I need a history/government lesson!?

Question

And, NO--I am NOT some kid trying to get their homework done. I'm over 55 yrs old, and when I was in school, I hated everything about history & government, etc., so I just messed around, didn't pay any attention, and well---you know. Now, I need someone to inform me: What is a Conservative and what is a Liberal? I KNOW that 1 is a Democrat, the other Republican, but--which is which? Where did the party names Democrat & Republican come from? Also, how did the names Conservative & Liberal get tagged onto these 2 polital parties? And, if anyone knows, how did the GOP (this part I DO remember--this is Republican "Grand Ol' Party) get represented by an elephant, and the Democrats are represented by a donkey? Yep, another one of those: "thought I'd never need anything like this." Now, I find myself quite confused when the media simply refers to each as either Liberal or Conservative. Please help---who is who? Thank you!

Answer 1

It's not really history or government.
Conservative means to practice conservation, to conserve; conservation. Politically, it means to favor the status quo, to resist change, etc.
"Liber" implies freedom, to free, to be free, to favor change, to be unrestricted, etc. (A "liberal" amount of something is a copious amount, not limited, not conservational)

Status quo vs. change is the broad difference in the two.

The previous answer, steeped as it is with references to "liberty" from the Constitutional pre-amble, is more of a definition of a "libertarian" than liberal. Obviously, the two are related, but there are shades of difference, and I think those shades are reflected in the status quo versus change paradigm.
The words are frequently mis-used, especially "liberal", which is often mis-used to imply unpatriotic or even subversive pathos. The USA had its genesis in change, in Revolution, in rejecting the then status quo.

One could be liberal in one area of policy (regardless of party affiliation) and conservative in another, based in essence on whether one favors the status quo or some significant change.

Answer 2

To answer your questions would take a long time to accomplish. Therefore, you should get a college level American Government textbook as I have listed in the sources. You should memorize the US Constitution because a lot of American blood was shed for that document. What we have right now is a "broken government" and a lot of confused politicians figuring that we, as a society are so apathetic we do not care what happens. Go to a library and see if they can't get this book for you through "interlibrary loan".

Answer 3

Liberal is not the same as Democrat. Conservative is not the same as Republican. The terms are not interchangeable.

Each of the major political parties focuses on different aspects of the Constitution as most important. In the Preamble to the Constitution, there are five goals (values) of the US government: "establish Justice, to ensure domestic Tranquility, to provide for the common Defense, to promote the general Welfare, and secure the blessings of Liberty"

Conservatives think the most important are "to ensure domestic Tranquility" (meaning to promote conformity with 'traditional' ways) and to "provide for the Common Defense". Most conservatives are Republicans, who (nowadays) want group rights (conformity with 'traditional' values) and a large government to ensure domestic tranquility (by enforcing those conservative majority beliefs). Moderate republicans (originally called fiscal conservatives) want a small government, just large enough to provide for the common Defense.

Liberals think it's more important to "promote the general Welfare, and ensure the blessings of Liberty". Most liberals are Democrats, who want individual rights and a large government to promote the general welfare. Moderate democrats don't want a lot of wasteful spending, and want to achieve their goals without causing too many problems. Democrats do have a Conservative wing, which focuses on better ethical leadership and greater protection for both groups and individuals. The main difference is that conservative democrats still don't believe in enforcing their views on the minority, even if their own personal choices would be the same as what conservative republicans would make.

The concept of promoting Justice is important to both camps, but their idea of justice differs. Most camps of the liberal parties believe ensuring Justice requires favoring defendants, preferring the guilty to go free rather than sending the innocent to prison. Republicans and conservatives believe the promoting Justice requires being harsh to those accused, even if that occasionally inflicts sentences on the innocent.

Interestingly, the spectrum is not linear, and has more than one dimension. There are other political parties who focus on different combinations of those values. For example, Libertarians want a small government (no wasteful spending) and very little Welfare (few if any entitlements), but strong on Defense. Libertarians also want lots of protection for individual civil rights, to secure the blessings of Liberty. They feel that Tranquility will take care of itself, and doesn’t need government enforcement of morality. As such, they are moderate about most issues, except for being adamant that the majority should not impose its beliefs on the minority, as part of their way to promote Justice.

So, it basically comes down to which sets of Constitutional values each group thinks are most important.