Freedom for Whom, and From What?
One side says conservatives want freedom and Democrats want control. The record shows both parties reach for the rulebook when the issue is one they care about.
By Claire Hollister, Politics and Policy
Published · 3 min read
The Overview
The facts, straight
A line keeps circling on X this week: conservatives want freedom, Democrats want control. It is a tidy slogan. Replies came back just as tidy, pointing to abortion bans and school book removals and asking whose freedom, exactly.
The slogan and the comeback both skip the harder question. Each party has a list of freedoms it guards fiercely and a list of things it is willing to regulate. The lists are different. That is the real divide, and it is worth seeing plainly.
What the Left Says
The progressive and Democratic case
Progressives say the "freedom party" label does not survive a look at state law. As of October 16, KFF reports that abortion is banned in 13 states and that six more have limits between six and 12 weeks, for 19 states in all. KFF counts eight of those states with no rape or incest exception and five with no health exception.
To the left, that is the government making the most personal decision a family can face.
They point to school libraries next. PEN America's new report counted 11,982 instances of book bans in public schools during the 2025-26 school year, the most since it began tracking in 2021, according to Texas Public Radio. Texas accounted for more than 8,100 and Florida more than 3,200. PEN ties much of the rise to state laws and political pressure.
Their conclusion: the right likes freedom from taxes and regulation, and is comfortable with control over bodies and bookshelves.
Where Reality Likely Sits
Radio Purple's analysis
Strip out the slogans and a pattern shows up. Each side is consistent about the freedoms it treats as sacred and flexible about the rest.
The right defends gun ownership, economic liberty, religious practice and freedom from health mandates. It is willing to use law on abortion and on what children read in school. The left defends abortion access, sexual and gender freedom and open library shelves. It was willing to use law on business, on guns and, during Covid, on masks and vaccines.
Neither party, in other words, is the freedom party in the abstract. Both are freedom parties for their own list.
That is not a cynical point. It is useful. If you want to persuade someone on the other side, the slogan does nothing. Asking them to apply their own principle to your issue might. A conservative who hated being told what to do in 2021 may understand why a parent bristles at a state telling her doctor what to do. A progressive who wants libraries left alone may understand why a parent bristled when Covid rules kept her child out of a classroom.
The honest test for any of us is simple. Would I accept this rule if the other side were writing it? A lot of arguments get quieter when we ask that one first.
What the Right Says
The conservative and Republican case
Conservatives answer that the left's freedom talk went quiet when it held the levers. Writing in The American Conservative, a columnist argued the right's base has "doubled down on 'leave us alone,'" and pointed to the Covid years. "People lost their jobs for failing to comply," the piece said of vaccine and mask mandates. "Conservatives hated how the government robbed them of their liberty in the name of the common good."
On books, many on the right reject the word "ban." A school choosing what sits on a children's library shelf, they say, is curation, and parents have a right to weigh in. They also note that removals are not one-sided. In 2020, Burbank Unified in California pulled five novels, including "To Kill a Mockingbird" and "Of Mice and Men," from required classroom reading after complaints about their treatment of race, the Los Angeles Times reported. The books stayed in libraries.
On abortion, conservatives say the freedom at stake belongs to the unborn child, and that the question is who counts. That is a moral claim, not a contradiction.
Sources & Citations
- KFF, “Policy Tracker: Exceptions to State Abortion Bans and Early Gestational Limits”, October 16, 2026.
- Texas Public Radio, “PEN America reports record school book bans, with Texas accounting for over 8,000 titles”, October 9, 2026.
- The American Conservative, “The Common Good Debate Leaves Out the Base's Desire to Be Left Alone”, October 16, 2026.
- Los Angeles Times, “Burbank school district removes 5 novels over racism charges”, November 12, 2020.
Positions above are attributed to the public statements and published reporting cited here. Quotations are taken from these sources; Radio Purple does not publish unattributed or invented quotes. See an error? Request a correction.
