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Pols 2300-351
03/26/18
Liberal vs Conservative Thinker: Same-Sex Marriage
Same-sex marriage was legalized in the United States on June 26, 2015. This was a
monumental moment for the United States and the world because they acknowledged the fact
that same-sex couples do exist and put them on the same playing field for once. In Ideals and
Ideologies A Reader there are many authors and philosophers that would have different views
and opinions about the legalization of gay marriage. In this paper I am going to talk about two
Liberalism:
Of course when all of the excerpts from the book about liberalism were written they
could not even imagine or talk about the legalization of gay marriage. However, I think that if
many of the authors were around today they would have agree and be on the side of gay rights
and gay marriage. To start off the word liberty is derived from a Latin word liber which means
“free”. With this being the basis of most liberal arguments it would stand to reason that liberals
or liberal thinkers would be on the side of gay marriage because that means that everyone is free
and no one is being denied rights. “Liberals see themselves as champions of individual liberty
who work to create or preserve an open and tolerant society-a society whose members are free to
pursue their own ideas and interests with as little interference as possible.” (Dagger, Ball,
One liberal thinker and author that I think would definitely Agree with the legalization of
gay marriage is John Stuart Mill. In his excerpt On Liberty he talks about how the government
and society should control or determine what a person chooses to do or how they act. “The
principle is, that the sole end for which mankind are warranted, individually or collectively, in
interfering with the liberty of action of any of their number…” (John Stuart Mill, pg. 98) He then
goes on to talk about the role of government, authority, and individual liberty. Like I mentioned
above I think that even though gay marriage was not even a thought when most pieces on
liberalism were written in the book, many of them would be for the legalization of gay marriage.
Conservatism:
On the other side of the political spectrum, conservatism or conservative thinkers try to
traditions or customary way of life in their societies.” ( Dagger, Ball, O’Neill. Ideals and
Ideologies). Because gay marriage was not a tradition nor a customary way of life, I think many
conservative thinkers would be against gay marriage for the simple fact that it is not a social
Many of the conservative readings in the book were all about preserving the way of life
as it was in the moment. For example, Joseph De Maistre, wrote a piece about the French
Revolution and why he was against it. To translate that to modern day society or gay marriage
would mean that Maistre would be against it because it was/is not deemed as “normal” by
society. It is also changing the way that people think of marriage and relationships, which would
Lastly, I do think that many of the people who were liberals or conservatives of a past
time would have a hard time dealing with the fact that gay marriage was legalized. However, I
think liberal thinkers would come to accept it because of their principles, values, and definitions
Ball, Terence, et al. Ideals and Ideologies: a Reader. Routledge, Taylor Et Francis Group, 2017.