What is a liberal?

Question

I want to hear from the liberals around here, what is a liberal in your mind? I consider myself a classical liberal which is why I'm a Libertarian. However, I want to know what is a liberal to you?

Mr. Usa,

Are you truly a liberal?

Conservatives stay away from this area. You aren't supposed to be here.

It seems conservatives can't follow directions.

Varied definitions of what a liberal is. I found the same on the conservative side.

Chuck W,

You obviously don't know that this is a question for liberals only. You conservatives have shown to be very vindictive.

MCBC,

I know what a liberal and a libertarian is. But if you look at up the definition of classical liberalism is different from the liberals of today, we are more like Jefferson and Adams. In my view, Libertarianism is more conservative and more liberal in many aspects than Republicans and Democrats.

YA censors truth,

I know what a liberal and conservative is, I just wanted to know what the people think it is. It was a little experiment. It seems your narrow mind doesn't allow for a little imagination

Answer 1

a liberal is a person;
who believes in the power of a helping hand when a person is down.

who believes that a country should not be run by faith based ideas, because it impedes the function of the government to guarantee the pursuit of happiness, and freedom of religion.

who believes that the goals of a government, should be to enrich the lives of citizens, not control their every act, so that God approves of their lifestyle.

who believes that a nation without moderate regulation of the corporations leads to its downfall by the corporation's attempts to rest power from the people, in the form of corruption and scandal. its like a snake eating its own tail.

a person who believes in the rights of the people to choose what is best for them, as long as what they choose doesn't hinder the rights of others to choose what is best for their own lives.

that more money can be saved, and more problems avoided, by our own government keeping its nose in our own country, and do what is best for "we the people" here at home.

a person that believes that if taxes need to be raised to prevent our children from having to pay the debts that we made, than so be it!

the real problem in USA politics, is some people claim the acceptance of one or two issues, makes a person Liberal or Conservative, and those people are the ones that believe if anyone disagrees with them on any issue, they are the opposite party that they themselves claim.

Answer 2

The Liberal ideology is a theory which holds forth beliefs that have no basis in reality.
They are Advocates of a policy that empowers a strong government to enslave its people with a high tax burden incident to the support of extravagant and unnecessary social programs destructive to both the work ethic among the lower class, and the incentive to innovate and succeed among the working class.
The problems we face today are because the people who work for a living are outnumbered by those who vote for a living.
A democracy will continue to exist up until
the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous
gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority
always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from
the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally
collapse over loose fiscal policy

Answer 3

You're very confused. From a political standpoint, Libertarians are as conservative as you can be concerning less govt interaction with the lives of the citizens. Whereas far left/liberals want big govt controlling many social programs spreading services throughout the population. Conservatives feel helping others is something best accomplished by the free market and giving wealthy individuals the opportunity to support those, as they wish, who are disadvantaged and society as a whole through their good will and altruism (ie universities, Carnegie Hall, foundations, trusts, etc). Libertarians directly fall along those lines. They don't believe that the govt has the right to tax or regulate any individual's money and do what it wants with their money, regardless of the govt's intentions.

The term Libertarian would fall in the category of words like Democratic, Socialists, Fascist, Monarchy, and Communist meaning it is a term referring to a preference of political structure.

The term liberal can have many varying degrees of interpretations. For instance, I may be very politically conservative in thought but my feelings towards social activities can be seen as open and liberal since I feel the individual should have rights to do as he pleases as long as what he does, does not affect or cause harm to someone else. This may confuse you, let me give you a concrete example:

A true Libertarian does not believe that his money should legally be taken by the govt to be used to help out other people (i.e. Medicaid, food stamps, housing, etc). He feels that he will do this on his own if HE chooses to. In addition, a true Libertarian feels that the govt doesn't have the right to make anything illegal, besides the obvious (murder, assault, rape, theft, etc) things like drugs, pornography, ratings on movies, etc would all be up the individual. For example heroin and cocaine will be readily available and produced like a commodity such as aspirin for those who choose to use it.

A true liberal may very well believe that drugs are ok and that society should be permissive, however, he also feels that it's the govt's job and responsibility to ensure that all people pay for other people's right to do as they choose. For instance, a single mother with no income on welfare chooses to have 7 kids by different men and married to none of them - a true liberal feels that this is her right and our tax money should be used to accommodate her desires and pay to raise her 7 kids.

A Libertarian would say that this is ridiculous, with no individual responsibility at play and that there will always be some organization (church) in the private sector who will help her. However, making it a duty of the hardworking middle class taxpayer to fund her lifestyle is an outrageous injustice.

Edited to add: You are confusing personal feelings with what you consider to be preferrable political structure. Don't fret, this is done quite often. The Democratic party believes in large govt with many social programs and entitlement programs whereas Republicans want a smaller govt with social programs to be administered by the free will of the citizens, not with the tax money. Therefore, the Democratic party's platform is almost the opposite of what the Libertarian party's would be and the Republicans would fall in between but very much closer to the Libertarian's side.

Edited to add: Per political definition, Libertarians are as conservative as can possibly be. However, an individual Libertarian may choose to smoke crack, have 3 wives, etc (crazy example) b/c this is his individual right and that the govt should have no authority or ability to impede upon his rights.

When you are looking at things politically, this may help:

Liberal/far-left = large govt, big bureaucracy, many govt employees to handle everything

Conservatives/far-right = small govt, little bureaucracy, as few govt employees as possible, national defense should be basic concern of govt, and most else should be left to the private sectors and individuals

Libertarians =further far right in so far as very small govt size with extremely limited regulatory powers over individual conduct. They feel the rights of an individual's right is paramount and that given the choice, people will do the right thing and take responsibility for their own action.

Answer 4

Its a catch all phrase, for instance I am an independent , however,unfortunately, I was born with a social conscience and a powerful aversion to tyranny. My strong support of universal human rights and dignity, social justice, equality, peace, and protection of the environment has led me to dissent vehemently against the American Empire. My strenuous objections to the widening wealth gap, the state terrorism committed by the United States and Israel, corporate abuse of consumers, employees and the environment, egregious violation of international law by the US (including torture on a wide scale), obscene hypocrisy concerning nuclear capacities, rapidly diminishing civil liberties, insane expenditure of our tax dollars for military purposes, and the rapid consolidation of power into the Executive Branch have earned me the brand of "liberal".

Answer 5

Traditionally, liberals were those who wanted redistribution of wealth so that there were no really rich or really poor people in the US. They also wanted big government to take care of us in all ways from the cradle to the grave. Today, liberals are those who want everyone to have the same amount of wealth EXCEPT THEM. Today's liberals want to merge the low and middle classes into one class, entirely supported by the government and ruled over by a liberal elite. There is a HUGE difference between a liberal and a libertarian. A libertarian wants everyone to have the right to do as he or she wishes within a framework of a society. Liberals want a huge tax to fund their programs. Libertarians want small taxes to find essential services, but that's it. Libertarians what the government to leave us the he!! alone. Liberals want the government to take care of us because they know what's good for us better than we do.

Answer 6

I'm old enough to make a funny distinction on that. I consider myself a secular progressive. To me, the liberals were the ones in the dem party that sold us out during the Viet Nam War.

That's why I voted for Clinton, who was a conservative democrat, and not a classic liberal.

Of course most of the people who throw the word around don't understand a word of what I just said... anyone who isn't them is obviously a liberal.

Answer 7

When I say that I am a liberal, I am saying that I want to see America stronger through people pulling together on the issues and challenges that confront us as a nation.

There has been too much tearing apart, pointing fingers, and misrepresentations in this society. People are not bad because of their ideology or political affiliation.

Answer 8

"Many of you are well enough off that ... the tax cuts may have helped you. We're saying that for America to get back on track, we're probably going to cut that short and not give it to you. We're going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good." (Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton - June 28, 2004, in San Francisco at a Democrat Party fundraiser)

"I want to take those profits and put them into an alternative energy fund that will begin to fund alternative smart energy alternatives that will actually begin to move us toward the direction of independence." (Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton - February 2, 2007, at DNC Winter Meeting - regarding profits earned by oil companies, which are not [yet] owned by the government)

"As president I know I can't kill, jail or occupy every nation we don't agree with and I cannot just wish that all the terrorists be wiped off the face of the Earth" (Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton - February 10, 2007, at a campaign appearance in New Hampshire)

"We're going to change the way we finance the system by taking away money from people who are doing well now" — (Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton — March 24, 2007, at a health care forum in Las Vegas)

Answer 9

A real liberal is a person who is willing to give H. Clinton the middle finger while telling Republican jokes.

Answer 10

I interpret liberals as open minded people who are looking to have a positive impact on the world. We are men and women who believe in individual rights and voicing our opinions. Freedom of speech, press, and religion are only examples of rights given to people today by liberals. Conservatives, I could spend all day telling you how different our beliefs and morals are however this is not a conservative column and/or I know they aren't as being extroverts. There's just a little taste of my exegesis.