What in your opinion is the difference between liberal and conservative?
138481
A conservative is a liberal who has been mugged.
254148
Conservative and Liberal are terms only describing your tendency towards one side or another on certain issues.  It really has nothing to do with party affiliation.  There are a number of conservative Democrats and liberal Republicans, but the majority of Republicans tend to be more conservative and the majority of Democrats tend to be more liberal, which is how the words have come to be used as pseudo-insults from one party to the other.
207354
I am a Christian Conservative and I vote Republican because they TELL THE TRUTH NO MATTER WHAT. Liberal Democrats LOVE TO LIE BECAUSE THEY CANNOT TELL THE TRUTH and that is why I do not vote Democrat unless the candidate comes from the city that I live in.
614886
I think it's that the opposite of liberal is conservative.  Conservatives favor the ways and institutions of the past, and would like to revert to them.  And many republicans are conservatives.  Their ideal is therefor the polar opposite of liberals.  And no, I don't think there's anything wrong with liberals, both keeping an open mind and respecting the past seem like good ideas to me.  That's why I couldn't be a member of the press.  I make too much sense and am too respectful of other peoples opinions.
1058470
Liberals identify with Jesus's compassion and the way he was always there to help the poor, the sick, and those without a political voice.  Liberals often claim conservatives don't care about the poor, but in reality conservatives simply believe the poor are better helped through private charities rather than through government programs which are often impersonal and wasteful.
292456
Liberal is a way of thinking and not related to a specific poltical agenda or party. Democrat is an actual political party that one registers to be a part of..Yes many liberals are Democrats but many arent as well.. I consider myself liberal but am closer to a Libertarian than anything else yet I remain registered 'non-partisan' so I dont have to be stuck in the dogmatic agenda of a specific party..Plus I can vote for whoever I want and actually vote on the issues and not just the party..Hope this helped..
315652
There is nothing wrond with being liberal, its the opposite of conservative...  Liberal covers the entire left side of the political spectrum - it's generic for people who believe in individualism, freedom, equality, the social contract and rational evidence-based (as opposed to morality-based) public policy but often disagree on the application of these principles.
1185882
I am a conservative and I have some liberal friends.  Though we differ on certain issues we do have one thing in common and that is we are patriotic.  There are extreme liberals that spew with anti American rhetoric and those that do not.
922471
If you are in the States, I believe you mean the Democrats.  Liberal is a political standpoint, like conservative.  Republican & Democrat are actually political parties.
1068701
the problem between liberals and conservatives, is simple ,while liberal minded people point out the inequities of those who earn less and work harder , conservatives feel as though they have earned what they get .\nConservatives by virtue of always following the rules and path laid before them do so blindly without a care in the world never noticing they have a distinct advantage.\nAS an older American who watches T.V. and reads news reports i have noticed that the media talks down to people .This gives me a headache and in trying to point this out and other simple facts I run into conservatives who try to insist everything is fine with the country except for the liberals who are trying to destroy america. They point out that marriage is between a man and a woman and that is fine with me ,but giving married people rights that others do not have is wrong and i point this out.\nI get the usu-all responce that it was adam and eve not adam and steve responce .\nThis was not what I expected from an intelligent person \nI wanted to hear you are right and how can we make things fair for couples who want to raise a family.\nI get but adam and steve can not have a family only adam and eve.\nTO this i point out how many children in america have no parents at all and live in foster care, an impermanent situation that leaves children wondering always when they will be accepted as permanent members of  a family and know they are loved for who they are .\nA family consists of a domestic group of people ,typicaly affiliated by birth or marriage or by comparable legal relationship.\nIN a nuclear family the typically female  memeber of the family stayes home and raises the children ,and should the marriage fail she is provided for and so are the children.\nNOW when a same sex partnership breaks up only the person who has adopted the children legally has any rights .\nThis leaves the member of the family who raised the children and was there all the time for them watching over them and protecting them every day with no rights at all if they are not the adoptive member of the family.IN- fact they are not intitled to support or visitation or any rights granted in a marriage.\nI say to my consevative friends which i have only a few casual relationships with how do we do something about this and the responce is they had no business being togheter in the first place.\nThis i can not accept and it is wrong for anyone to tell another how to live and what relationships work and what ones do not.\nTHIS is the major differance between liberals and conservatives is we accept that rules need to exsist for the benefit of all mankind but mankind is not limited to living a life following rules that restrict his freedom of choice in who he may live with or the rights he is granted or denied because of sex this is discrimination .Two people apply for a license to marry and the rights there-in  agreed upon by the state to regognize and give equal weight to both parties and the benefits offered in accordance to taxes and rights of children to remain with there family.ONCE you make this a choice only offered to people of different sexes you have created discrimination and this is wrong.CONSERVATIVES will never accept this and this is why i beleive they are idiots cause faced with plain simple facts they can not see the truth .IF you asked a kid what is 2+2 and he had no answer or kept on insisting it was 7  you would say the boy is touched after you teach him that 2+2=4 . this is my feeling about conservatives is you can point out the truth but you can not make them drink.IF you wish to be considered average then leave governing to the people who know better and are smarter then you.although i see you put your-self above average americans.this means you see that i am right and discrimination is wrong and gays should have equal protection and rights under our laws.IF however you do not agree i must insist you accept that you are indeed average and allow the smarte
1110600
Though I am not a liberal, I have found that wacko conservatives are more stubborn know it alls than are liberals. Personally, I think both are retarded, but that's just the opinion of a hard line moderate.
52233
In America being a liberal means you think people should have a lot of personal freedoms (abortion, free speech, unions) and that the economy should be closely monitored and modified by the government.\n\nConservatives think that people's freedoms should be more closely monitored and controlled and that the economy should be free from government interference.\n\nNow, this is just what the trend is GENERALLY nowadays, because really the ideals change as time goes on for both types.
440579
Well, let's see.\n\nA liberal wants to preserve the limited powers of the government, and conservatives want to have a strong central goverment that can protect the country against foreign aggression.\n\nNo wait, that's backwards ...\n\nLiberals want to stop Congress from deficit spending, and conservatives want to continue to fund military-related projects and spend far more than is in the Treasury.\n\nNo wait, that's backwards too ...\n\nLiberals want to protect a citizen's right to worship as he pleases without government interference, and conservatives want to set the Ten Commandments into Federal law.\n\nGee, now I'm really confused.  Seems liberals and conservatives are all mixed up these days ...\n\nI think you should go back to the sixties and seventies, when liberals were the party of affirmative action, school desegregation, and welfare, and conservatives were the party of fiscal responsibility and anti-Communism -- and the world made sense.\n\n(Sorry, I know I'm being a little sarcastic and you're probably just a kid who doesn't understand any of this stuff.  But government is a weird place these days)
1068170
Liberals and conservatives are both cool with me. I can honestly understand most of their concerns and I can see many ways for the two camps to compromise and actually get things DONE.\n\nThe problems begin and end with the Democrats and Republicans. I think they both play "rope-a-dope" with our money and the future of our country.\n\nAnd "whine" goes well with Jumbo AND jack-arsse !!!!!!
1143645
Republican.  On a Scale of 1 to 50 with 50 being the most liberal and 1 being the most conservative,  I'm a 3.  I took a test in my American Government class in College.  I knew I was a Republican to begin with but I didn't know I was that conservative!   :)
846983
The basic difference is that Republicans follow a conservative philosophy and Democrats follow a liberal philosophy. \n\nA liberal would say that a proper role for government is to regulate and oversee the economy. Liberals say it's proper for government to ensure that companies do the right thing (such as pay minimum wages), and to ensure that people act responsibly in their finances (such as requiring contributions to retirement savings).\n\nA conservative would say that a proper role for government is to regulate and oversee morality. Conservatives say it's proper for government to ensure that people are punished for immoral acts (such as taking drugs), and that people act appropriately in their marriages (such as banning homosexual marriage).\n\nA libertarian would say that neither of those is a proper role for government. Libertarians say that the only proper role is to maintain an army for defense against invasion, to maintain a court system for ensuring justice, and other constitutionally defined roles. \n\nA populist would say that both economic and moral intervention are proper roles for government. \n\nSome people classify libertarians as conservatives and some classify populists as liberals. Those definitions fall apart when libertarians talk about moral issues like abortion (pro-choice) or drugs (pro-legalization). \n\nRalph Nader and Pat Buchanan both consider themselves "populists," but the press usually classifies Nader as liberal and Buchanan as conservative. Yet they agree entirely on their most important issue, opposing free trade and globalization. \n\nThe problem with a one-dimensional definition like liberal and conservative is that it doesn't define well political reality. The two-dimensional definition is better.
1030259
Conservatives are typically protection-minded, as in typically protective of the country and our way of life. Liberals tend to do a lot of america-bashing, they hate this, they hate that, they have a 'favorite minority of the month' kind of thing, they care more about starving kids somewhere else than starving kids in america, that kind of thing...their focus is more on 'the poor' and some other country than on fixing america....