whats is the difference between a liberal and a conservative? it sounds somewhat self explanatory but...?

Answer 1

liberal, give everyone fish so they can eat for the day.
conservative, teach everyone to fish and they eat every day.

Answer 2

A liberal wants a HUGE government with many departments ("bureaus") and many rules and regulations and many employees, so that he/she can take care of everyone from womb to tomb. As time goes on, that liberal government will intrude more and more on our daily lives. They will pass many laws,which will restrict us in what we can and cannot do. They don't care how high the taxes go, and they don't care that probably 75% of our money goes to pay for the big government, and not the program for which it is intended.

Conservatives want smaller government, lower taxes, fewer laws that restrict us, and more self-reliant .... and stronger....people. They believe that "The government that governs least governs best". Also, the conservative believes the government should do only those things that the people cannot do for themselves, like building roads,and national defense. They want the private sector, which is more efficient, to have a larger roll in our society.


A conservative believe in a strict interpretation of the Constitution. The liberals take some indecent liberties with that document. Please note that the Constitution says nothing about education, for example. Yet the government is in it with both feet, and the results are lousy.

Answer 3

The farther left, the less restriction. The farther right, the more restriction. It's basically like this (farthest left to farthest right): Communism, Socialism, Liberalism, Centralism, Conservativism, Elitism, Fascism. That's the analysis, courtesy Angelus.

Answer 4

okidoki: exactly what are conservatives doing to "teach everyone to fish"?

I've seen many people say this... yet no one explain it?

I've never seen conservatives "teach" or even want to teach anyone anything...

perhaps a better analogy would be:

liberals may give a man a fish... may even try to teach him to fish

conservatives would just yell at him to buy a pole and fish (even though the man clearly has no money for a pole or knowledge of fishing)... they would give no instruction or help on how to do so... then call him lazy for not fishing...

Answer 5

here... try taking this and see if having some examples helps:
http://www.politicalcompass.org/

it will put you on a grid based off the decisions you make about fictional characters. it's a philosophical tool, which is what our political parties came out of anyway. it has two continuums, right/left and libertarian/authoritarian... and i think that is more helpful than liberal/conservative. both of those groups slide around in the middle sometimes.

Answer 6

Neddie is wrong. She is talking about anarchists.

Conservative generally means that they want to keep things the same, with only small changes.

Liberals see problems and want immediate, dramatic change to fix them before the problems become overwhelming.

Answer 7

Liberals are not Anarchist!!!

Liberals want change, either drastic...immediate...or whatever, they just want change.

Conservatives wants things to remain constant and static. No change

Answer 8

liberals want no government,, conservatives want all government