Political tags — such as royalist, communist, democrat, populist, fascist, liberal, conservative, and so forth — are never basic criteria. The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire. The former are idealists acting from highest motives for the greatest good of the greatest number. The latter are surly curmudgeons, suspicious and lacking in altruism. But they are more comfortable neighbors than the other sort.I'm not sure I fully agree. I do think he's right that the fundamental political difference is between people who want to control others, to limit the freedoms of others, and people who just want to be left alone and free to live pretty much as they please.
But I demur when Heinlein imputes noble motives to the controllers. I don't believe that there are many of those who seek to limit our freedoms who are doing it from idealistic motives. It seems rather that their chief motive is a lust for power augmented, perhaps, by a bitterness or hatred borne of envy or jealousy.
The left has always tended toward totalitarian authority over others, but, although some may be motivated by utilitarian desires for the greatest good, those idealists are often swept aside by those who covet power.
It almost always happens this way. The French Revolution of 1789, the Russian Revolution of 1917, the Chinese Revolution of 1949, the Cuban Revolution of 1959, and all the lesser leftist revolutions in Asia (North Korea, Cambodia, Vietnam) and Africa that plagued the 20th century began as efforts to make life better for people and ended in mass slaughter, including the executions of the idealists who started the revolution. Approximately 100 million people were murdered by leftist totalitarians in the last century alone.
Moreover, the lust for control is not just typical of full-blown revolutions. It exists in our own polity as well. The difference between liberals and conservatives can be summed up thus: Liberals want ever-increasing power concentrated in the federal bureaucracy, the better to dictate how people live. Conservatives want power disbursed to state and local authorities so that citizens have more say in the decisions that affect their own lives.
I think Heinlein is mistaken, too, in characterizing those who want to retain their freedoms as surly curmudgeons who lack altruism. No doubt that description fits some, and it may be the common stereotype, but it's basically unfair. Conservatives donate an enormous amount of their personal resources - money, time, and talent - to their local communities as well as to efforts to ease global miseries. Studies show that conservatives are at least as generous as liberals and some studies show that they are more so (See also here).
So let's give Heinlein's observation an A for pithiness and a C for accuracy.
