill of Rights; God-given natural law; inalienable rights	Open to government interpretation; Non-discrimination   laws, “hate” crime laws
The Courts	One of three equal branches of government; decisions based on originalism; bound by the Constitution, which protects citizens from the government	Superior to the executive and legislative branches; decisions open to interpretations favored by leftists; to be used for gains that special interests are not able to achieve legislatively; the judiciary   makes unilateral “amendments” to the Constitution; protects government interests at the expense of citizens
Supreme Court   justices	Limited by the Constitution	Unlimited by the Constitution; open to citation of international law and the fabrication of new “rights” under the guise of   constitutionality
The Church	Protected from the government by the First Amendment	Naturalism; science; government needs protection from the church based on the ACLU’s false claim of a “separation of church and state” not based on history, the Constitution, or original intent
Public education	The student is to be served by the best educational choice possible; local control	Public schools, run by teachers’ unions, are prioritized over the education of students; federal government control
Taxation	Low tax rates stimulate business investment, hiring and job creation; tax rates should be fair across the board; the federal   government should raise only the revenue needed to fund the activities authorized by the Constitution	High tax rates allow government to expand social welfare programs; whomever earns the most should be taxed more; the tax rate on the  wealthy could extend all the way to 100 percent; Karl Marx urged “a heavy progressive or graduated income tax”
Economy	Capitalism; economic equality is unachievable because people invest differing levels of education, motivation and risk	Socialism, which is the path to communism, and centralized   control by the federal government; government intervention; the   redistribution of wealth is staged by coercion
Market	Free enterprise and minimal government regulation; the   free market is the most transformative economic system; the free market  creates the most wealth and opportunities for people	Massing of centralized control and power over the market; high tax rates removing money from the private sector; statists oppose the free market and seek to control it; demonization of wealth creators by government and unions
Political   competition	Compete against opponents; freedom to disagree	Destroy the enemy; punish anyone who opposes us (fascism)
Crime	Man is fallen and susceptible to evil and must be punished with stiff sentences for law-breaking	Man is a victim and subject to forces beyond his/her control; light sentencing
Government	Constitutionally ordered, divided into three branches to provide a system of checks and balances	Domineering and with few restraints; to be used for   personal and special interests’ gains; the courts are to be used to gain what cannot be achieved through the legislative process
Property	Private ownership of personal property; what belongs to one man is the object of his care and economy	Maximum government ownership; taxation and laws intrude upon private ownership; what belongs to no one in particular is wasted by   everyone
Achievement	Self determination; hard work and achievement are rewarded	It’s unfair if some have more possessions than others;   everyone should have the same amount of things, with government acting as regulator; those with what government deems excessive must be punished
Life	Man is made in the image of God; humans should be protected from conception to natural death; human embryos should not be used as a commodity or sacrificed for experimentation	Man is just another animal and nothing special; human life   is expendable; only “wanted” children should be born; depressed citizens should be allowed to find another person to kill them; the elderly and the disabled are using up too many medical resources and should not be allowed to   continue living; people and government have the right to determine who lives and who dies
Autonomy	Citizens should be left alone to tend to their own affairs; private enterprise; private decisions in work, life, education, worship; government’s intrusion into personal lives must be extremely limited	Increasing government control of and regulation over citizens’ personal lives
Second Amendment	Citizens have the constitutional right to bear arms and to self protect; a gun is vital to a citizen’s self defense and is no better or   worse than the person holding it	Only the government should have the right to own a gun; citizens have no right to protect themselves
Law	Uphold the rule of law	Selective use of the rule of law and liberal preference for applications of “law”