What is a Republican I: Paternalism vs. Individualism

There are a number of polls one can find online that will place you on the political spectrum by asking you questions about various temporary issues, but fundamentally it comes down to a few major inclinations. One is Paternalism vs. Individualism.

Democrats are naturally inclined to solve everyone’s problems. Republicans want to create the conditions under which people can solve their own problems. You’ve heard it I’m sure -- “if you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day; if you teach a man to fish, you feed him for life.” The Democrats are fundamentally inclined to pass out fish. Republicans are inclined to teach people to fish. As it turns out, teaching people to fish works better.

On a closely related point, it has been the goal of Democrats for decades to make of America a new Europe. Republicans have wanted to make a greater America that is still uniquely American. There is a difference. Simply put, liberty and individual rights are central to the American way of thinking. They are part of the European way of thinking too, but anyone who has spent time in Europe can tell you that Europeans have become much more interested in reducing risk than in individual rights. In Europe, peevish and petty regulations frequently trample freedoms. In America, less so (but more so if we're not observant).

A classic American wants to be self-determining, sui generis, to find his or her own way and to pay his own way. To an American, the government is useful but is not there to guarantee success. The majority of French 18-25 year olds want to be fonctionnaires, which is French for “government bureaucrat.” That’s not something Americans can relate to. It’s not a detail. It is central to the American character. Jefferson articulated three inalienable rights in the Declaration of Independence, “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” He did not include “happiness” itself as a right, but merely its pursuit. There is a major difference there. Perhaps Louis Armstrong captured the essence of what an American man wants in “Hello Brother”:

A man wants to work...for his pay
A man wants a place...in the sun
A man wants a gal proud to say
That she’ll become his lovin’ wife
He wants a chance to give his kids a better life
Well hello ah.... hello brother

Americans don’t want the government to give them a better life. They want to work and to be able to earn a better life, to claim it as their own. Americans want the wind to run through their hair as they ride their Harley down the open highway toward a great future of their own making. There is risk, but there is also opportunity. Americans and conservatives would not give up the risk if it meant giving up the opportunity, but Europeans have, and American liberals would. P.J. O’Rourke offends Europeans and delights Americans when he says “America wasn't founded so that we could all be better. America was founded so we could all be anything we damned well pleased.”

So there are differences between Americans and Europeans. These differences can predictably be observed in Europe-loving liberals and America-loving conservatives.

I will end with a quote from Alexis de Tocqueville: “Democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word, equality. But notice the difference: while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude.”