can someone tell me what makes a person liberal or conservative?

Question

what are the differences between the two when it comes to all of the important issues............i am trying to find out if i am a lib or cons

Answer 1

Ok. I'll be general here and as unbiased as I can.

The terms liberal and conservative are based on government control and economics. The terms democrat and republican are based on economics and social issues. (Ex. gay rights, abortion, war in Iraq)

Liberal: (generally speaking)
Believes a strong government is necessary to guide the people. Believes that government should have lots of money for health care, education, etc etc. Thus resulting in high taxes. Also believes that the rich should be taxed a lot, and the poor very little.

Conservative: (generally speaking)
Believes it is every man for himself. If your neighbor doesn't have as much money as you do, that's his own fault and the government shouldn't step in. You earned that money. High taxes aren't needed because the more money people have, the better business is. The more business, the better the economy does.

wmcritter: If your edit was directed partly at me, I'm sorry. I was too vague in my description and wasn't trying to give "hate filled lies." Perhaps this should be added somewhere in there:

Conservatives mentality is that they can give and help their neighbor themselves, without having the government do it for them.

Answer 2

Usually when people decipher between the those philosophies and label people one or the other its determined on only one issue. The war in Iraq, income tax, medicare, immigration, abortion, welfare, these are all polarizing issues for most people. If you want to sum up all of the differences in one phrase you can say that conservatives want a smaller less controlling government with a free market (traditionally the liberal way of thinking was in favor of a free market) and liberals want a big government with a lot of subsidies and the majority of the budget going towards social issues and needs.

Answer 3

Liberals tend to be very open minded. They want a strong central government and favor higher taxes to pay for government regulation of health care, help for the poor, and things like that. Liberals want to regulate the economy more, which tends to hurt the economy more than help it.

Conservatives tend to focus on traditional Christian morals. They favor a democracy with less government regulation of the economy. Conservatives believe in the free market theory. Conservatives also favor giving more power to the people by giving local governments more responsibility and ability to make decisions directly effecting the lives of each citizen in a smaller area, and having a weaker centralized government.

Answer 4

All you're going to find here is bashing of either side. I'll try to sum it up for you though:

Liberals: a very open minded view, willing to let people do as they please, while abiding laws, more focused on helping hte disadvantaged.
Conservatives: Religiously influenced, family values are important, most viewpoints are created based on the bible or similar christian ways.

Whether you are Lib or Con is based on your upbringing and environment. I was raised conservative, but I have become liberal based on what I found I disagreed with in conservative views.

Answer 5

I am a Conservative because I favor a strong military, low taxes, and the least government interference possible in my personal and corporate life.

I believe in a Strict Constructionist approach to interpreting the US Constitution (that is, what did the framers intend?).

Get your Liberal answer anywhere but Wikipedia.

Answer 6

Liberals want the government to control their lives. They want the government to make most of our decisions. They want to tax the rich and successful to pay most to all of their income in order to subsudize the lazy in our society. They don't want morals to be part of our legislation. A strong military is not important to them.

Conservatives prefer to let Americans live off their own successes, and not punish the best and brightest of America in order to subsidize the lazy free-loaders. Conservatives believe that American was founded on a strong moral foundation, and want to keep that foundation intact. They also prefer a strong military, and low taxes.

Answer 7

Generally, they believe in the same things. For example: helping the needy and defending the nation.

The difference lies in the methods of achieving those goals. Real conservatives believe in freedom and capitalism. In other words, private charities, free markets, and no government interference.
Liberals believe in forcing people into government run programs (social security, medicare, welfare, etc.). This is a form of oppression because participation is mandatory or you go to prison.

So pretty much the question is: do you believe in freedom or oppression?

Personally, I don't like the government forcing me to do things with a gun to my head. And after reading the Constitution, I'm pretty sure our founding fathers never intended that to happen.


[edit] After reading some of the other answers, I just had to respond. Conservatives do not believe in only looking out for yourself and to Hell with everyone else. This is an evil, hate filled lie. Conservatives believe in helping our fellow man out of love, kindness, and charity, not because the government puts a gun to our head. Helping your fellow man because you choose to is noble. Helping your fellow man because you have a gun to your head is extortion.

Answer 8

If you believe that people should be rewarded for hard work, then you're conservative.

If you believe that people should all have exactly the same things, and you're willing to take away provate property and redistribute it as you see fit, then you're a liberal.

If you believe that freedom equals economic independence, and the best way to help people is to teach them to help themselves, then you're conservative.

If you believe that the government should control the economy, and handout money so that everything ends up "fair", then you're a liberal.


PS: Robin Hood was actually stealing from a government who taxed the working class people into poverty.

Answer 9

Very general definitions:

Liberal: typically childish in though in behavior, self-serving, rebellious

Conservative: typically mature, loves God, tradition, country, serving others, hard worker

Answer 10

Liberals are brave, decent, good, honest, Patriotic and love love America, justice and freedom.

Conservatives are cowards, indecent, bad, dishonest, Traiterous, and hate America, justice and freedom.

Terrorists are all conservatives.