what is CONSERVATIVISM VS. LIBERALISM?
967243
Being a liberal is being a constitutionalists. Being a conservativist is more difficult to define precisely due to the different categories of conservatism.  There is the so-called compassionate conservative, the fiscally conservative and lastly there is the socially conservative.\n\nIn an attempt to answer your question, I will elaborate on my personal liberal reasons for leaning far left.\n\nI believe in freedom of speech, separation of church and state, a person's right to bear arms, in the Bill of Rights making all ppl equal and believe that minorities should not be discriminated against, etc... I believe in the constitution and fully support this great nation's Supreme Court's interpretation of it. \n\nI do NOT believe in majority rule or changing the constitution just because the majority says so. \n\nI believe this country CORE value is the right of the ONE!\n\nIn more detail, here is why I am a 'liberal' and a democrat:\n\n- I believe in war as a last resort or unless we or an ally have been attacked. IEs, Gulf War and Pearl Harbor\n- I believe in UN support and if the UN is corrupt, instead of bailing on them, fix it.\n- I believe we have a duty to pay our elderly social security because they paid those funds when they were working. That is like robbing them if we do not pay it back.\n- I do not believe trickle down economics of Reagan, Bush Sr, and Bush Jr works. It never works. I believe in Clinton's economic system that is commonly referred to as Pay-As-You-Go... I believe in fiscal responsibility to not burden our children with our large debts.\n- I believe in FDR's New Deal that the republican party has been trying to destroy piece by piece.\n- I believe our social programs that keep families from living under bridges prevent us from becoming a 3rd world country.\n- I believe in welfare but I also believe in Clinton's welfare reform where it is limited to 2 to 3 years in a lifetime. This prevents ppl from living on it their entire life; thereby, prevents welfare abuse.\n- I believe in universal healthcare because a healthy nation is a powerful nation and also the pharmcy/insurance companies are corrupt.\n- I believe in government regulation of monopolies such as power/energy, cable and telephone companies. Everytime the government deregulates these industries, they promise the price will go down but it never does... it always increases thereby increases the cost of living.\n- I do not believe in making laws that violate constiutional rights... such as the Patriot Act or even seatbelt laws.\n- I do not believe in making new laws everytime a problem arises; but rather, to fix the problem.\n- I believe in gay marriage because gay ppl pay taxes too and heteorsexual couples should not be given special rights by the states just because they are straight. Otherwise take away those special rights and don't allow the state to recognize anyone's marriage.\n- I believe in a woman's right to choose because just as the Supreme Court has ruled, a woman has a constitutional right to privacy over what happens to her body.\n- I believe in the right to own a gun because it is a constitutional right.\n- I believe in the constitution 110% and the liberties it allows each citizen.\n- I am anti-illegal immigration because simply, they break the law by entering illegally therefore are criminals.\n- I believe in complete separation of church and state per the constitution and as interpreted by Thomas Jefferson who stated, "thus building a wall of separation between Church and State"\n- I believe in SMALL GOVERNMENT in terms of big brother staying the hell out of my business. I've never participated in a census and refuse to. I am a LIBERAL and believe government has NO RIGHT to stick its nose in my business.
1066265
Broadminded and conservative are mutually exclusive terms.  Conservatives have a set of beliefs that narrow their outlook, and their minds are by nature geared to have a narrow outlook and to want a narrow outlook.  They thrive having their minds restricted by authoritarian ideologies like religion, law-and-order, and other such prescribing dictates.  They are very uncomfortable with personal liberty management, and that is why they fight so constantly to get enforcement of prescribing rules and regulations.  It looks like they want everyone to go by what they believe, and that sure would be fine with them, but what really motivates them is their own need to escape the frightening personal liberty management issues that broadminded people handle well and enjoy.\n\nSo you can tell if you are broadminded or conservative by how well you deal with personal liberty, how threatened you are by non-standard and traditional life-styles, how much liberty you are willing to tolerate other people having.
181391
Depends on what definition of liberal u mean. Economic or Social? Social liberalism means a political philosophy of progress and reform and the protection of civil liberties whereas economic liberalism means an economic theory of laissez-faire and self-regulating markets (otherwise known as capitalism). Lookin at it from a purely economic point of view the US is a helluva lot more BLOODY liberal than we are! All i can say is thank god i live in the UK!
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.
1058221
No to both.\nLiberals are generally people who view individual liberties as paramount. They also tend to believe in the common good and are generally more open-minded and generous. The democratic party use to adhere to theses thoughts plus they were pro-worker. Liberals tend to run the gamut of political parties and are found in the democratic party more so than in the republican party. The democratic party is not completely made up of liberals. Since the Reagan years many democrats have adopted a neoliberal, pro-corporation "free trade" ideology (Clinton, Biden, Lieberman, etc..) and are anything but liberal. \nI hope this answers your question.
159840
Hey "Cute Girl": try "dictionary" (do you really get points for an answer like that????)\n\nBelieve it or not, that's not a simple question. Conservatism, in politics, can mean lots of things. And, politicians and parties can identify themselves as "conservative" and not really be conservative. But, generally, conservative means "not radical," so opposed to change and in favor of tradition.\n\nFor true conservatives, tradition is more important than ideology, or ideas. It also depends on your point of view...what's "conservative" in one country can be radical in another.\n\nIn the U.S., Conservative is generally meant to mean people in favor of small government, individual responsibility (and therefore very little public spending, welfare, etc.). There are people who say that the present Bush Administration, which describes itself as conservative, isn't really conservative because they've EXPANDED government and trampled on civil liberties.\n\nThere isn't enough space here to really get into what the differences are between the flavors of conservatism, but the web site below has some pretty good stuff. Check it out.
1001588
The culture war is relative new. It is a battle between the conservative and liberals. It started in the 60's but really6 caught fire in the 90's. Just as My fellow conservatives rally around the President to roll back and stop what happened under Clinton, the liberal want to add to their gains by electing more liberals. At one time there were four factions in the country as both parties had a liberal and a conservative wing. The Republican liberals were and are much smaller then the Democrat conservatives. Liberals used to be only concerned with economic issues, even most of them opposed abortion, gay rights, etc. The battle is hgetting worse as Tye liberals have managed to convince a higher share of the youth to buy their agenda. However as people get older they turn to become more conservative. except those who want leadership.
317173
Assuming that you mean politically, here's my take, and I know this has change from how the sides used to be:\n\nliberal: progressive in introducing legislation to fix issues/problems, bigger government/more involvement, federal rights, higher taxes on rich to support the needs of the poor\n\nconservative: more status quo, states rights, less government involvement ("laissez-faire") especially federal, lower taxes for people to use their money to fix their own problems\n\nI'm usually a left-leaning moderate, so I generally have likes/dislikes about both sides.  Hope that helps.
1056520
Liberals don't respect the law of unintended consequences.  they are slow to see a dicator coming.  They adore creating classes of citizenship.  They flunk.\n\nConservatives, now, are a party that insists on using government to achieve RELIGIOUS goals.  They are the religious party.  They flunk.\n\nSo I'm a hard-currency, limited-government federalist and anti-utopian.  When Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan were alive, this was called "conservatism."  In the 19th century, it was called "liberalism" and some people still call it "classical liberalism."  Nowadays, some are calling it being a "militant moderate."  At the root, it is "Lockean empiricism."
384
Sorry, here in Europe, liberal is not conservative...Is not left (actually, is center-right), but here in Europe, in the Center right has three families: Conservatives, Christian-Democrats and Liberals; and they are pretty differents.
728393
There are two big views in America today, one is "liberal" the other "conservative."  Basically they differ on one issue, is man basically good or not.  Liberals believe generally that all people deserve an equal chance and government policy should reflect that.  Therefore, government should intervene and assist all those that are disadvantaged in the society, making sure that at least they should get an education, have food and shelter, etc.  This might be described as the "trickle up" theory.  Conservatives believe in the dog eat dog view of the world, that it is everyman for himself, that those who succeed deserve it on their own merits, and that if they are left alone, their success will eventually benefit the rest of society by creating wealth and jobs.  This is known as the "trickle down" theory.  These two views ccontest with each other back and forth, and tend to demonize each other as being out of touch with reality.  Lately, the consevatives have been winning the propaganda war, so liberals have been taking it on the chin.  Both views have their merits, so it best for all of us to listen to both.  If either side was in control too long, we would probably suffer for it.  That is why the political pendulum swings back and forth between the two.  After the democrats have been in control of the information with this election, the conservatives will surely take it on the chin for a while, and they will be portrayed as not caring about freedom and don't really care about America, just themselves.
279937
Left (wing) is the same as Liberal and right (wing) is the same as conservative.\n\nConservatives claim to be more careful in making changes.  They don't like to change the way things are done unless they think the new way will be an improvement.  \n\nConservatives also tend to interpret the constitution in light of the founding fathers commentary, historical perspectives of the founding fathers, and the actual wording of the constitution.\n\nConservatives are more likely to cut taxes (except in times of war) and cut social programs (except for national defense).  They also tend to hold traditional Values,\n\nLiberals claim to embrace change.  They tend to go more with the trends than with what was done in the past.\n\nLiberals usually view the Constitution as a "Living Document" that changes with the times that we are currently living in.  They view the wording of the Constitution as symbolic rather than concrete.\n\nLiberals tend to raise taxes and increase funding of social programs (except for Defense spending).  Liberals values tend to run with the trends of their time.\n\nstephenvest@...\nYou could at least try to be objective.
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..
713607
I'm conservative.  I had an ecclectic educational mix of private and public schooling, followed by private and State college.  \n\nI observed that liberalism wasn't economically feasible, and didn't factor in human nature.  I studied world history and thought our form of government was the best.\n\nSomething made us different from every other nation, and I thought it was worth trying to preserve.
104073
I don't think liberals act on feelings instead of reasoned thought.  I don't think anybody really acts on reasoned thought.  \nThe difference between the two ideologies, to me, follows on a federalist/anti-federalist distinction.  It used to be that Republicans/conservatives tend to view a government that's best is one that governs least.  They like the states to have more power and the federal government to worry about federal issues, dictated by Article I of the Constitution.  Democrats/liberals used to see the federal govrenment as the answer to America's problems.  They thought the states were not doing the job that needed to be done and that the US should take care of the ills in the country.\nI think it's better if both sides would sit down, shut up and start listening to each other.  It's amazing how much people really do agree (if you don't mention Iraq or abortion) on what needs to be done, just disagree on how to do it.
920578
I'm an independent voter and have never belonged to either party - I guess I'm just not a joiner. I've tried to get a handle on liberal vs. conservative labels to see where I stand but there's so much overlap between the two, as well as differences within each label, that I'm not sure these generalizations have any distinct meaning. \n\nDescriptions for liberalism include classical American liberalism, modern American liberalism, and paleoliberalism. Conservatism can be classical, ideological, neoconservatism, paleoconservatism, social conservatism, fiscal conservatism, or libertarianism. Some of these labels, on either side of the semantic fence, seem to share pretty much the same beliefs so, outside of the generalizations made by political parties and the media, there's a good deal of commonality. In addition, it seems both Democrats and Republicans, as well as liberals and conservatives all seem to believe in individual rights, free enterprise, representative democracy, and the rule of law. I have my own issues but neither party nor nor any ideology satisfies me. I guess I'm too particular to let other people do my thinking for me.
1026341
Log on to http://politicalcompass.jpagel.net/\n\nLiberal has many definitions, just ask Merriam-Webster. But the answer you are looking for is "left-winger" or "socialist".\n\nOn the economic scale, liberals prefer government authority to intervene and engineer the economy, to take private property through taxation and the rights of the individual through regulation, in order to create a more "fair" society. This means if I own a business, and you own nothing, you are somehow entitled to the money I earn.\n\nOn the social scale, liberals prefer less government authority, in other words, they wish to legalize all behavior which is considered to be immoral and is currently illegal. (such as the use of hard drugs, all forms of gambling, all forms of sexual perversion). On the one hand, they like government intervention when it suits thier pocketbook, but they dislike it when the government restricts thier addictive behaviors.\n\nThese definitions may seem to have a conservative bias to them. However, we are only speaking in generalities. There are "liberal" groups which I support, such as People for the ethical treatment of animals (PETA), and non-biased environmentalist groups. I also do not support government regulation of our freedom of speech.\n\nSome would consider the so-called right to be liberal, because conservatives are in favor of the free market, or laizee-faire (sp?) capitalism. They support the right to own private property and engage in private business. Privacy is a very liberal concept, whereas statism (public regulation) is a very communist (authoritarian) concept.\n\nAnd while most conservatives frown on many different kinds of immoral behavior, we all support the presumption of innocence, the right to a fair and speedy trial, the right to an attorney, the right to appeal, the right to a jury of your peers, and all other constitutional rights, which makes us the most progressive people on the planet, unless you consider child pornography or drug abuse "progress" or "enlightened".\n\nThat might help you understand the difference between left-wing authoritarianism and liberalism, as well as the difference between the so-called left and the so-called right.\n\nLiberals, before you attack me, go to the link provided above, and fill out the simple questionaire. On the political spectrum, I am an absolute centrist, not left-winger or a right-winger, nor am I an authoritarian nor a libertarian. Therefore I am neither extremist nor biased.\n\nThere is no such thing as a simple dichotomy between liberals and conservatives. The fact is, the definitions overlap all too frequently to declare one to be completely opposed to the other.\nThere is more to politics than "Democrat good, Republican bad".\n\nIf you are a moderate you support neither extreme liberalism nor extreme communism (they are directly opposed, one supports total freedom, the other total government), which would make you a conservative, which definiton means "moderate" or "rational". I would define conservatism as centrism and objectivism (look it up).\n\nThis does not mean all people who are labeled "conservative" are moderate or rational. There are plenty of theocrats out there who believe that thier view of God and only thier view should be law. There are plenty of "conservatives" who are actually libertarians who want to legalize and deregulate everything, which would be both a disaster for the environment, and for our moral standards.\n\nFootnote:\nIf all you can do is attack me for my opinion, then you are not a liberal, because liberals are supposed to be open-minded and tolerant people. Why so much hatred, then? I don't hate liberals. I just disagree with political extremism on the left and the right.