Anyone who has ever debated an opponent in front of large orsmall groups knows that time compresses the use of words until words must beshort, simple, concise and easy to grasp by an audience.
  
Therefore, debaters are always looking forprecise roots of their beliefs they can use to start and simplify the process,to help themselves and their audiences understand their points.
  
Knowing those same roots help debaterssharpen their arguments as well. In American politics, roots exist for eachside and shape their issues.

In America,debates between conservatives and liberals start from two rootpropositions.
  
Many years ago, HerbertSpencer, and later, Ayn Rand, saw the root differences more between altruismand egoism, rather than just liberty against tyranny.
  
In a sense, they were describing the peoplewho stood on each side.
  
They describedthe egoists as the rational thinkers and the altruists as the “feelers.”
  
Egoists use their intellect and altruists usetheir heart.
  
Each root side consisted oftwo groups of people. Altruists consisted of those who would carry the flag, leadinga larger group of followers, the beneficiaries.

Egoists speak for those who prosper in an atmosphere of individualfreedom, as well as a larger group who seek to prosper someday.
  
There is merit in using these two divisions,altruists and egoists, as roots, but I have defined it differently.

I see it as two sides as well, one believing the interestsof community are more important than the other side who believes individuallegitimate self-interests are more important.

Those who pursue their own interests are more like the egoists describedby Spencer and Rand.
  
Those who promotecommunity interests are the altruists.

There is a detail that cannot be overlooked, however, as it applies tocommunity interests. Community has neither brain nor heart and cannot logicallyhave interests, except those defined by a leader of the community.
  
This brings the root devices into someconflict, because we are now talking about the self-interest of free men andwomen against the self-interest of those who assume the community’s leadershipposition.
  
This means we are debating theinterest of a free man or woman against the interests of a self-styled eliteruling over the many that must follow.

In America,this is precisely what we are debating in our political arenas.
  
The conservative represents individualfreedom and those who want to keep it alive and well in America.
  
The liberal represents those altruists andtheir beneficiaries who would divide the wealth of America among themselves, ratherthan earning it.
  
Into this debate comesthe size of governing institutions.
  
Theconservatives want to shrink government back to its original position ofpreventing injustice.
  
The liberals wantto expand government in order to provide justice as they see it from theirhearts.

This debate is more relevant to Americathan anywhere in the Old World.
  
The rest of the world has never had to dealwith the conservative side, of individuals who pursue their own values,interests, skills, talents and aspirations to achieve their own ends, whichwhen successful, provides them and their families with prosperity, a prosperitythat also spills over into community.

That component of the debate is strictly New World.
  
The Europeans and Asians who debate aspectsof tyranny, who will lead and how much elbowroom they will allow, havedifficulty comprehending the American condition.

Americans had almost 400 years to establish a tradition andculture different from the rest of the world.

It established equality at birth and unimpeded opportunities for eachindividual, without class distinctions, to become happy and prosperous chasingtheir own dreams.
  
That was never known,nor would it have been accepted, anywhere else in the world.
  
For that reason alone, the political debatesfrom Americado not make sense to those from other lands, and that includes many of today’sillegal immigrants.
  


As Jefferson said, in aletter to James Monroe, “How little do my countrymen know what preciousblessings they are in possession of, and which no other people on earth enjoy.”The root origins of America’spolitical debates are unique to America.If Americans do not understand them, we can foretell the collapse of whateverwe call liberty and the American Dream.

It is essential for those who speak for America, that they know the properroots and learn to build from them to understand the issues facing us today.