what was the deciding factor, why are you Liberal or Conservative?

Answer 1

Responsibility

Answer 2

I was ( and feel that i am a Conservative ) meaning I believe in better living through less Government..

How every I am forced to be a Liberal because the Conservative Party no longer exist in Canada it has been replaced with the Reform Party... headed by one of the most scariest members of that Party

Reform Party other names
the Religious Right
the Western Canada Separatist party
the Boy I wish I was an American Party
the Guy bush is sure swell Party
the of course there are WMD in Iraq Party the US wouldn’t lie Party
the You know one North American Country idea is pretty good Party

Answer 3

I am neither a Liberal (in the modern sense) or a conservative. I am a libertarian. The main deciding factor for me is consent. People should be free to engage in any consensual activity. This means government should stay out of both your bedroom and your purse.

Answer 4

My turn to Republican came when I ran a business during my summers in college.

My transformation to conservative has been a process. As I learned more and more, I turned more and more conservative.

Answer 5

One day, I was in a long line at a soup kitchen. Since my welfare check was late (again!) and my 7 kids (ages 1 1/2 through 13) were getting hungry I thought I'd stop for something free to eat on my way to pick up some beer and cigarettes (foodstamps work for cigs too sometimes ;)

McDonalds was closing (they close at 2:00 AM on Sundays ya know), so food for the kids was out of the question.
So, I crawled back home (opening the door to my apartment very quietly so that I didn't wake up the landlord to whom I owe 3 months back rent to), rolled a fresh doobie, popped open a brew and fell asleep.

Just then, I woke up...realizing that the whole thing had been a dream and that I'm a Conservative living in the house that I bought with the money that I EARNED after years of hard work & dedication. Through good times and bad, never relying on the government for a quick fix, a hand out, anything that would make me beholdant to anyone other than myself and my family. Yeah, personal responsibility warms a man's soul faster than a free cup of soup...

Answer 6

I think most Americans aren't exclusively liberal or conservative. Most of the breakdowns of voters I've seen suggest about 17-20% of America considers themselves Liberals and slightly more (25% or so) consider themselves Conservatives. Everyone else seems to be moderates on most issues and conservative or liberal on some.

I am an independent who leans liberal lately because the current Republicans are bankrupting America with this war and may actually succeed in destroying this country due to their financial decisions. If you talk to an economist lately, you would get a pretty bleak outlook for America's future.

We are borrowing money to pay for this war like it is going out of style and foreign countries are starting to balk about lending us more. China owns most of our debt and could probably backrupt us, but it is not currently in their interest. Currently. We are in an economic slowdown that most think will give way to stagflation if not a recession in the next year. Mort Zuckerman said on TV (M Group) recently that we might be on the verge of the worst economic disaster since the great Depression.

It makes me angry because a lot of this seems like corporations looting our treasury. If any of you work for a temp agency or have worked for a temp agency, you know the financial arangement that is involved.

You may make $15 an hour. The temp agency bills the company $30.

Now imagine Blackwater. How much money would a company have to pay you to go into a war zone like Iraq? $100K a year? $200k? How much would they have to pay you to go in there and fight? $300K? $400K?

Now figure in what Blackwater is billing the US...Not only are these guys accountable to no law, these guys are also robbing us blind. A good chunk of that profit goes right back into the political system, buying votes and ensuring that the gravy train keeps coming.

Why do we need an employee of Blackwater to guard an indiviual in Iraq? Why can't a soldier or a member of the CIA do it----like they used to? Guessing at the cost differrential, I would imagine it would cost a 10th of what we pay Blackwater.

What about all of those no bid contracts given to Haliburton -- the company that employs Bush Sr? If you are going to rebuild a bridge in Iraq or some plumbing, doesn't it make a lot more sense to have locals do it? They work for a fraction of the costs and early in the war America providing jobs and repairing the infrastructure would have won over a LOT of hearts over there.

This whole war is a giant money grab by corporations who intend to use the profits to buy politicians and influence future policy --- or worse. The only thing more corrupt than the military Industrial complex is the branch of it run by evangelicals, because they justify every patriotically questionable move as being sent from a higher power. IMO.

The Liberals are against the war, so for now my financial conservatism and love of my country (conservative trait?) dictates I vote liberal.

Answer 7

I am a moderate liberal. I do not like the NRA and I hate guns. I think you have a right to carry a gun, just like I have a right to wish you wouldn't, at least in my presence. Living where I do, I have come to understand that deer herds have to be thinned out to keep the deer from starving and because hunters like the taste of deer meat. But, it doesn't mean I particularly like the idea. It is a necessary evil, in my opinion. I live in conservative country.

Answer 8

I am a conservative democrat. I believe in supporting the working man and letting them have their say in Washington.

Answer 9

I was Reagan loving, Rush Limbaugh listening, conservative for a good while.

As I accumulated more and more education and life experience I began to see that the contradictions, hypocrisy, anger, bigotry, and ignorance I thought charachterized the left were as common if not more common on the right.

I realized I had a store of "knolwedge" about "how things were" that consisted of little more than a bunch of unexamined opinions, cliche's, and clever double-bind logic.

I knew all the answers, but had never cracked a book. I could tell you "socialism" was horrible but had no idea what socialism was.

As I learned more, the critiques from the left made more sense. What I developed more than anything was an ability to think critically, evaluate the quality of evidence, examine evidence, and draw conclusions.

Today I find ignorance offensive. I define ignorance as having unexamined opinions and proclaiming them as universal truths.

The final tip over to full blown leftie was Iraq. It was such a blatant deception and America was eager to go over there because of our arrogance and willfull ignorance about everything surrounding that conflict.

Ignorance I hear repeated daily - unexamined opinions posing as fact.

Answer 10

Hmmm...in my country, The Liberal Party ARE the "Conservatives".

So I take it this is pertaining to....US politics, Brit politics, Lithuanian politics? Help me out here.

Answer 11

I am conservative.
I am for small government, independence and less government in our lives.
In many ways I am a free thinker, I am conservative and into conservation, yet do not believe in the global warming bunk.
I am a vegetarian yet I support gun rights and hunters, as my father was a conservative, conservationist hunter who did more to better the environment than most hippies. I do not believe in abortion. I believe that a strong military and a strong country means we will have to use it less as Reagan proved. I would love to see an end to things like emminent domain. I do not believe in hand outs.
Liked the responses many of my fellow conservatives gave here.