In A Conflict of Visions, Thomas Sowell discusses in great detail the underlying belief systems that manifest themselves as modern conservative and leftist ideologies. Among the most significant is that conservatives emphasize results in determining a policy’s value whereas leftists emphasize the motives behind whatever politician or policy. Thus, when discussing a policy failure like the War on Poverty, the leftist defense will often reflect a variation of “at least we tried to do the right thing (even if it made things worse)”, but Republicans can be dismissed out of hand because they don’t care as much as Democrats do.

You will repeatedly see Democrats deemphasize the likely tangible results of a given policy in favor of the noble goals whatever policy is meant to push forward, and how much the policy’s proponents care. Likewise, they portray our motivations as deriving almost entirely from evil instincts like hate and greed, thus framing out of the discussion whatever might result from what we advocate. Our rotten hearts alone merit dismissing whatever we have to say.