Political Value Structures of the United States of America

By Joshua D. Glawson
Originally Published: https://www.academia.edu/94020973/Political_Value_Structures_of_the_United_States_of_America

The United States of America is a constitutional federal democratic republic form of government. Politically, there are four main parties of influence today- they are Democrats, Republicans, Socialists, and Libertarians. Within each of these political parties, there are value structures that help guide each of their approaches to the use of government. These values among the political parties have points of connection, but they tend to differ in their hierarchical value. These points of difference among the political value structures are what underlie many of the contentions between the political parties. The navigation of these values is what ties the bonds and drives the system forward. Simplifying these values into hierarchies will help clarify each political party’s ideas and approach to the use of government, while also helping to create a better sense of understanding between the political parties.   

Recognizing the influence of political philosophy is key to understanding politics and government. Within every person of political affiliation, there are underlying philosophies of the world, life, ethics, locus of power, self-determination, justifications for government, justice, and more. Each person has a deep vessel of stratified values, and these values are guided by political philosophies that influence and lend justification to their approach to politics and government. Due to the innumerability of these graded values, each can be subjective to circumstances and application, while overall the values hold a dominant position within the personal rating scale of every person and their corresponding political philosophy. 

The first of the political parties for consideration is of Democrats. Their main value structure is as follows: 

1. Government
2. Directed Social Majority
3. Markets

The Democratic National Committee (DNC), i.e. the Democratic Party, holds that government has an imperative role in technocratic regulation and top-down control while appealing to the directed whims of the portrayed majority to support and strengthen that government body. The markets are dispensed with to appeal to that majority so long as the result is more centralized power. 

Each of the talking points upheld by Democrats lends more centralized power: climate change, environment control, income inequality, state education, universal healthcare, proposing discriminant taxation of classes, burdensome taxation, age restrictions, modern monetary theory, monopolized government unions, fiat handouts, social justice, welfare, gun laws, self-defense laws, limited property rights, Patriot Act and related policy, universal basic income, general admiration for royalty, adoration of The New Deal and the Civil Rights Movement, Black Lives Matter, etc. This centralization of monopolized power is reflected and reiterated in the corpus of political philosophers upheld by the party including Plato, Socrates, Butler, Rousseau, Hobbes, Machiavelli, Keynes, Piketty, Rawls, Singer, Hamilton, Montesquieu, Marx, and others. 

According to a 2020 Pew Research Center poll, 79% of Democrats believe government should do more to solve problems in general; 78% of Democrats believe government should strongly regulate the market for public interests; and, 61% of Democrats believe government should provide more financial assistance. Overall, Democrats believe government can always do more, and at the expense of individual rights, liberty, and markets, even to the point of sacrificing the directed majority for the centralized government agenda. 

The second political party of consideration is the Republican National Committee, also known as the Grand Old Party (GOP), i.e. the Republican Party. The central values of Republicans are as follows: 

1. Government
2. Markets
3. Individuals

Republicans hold federal autocracy as imperative for sustaining the republic while only acknowledging constitutional limitations when pertinent to their centralized, top-down, controls. For Republicans, markets are for the preservation of this central authority, and a source of measuring the success of the party as opposed to measuring the success of individuals. At any time, the individual’s rights, i.e. liberty, will be infringed upon by Republicans for the benefit of markets or the Republican approach to government. Ultimately, Republicans hold government as the highest political value. 

Each talking point held by Republicans supports their leader to uphold centralized government powers: foreign interventionism, war on drugs, strict penal codes, harsh punishment, restricted immigration, state education, death penalty, the militarization of police, admiration for Romanesque and Napoleonic justice, Patriot Act and related policy, military spending, fiat handouts, lenient justifications for war, age restrictions, border control, etc. This is reiterated by the political philosophers upheld by Republicans: Aristotle, Burke, Smith, Jefferson, Adams, Greenspan, Madison, Oakeshott, Hobbes, Locke, Machiavelli, and others. 

A 2022 Pew Research Center poll indicated that 68% of Republicans believe immigration is a government issue; 67% stated that foreign policy is important; and, a 2021 poll showed 55% of Republicans support the death penalty. Overall, Republicans believe government should do more for their causes at the expense of individual rights, liberty, and markets. 

The third political party of consideration is more of an affiliation, i.e. Socialists. In the United States, the Democratic Socialists of America play an active role in influencing policy and public opinion, but this is not a party with significant numbers. Instead, we will consider socialism in general since many socialists, communists, green partiers, and the like, have been actively shaping the United States from its inception. Socialists have the following hierarchical values: 

1. Directed Social Majority
2. Government
3. Individuals

The tenets upheld by such socialist-leaning groups in the US have been more on the scale of: activism, protest, destruction of private property, social justice, challenging corporatism, questioning the war machine, two-party corruption, supporting unionism, encouraging welfare, bucking against the war on drugs, universal healthcare, interjecting conflict theory, rent control, price controls, limited property rights, proposing discriminant taxation of classes, burdensome taxation, retribution and redistribution schemes, basic income, state education, environmental restrictions, adoration of the French Revolution, praise of The New Deal and the Civil Rights movement, Green New Deal, Black Lives Matter, etc. Socialists will openly sacrifice any government and individual right to uphold the directed social majority agenda which is openly led by the perceived elite while the true conductors and beneficiaries remain unquestioned in the shadows. 

Socialists will use their own unique subjective school of history for justification, while vehemently dismissing any contrary perspectives or objectively actualized systematic history that goes against their agendas. Socialists tend to not want debate, they hold their perceived universal ideals as sacrosanct and any physical or verbal conflict that preserves this concept is accepted as righteous for the sense of the greater good. This conflict leads to sacrificing of any government, including their own, and any individual rights, i.e. liberty, that are contrary to the cause. This philosophy is supported by their political philosophers and thinkers: Marx, Engels, Heidegger, Zizek, Chomsky, Wright, Proudhon, Piketty, Mill, Lenin, Stalin, Trotsky, Mao, Keynes, Che Guevara, etc. Socialists tend to be more philosophical than Democrats and Republicans. 

According to a political poll conducted by Pew Research Center in 2022, 36% of Americans view socialism positively; 57% of Democrats view socialism positively; and, 42% of Democrat Americans ages 18-29 are in favor of socialism. Another poll run by Gallup showed similar results, with an estimate of a little less than four out of ten Americans viewing socialism in a positive light. 

The fourth political affiliation we will take a look at is that of Libertarians. In the United States, the Libertarian Party is the third-largest political party. Their slogan is “The Party of Principle.” The key values of Libertarians are as follows: 

1. Individuals
2. Markets
3. Government

For Libertarians individual rights, i.e. liberty, is of greatest value. These liberties are often only the perceived liberties that are of concern for philosophical libertarians and party Libertarians, as opposed to all-encompassing liberties. From the individual is the extension of markets and government to protect those liberties and unhampered markets. For Libertarians, gaining government control is only important for the preservation of liberty while dismantling many, if not most, of those formal government institutions. This means they will disregard government in pursuit of freer markets and individual rights, so long as there are no infringements on individuals and markets in the process making the objective as little government as necessary for preserving liberty.

For Libertarians, the key talking points are: individual freedom and sovereignty, free trade, freedom of movement, open borders, noninterventionism, ending the war on drugs, ending mass incarceration, valuing tort over criminal courts, no death penalty, arbitration, ending welfare programs, private or homeschool, public school choice, ending income tax, a significant reduction in taxes overall, gun rights, ending overseas wars, ending fiat currency, stopping government foreign aid, shutting down many government institutions and three-letter agencies, ending the Federal Reserve, ending government-backed unions, government out of private affairs such as marriage and family, free market capitalism solutions as opposed to government involvement, open healthcare, tendency to praise policies and government figures that reduced government regulation, etc. 

This philosophy is supported by their political philosophers: Locke, Bastiat, Friedman, Aristotle, Block, Spooner, Mises, Rothbard, Boaz, Menger, Lewis, Hospers, Nozick, Rand, Smith, Woods, Hoppe, Hayek, Read, Higgs, Hume, Rockwell, Jefferson, Paul, Sowell, and more. Libertarians tend to be extremely philosophical in their studies and approach to their values, which helps explain their slogan. 

According to a thirteen-year study by Gallup, around 17-23% of Americans identify as Libertarian or libertarian-leaning. A Pew Research Center poll in 2022 found 57% of Americans view capitalism favorably. Another poll suggested around 12% of Republicans are libertarian-leaning. 

Overall, the four main political parties and affiliations in the United States of America have their own unique approach to government, individual rights and liberties, markets, collectivism, and so forth. However, it should also be evident that there are some intertwining values that either help or hinder their respective movements. By understanding these differences and similarities, it is easier to navigate the political landscape while comprehending why these groups vote and act the way they do. The similarities have enabled the two dominant parties to take advantage of the lesser two, but it also allows the opportunity for the lower-ranked parties to begin chiseling away at the two dominating parties.