Conservative vs. Liberal?

Question

What are some of the main differences between conservatives and liberals? Is conservative another word for Republican and liberal for Democrat? Why and how do their views differ?

P.S. This is a serious question so if you want to vent or spread disgust with one or the other please go somewhere else. Thx.

Answer 1

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservative

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberal

Look this up, the most factual, not all the BS!

The next guy has a good unbiased explanation!

Answer 2

I am a conservative. I believe that Conservative and Republican are two different things. While the Republican party seems to do the best job in forwarding my conservative values there are Republicans that I don't support namely John McCain. I think the best way to define the difference between Liberal and Conservative is as follows: Liberals are for Big Government; government well fare, government education etc. Where Conservatives are for Less government and feel that what can be done in the private sector should be.

Answer 3

The answer to this question may change from time to time, place to place, and may even vary depending on who you ask.

Traditionally, a liberal has been one who supports changing the status quo. A conservative is one who supports keeping things the way they are. Typically, in American politics in the past 50 years, conservative has been one who wants less government control of the economy, more control over social issues, and a more "hawkish" foreign policy. A liberal in the US is one who wants more government intervention in the economy, less government control over social matters, and is more "dovish" on foreign affairs.

Today, conservative and Republican, liberal and Democrat are pretty much the same, but this wasn't always the case- while Republicans have tended to be more conservative and Democrats more liberal, until the 60's, both parties had both liberal and conservative wings.

Note that the terms and political theory may be different in other countries- in Europe, a "liberal" tends to be economically laissez faire(what would be an economic conservative in America. In Russia, a liberal is one who is more economically conservative by American standards, a conservative is a hard-left person who wants to return to communism.

EDIT: decided to add a little chart to make it easier to see the differences. C= conservative position, L= Liberal position.

economics:
taxes: C= lower. L=Higher taxes for the wealthy.
control over business: C=minimal. L=increased control.
medicine: C=keep private. L=increase government role.

social issues:
abortion: C=opposes, pro-life. L=Pro-choice.
capital punishment: C=tends to favor. L=mixed, but less in favor of.
religion: C=increased role. L=less role. secular, sterile state.

defense, foreign:
UN/international: C=Nationalist, patriotic L: internationalist.
war: C=more likely to support wars. L:Dovish

Answer 4

There are moderates of both that blur the issue. I am assuming you mean extreme. It is John Kerry vs. George Bush, & Al Gore vs. George Bush. Wait conservatives won both times.

Librals think you can wish it so - no global warming, every one with equal money - no poor, no war - everyone loves each other - Al Queda will just lay down their guns because a liberal says he will, no one will die except unborn babies, the wealthy blame the wealthy for the problems, everything is the Republicans fault - blame them & etc.

Conservatives want unborn babies to have a chance in this life - adoption is a choice, people must work for money - it has taken generations for some to earn their money, no family started wealthy someone down the road earned the money, peace is earned not wished for, global warming is a natural cycle of Earth - look at Noah. Conservatives have much higher numbers of religionist people, they vote & accept the result without the whining of we were cheated that liberals whine about. We will always live to fight again, no need to whine. Conservatives expect their leaders to at least pretend they are from the state they representant - unlike liberals with Kennedy & Hillary. Conservatives believe you must work for what you want.

Answer 5

Conservatives believe in individual inititative, a strong work ethic, and extremely limited central government that plays a small role in people's lives, only interfering to protect people from each other. Conservatives also tend to be against high taxes (in order to keep government small) and wealth redistribution. Socially, they will tend to be in favor of traditional foundations of a nation (which is why many pro-life and anti gay-marriage groups will gravitate toward conservatives) and are slow to make social changes.

Liberals believe that the state can and should protect people from themselves and others. This leads to a belief in a large central government with numerous layers of bureaucracy. They also tend toward a belief in equality of outcome over an equality of opportunity so they support ideas like wealth redistribution, graduated taxation to punish people who overacheive or work harder than others and euphamistically call it "economic juctice". Socially, liberals tend to want radical change in the beliefs of a society quickly. They also tend to get violent when change isn't to their liking or coming fast enough.

Conservative is not necessarily a synonym for Republican and liberal is not necessarily the same as Democrat. You will find liberal Republicans and conservative Democrats. Becuase of our two party system, people that aren't necessarily covered by the conservative/liberal label have to align with the party whose platform most closely aligns with them. A lot of single issue people will simply go to the party that pays them the best lip service. In parliamentary systems, you find a lot more parties that have much better defined platforms than we do becuase a party that receives a certain percentage of the vote (usually 5% or more) will receive representation in the national legislative body.

Answer 6

Generally speaking:

Liberals want no moral standards in society, and conservatives want high moral standards.

Liberals think someone is greedy if they want to spend the money they earned. Conservatives think someone is greedy if they want to spend the money someone else earned.

Liberals think killing a convicted child rapist/murderer is horrible and killing an innocent baby is a constitutional right. Conservatives think just the opposite.

Liberals think 'diplomacy' will solve all international disputes. Conservatives know some people do not recognize the protocols of civilized discourse and can only be dealt with by force.

Liberals believe 'the poor' is a static class and that they deserve all kinds of freebies. Conservatives know that 'the poor' in one year are not the same in another year because most people start out with little and earn more as they get older, thus giving someone who is poor today a bunch of stuff removes the motivation for them to get ahead in the coming years.

Liberals think bigger government makes people safer. Conservatives know that the concentration of power (whether religious or secular) has never made people safer, in fact just the opposite.

Liberals think the earth is our mother. Conservatives know that the earth is a rock, made by God.

Liberals think freedom of speech means that someone MUST listen to you. Conservatives know that freedom of speech means you are free to try to convince me I need to think like you, and I am free to think you are a wacko, and consequently to stop listening to you.

Liberals believe a woman who chooses to stay home with her kids is "not doing anything with her life" and not living up to her potential, thus seeming to deny a woman the right to choose this path. Conservatives think that a woman who chooses to do this is worthy of the highest praise, for she will raise tomorrow's citizens.

This is of course the short list.

Answer 7

A conservative does not necessarily mean they or Democrat or Republican, it means that they are just conservative in their views.

Liberals want everything to be legal, everything to be free and want no accountability on themselves. They want a one world government and want to depend on that government to take care of them from everything from health care to housing. This is a type of socialism, or even go so far as communism.

Conservatives want to have everything morally acceptable within the law that was set up for the country some 200+ years ago. Most conservatives are religious and have morals that they want the government to reflect as well. They are self supporting, don't want the government to be involved in taking care of them and just have it for order.

The 2004 election was a good example of Liberal vs Conservative. John Kerry is one of the most liberal politicians out there, this is why he lost the election, we don't want no hippies in the White House.

Answer 8

As someone who is neither conservative nor liberal I will provide you with an unbiased answer to your question.

Conservatives:
Economically conservatives tend to want as little interference from the government as possible. They tend to support less regulations on businesses, lower taxes and private property rights.

Personally conservatives tend to feel that they know how you should live your life better than you do. They tend to support more government in your personal life such as more drug laws, trying to get people to fit into their view of how a family lifestyle should be, creating laws based on old fasioned values, etc.


Liberals:
Economically liberals tend to promote more socialist programs which promote economic equality. This involves higher taxes and more spending on programs such as social security, welfare, education, etc.

Personally liberals tend to believe in less government interference in their personal lives such as with whom and how they treat their bodies, they tend to value freedom of expression and privacy rights.

These are generalizations that have been true in the past but may have drifted on a few select issues.

As far as Republicans and Democrats, this is more difficult. Neither party has an actual platform and they are in the business of winning elections so they're quick to change their stance on issues if it allows a win in the election.

But generally Republicans tend to have conservatives as their base and Democrats have liberals as their base. Both sides drift from that base at varying degrees.

Answer 9

The terms conservative and liberal have existed within politics for years and years, while the terms of dem. and rep. are just current terms for today's parties. Really though republicans may seem like conservatives and democrats like liberals, but truthfully political party doesn't decide conservative or liberal... or moderate... or reactionary... or radical. Of course my personal swing is to the left, liberal.

Answer 10

"Conservatives are fine upstanding folks. Liberals want to kill babies and take everyones money."

Isn't it amazing how the right-wing media has so completely brainwashed the idiots in our country? They actually believe this kind of crap.

As you can tell from these responses, Liberals like to try and get along with everyone. Conservatives are a**holes.

Look elsewhere for a true answer.

Answer 11

By definition, to be conservative means to keep most governing policies in place and to make gradual changes in order to not upset the economy or the sociology of our society. Being liberal on the other hand means to make changes very radically and quickly.