What is a liberal, right wing,left wing, Conservative etc? I can't understand this!?

Answer 1

I always remember that "left" originally meant "sinister" - so it is the Religious Right and the Liberal Leftist. Traditionally Right is conservative and Left is Liberal.

Conservatives (right) are traditionally thought of as cautious, uncomfortable with too much government and are financially and/or religiously motivated.

versus

Liberals (left - I wonder who decided on these names...) are traditionally thought of as folks who think the government should take care of all it's people and will pass tax bills to pay for it. They are more religiously tolerant (as long as you keep your religion to yourself) and more likely to try new things.

Liberals are thought to vote with their heart and Conservatives with their wallets. Republicans are often considered Conservatives, while Liberals are usually the Democrats.

I am more what you would call a Centerist (I can see some things are correct on both sides of the debate) and a Libertarian (I really think government should get out of our lives - if I had my way, the only law would be "If you damage someone else (physically, financially) you will be punished. Otherwise, do what you want.") I usually vote Democrat / Liberal.

Answer 2

There are no hard and fast definitions for these words -- more like trends or tendencies. I agree with most of what the other answerers have said in answer to your question, though I suspect the notion that the right wing, or Republicans, favor smaller government is more myth than reality.

I prefer the way the ideologies were characterized in a political science textbook I used in college so long ago. I can't remember the author, though he had a foreign-sounding name, and I think it started with J. He posited that there are three things that we value in society -- equality, order, and freedom -- and that your affiliation is related to which of the three you value the most. Liberals value equality the most. This explains the redistribution of wealth that the liberals love; they want everyone to be equally wealthy. Conservatives value order the most, which explains why they would rather throw tax money into law enforcement and military. Libertarians value freedom the most, even at the expense of equality and order.

Edit: I just found the book on the internet. It's called "The Challenge of Democracy" by K. Janda.

Answer 3

Well, I must say that the republicans have successfully made the words liberal and conservative into buzzwords which bear little or no resemblance to their actual meanings. Suffice it to say that most people are liberals in that they believe in liberty and freedom from governmental abuse and a hope that society will improve. A true conservative believes that government should be small (our military size alone prevents anyone who follows Bush from being called a conservative) and that society should be governed by tradition.
Most people in this country are neither left wing or right wing, but moderate and by moderate I mean liberal in the classic sense, not liberal by the republican misuse of the word.
So, brainwashed people have you learned anything? I know die hard republicans haven't, but those with an open mind will see.

Answer 4

Conservative is Right Wing
Liberal is Left Wing
Moderate is Centrist

Moderate Conservative is Right of Center
Moderate Liberal is Left of Center

Answer 5

left wing and liberals are basically the same.....they want bigger governemtn spending, they want to keep problems around and not solve them because they fear if they do, they're will be no more use for them. They lie. Everything they blame on others is usually the exact thing they are doing themselves.

Right wing / conservative basically the same thing. They desire for smaller governement. Less governemnt spending. They realize the money they spend comes from taxpayers and the taxpayers have a right to keep as much of their own money as necessary. They want people to be responsible for themselves and to try and find solutions on their own without starting up yet another bloated taxpayers program.

Answer 6

Conservatives have been culturally nationalistic but economically liberal (in the classical sense). Liberals have been economically nationalistic — on health care, regulation, taxes, unions — but culturally liberal. Although it's been quite painful for them, this cultural liberalism has kept the Democratic party in favor of free trade and immigration.

Indeed, to be fair, the Democratic Party has been heroic in bucking its base — the economically nationalistic labor movement — on free trade. FDR, Truman, and Kennedy were all consummate economic nationalists. Free trade was tactically in their interests for a long time because it dovetailed with labor's interest. When the United States stopped being the manufacturer to the world, the Democratic Party struggled — not always successfully — to stay pro-trade on principle, even at the cost of votes. Meanwhile, the GOP has had the opposite challenge: to stay pro-free trade even as its ranks swell with working-class voters enamored with their paychecks, not Adam Smith.

Answer 7

The republican party is aligned with conservative (right winged) values while the democratic party tends to stay on the left and endorse liberal values.

Answer 8

The terms left-wing and right-wing actually derive from the French National Assembly two hundred years ago.

http://ask.yahoo.com/20011217.html

Here's what Wikipedia has to say about Right Wing
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right-wing

And about Left Wing
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left-wing_politics

Democrats, liberals, socialists and communists are considered Left-Wing
Republicans, conservatives and fascists are considered Righ-Wing

Answer 9

liberal = left wing
and
conservative = right wing

is based on the way a political room ( like the room the senate meets is) way laid out, MANY years ago in France. it is not particularly helpful in US politics today because one can be conservative on 1 issue, but liberal on another.

Jerry Pournelle created a different way to look at political positions, that makes a lot more sense.

The para below is from Wikipedia.

"Pournelle is also known for his Pournelle chart, a 2-dimensional coordinate system used to distinguish political ideologies. It is similar to the Nolan chart, except that the X axis refers to your feelings toward state and centralised government (farthest right being state worship, farthest left being the idea of a state as the "ultimate evil"), and the Y axis refers to your belief that all problems in society have rational solutions. (top being complete confidence in planning, bottom being its total lack)."

Answer 10

Right Wing and Conservative are the same thing. Conservatives believe in small government, lower taxes, a strong military and individual responsibility. They oppose abortion, gay marriage and usually support the death penalty.

Liberal and Left Wingers are one in the same. They do not believe that you can take care of yourself or that you are wise enough to spend your money without their help. These are the people who support abortion and gay marriage and higher taxes and they are the ones who want felons to be able to vote.