What is the difference between a liberal and a conservative?

I don’t see how you want this to become a discussion unless you want people to give you dictionary definitions? These two words have specific definitions, both politically and non-politically.

Oh boy, here we go again. Here is my much simplified version, getting to the core root of their beliefs.

Liberal – All resources are owned by the people as a collective.

Conservative – Law exists to preserve the covenant we have with the Lord.

And of course there are more categories than just Liberal and Conservative.

dalepetrie and I had a similar discussion here.

liberal and conservative as in a political sense?

@BBSDTfamily , What I want to show is that both liberals and conservatives are basically good people but with different emphases on which aspects of goodness they concentrate on. I am not looking for a way of reconciling the differences but perhaps developing an understanding of differences.

@gemiwing – liberal and conservative in any sense

I have been thinking of asking this for a long time, but what got me to finally ask was an article in the current issue of Scientific American that referenced this site: http://faculty.virginia.edu/haidtlab/mft/index.php

Size of paycheck. kidding…kidding…

@arpinum You seem to have described a Communist and a religious fanatic. Nowhere do I see either Liberals or Conservatives in your definition.

When I was a little girl, My daddy told me that Liberals are for the people and Conservatives are for business.

Conservatives believe in smaller government – Liberals believe in bigger government.

The dividing line has drifted somewhat over the decades, but nowadays it seems to come down to a difference in opinion concerning the use of government to solve socio-economic problems.

Conservatives have a deep distrust of government in this domain. They believe that individuals and non-state institutions (business, church, private charities…) will invariably do a better job of handling socio-economic problems than will most forms of government. To this end, they want to see economic resources concentrated in the private sector, not in government, They work to limit how much money the government can take in in the form of taxes and oppose any new efforts by government to exercise control over the private sector. Conservatives do, however, see a legitimate role for government in maintaining order, both domestically and in the world, and are willing to see resources allocated for this. The job of government is, in its most basic form, to ward off threats to private property and cherished institutions (lumped under the vague umbrella of “values”).

Liberals have a conflicted view of government. They have a deep wariness of the potential for government to become overly restrictive of individual behaviors, but generally see a potential for the power of government to be applied effectively to solve socio-economic problems. Trying to use the enormous power of government to affect positive social change (assuring that all citizens have access to a decent standard of living) while keeping that power from getting out of control is kind of like operating a nuclear reactor: there’s potential for getting a lot done if there’s enough fuel in the reactor, but this has to be balanced by constant and vigilant tweaking of the controls to prevent melt-down. To Liberals, greed, not government, is the “dark side”. They want government to take an active role in keeping the greed of the market economy in check, all while recognizing that greed is at work in government itself. All of this leads to a very complicated relationship between the liberal and government which explains, I think, why they have a harder time than conservatives pushing through a coherent agenda.

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There. I hope I’ve been even-handed.

@pdworkin

I would see a distinction between resource ownership and resource control. Liberals do not seek to have government control all resources, but do hold that all resources may potentially be redirected for more enlightened purposes. Communists with to actively control the means of production. Note that communists believe that consumer goods rightly belong to individuals who hold them.

As for Conservatives, yes you are not too far off, though fanatic seems to carry an unnecessarily derogatory tone. There is a moral code and rules passed down through the generations which typically have a deistic origin. Conservatives seek to make sure that we are a righteous country and fulfilling the will of God.

@JasonsMom08 , it would be hard to define anyone as a conservative, since almost every politician votes to increase the size of government. You would hold that there are no more than1 or 2 Conservatives in Congress. @Harp , you might also be falling for the rhetoric of Conservatives instead of looking at their actions. Conservatives in power don’t actually reduce the size of government spending, even after excluding military adventures.

@arpinum I’m approaching this not as an analysis of how conservatism or liberalism works out in practice, but in terms of how each, on an individual basis, tends to see things. That’s my interpretation of the asker’s intent.

@Harp So yes, conservatives see many government programs put in place by liberals as bad and may wish to reduce or modify them. But they have their own programs that they want to expand. Thus we see on net spending increases from conservatives. The most common government activities they seek to repeal are those that violate or deteriorate the moral code given by God. The most common are policies which run contrary to the Protestant Work Ethic.

Of course you have a point that logrolling is common in practice and will distort the numbers in my favor.

The liberal sees the glass of water as half full. The conservative looks at the same glass and wonders who in the hell drank half his glass of water.
Basically liberals are the gas, conservatives are the brakes, and everyone else is just a bump in the road.

@arpinum not all conservatives are what you might typically think of as religiously conservative.
I believe to be conservative is close to what @Harp said.
Religion doesn’t have anything to do with it.
The job of the government is to uphold and protect the constitution and provide infrastructure and defense.

Compassion.

I think some are confusing the Republican party with Conservatives, and maybe Democrats with Liberals. I am a Democrat, but I do not agree with everything the party stands for, and I tend to be conservative on fiscal issues (or, so I thought?) That’s the thing, it depends on the issue where I come down.

I think @Harp did a good job of answering the original question though.

@arpinum – I do agree with that.. There are not many true conservatives out there anymore…

One’s policy is based on emotion. One’s policy is based on thought.

I definitely think anyone interested in a good discussion on this should go to the link @arpinum presented in his first post. It is a good jumping off point at least.

The liberal/ conservative divide seems to be universal in place and time, and it covers much more than just economics. There are issues of peace/ war, religion, tolerance and tradition. To a large extent conservatives, in the traditional sense, have been losing out. In our laws there is greater tolerance. The right to vote has been extended to nearly everyone of legal age. Religion does not count for nearly as much as it used to. Traditions are hard to find. Technology causes things to change at a breakneck pace. And with regard to war, it is currently not clear what we are fighting over.

Conservatives would like to control what I do with my body. Liberals would like to control what I do with my money.

@laureth . GA, very simple. I do like to nitpick though so I would add that conservatives want to control your mind as well.

“Conservatives would like to control what I do with my body and mind. Liberals would like to control what I do with my money.”

Conservatives fear government while liberals fear corporations?

@laureth . GA, very simple. I do like to nitpick though so I would add that liberals want to control your mind as well.

“Liberals would like to control what I do with my money and mind. Conservatives would like to control what I do with my body.”

@proXXi ; Right wing modern Conservatives want you to be part of the Stepford wives club as well. If you are not a fundamentalist Christian you are not a “Real American.”
Don’t fool yourself into thinking that conservatives don’t want to control your mind.

I don’t believe that religion should have any place in politics, other than our right to practice our own religious beliefs, as protected by the constitution.
I think many people, conservatives as well as liberals, confuse what they call religious conservatism with political conservatism. They (I believe) should be very separate ideologys.

To conserve: to protect from loss or harm; preserve; to use carefully or sparingly, avoiding waste.
How did this definition of being conservative become associated with people wishing to control others? I think both sides are at fault in this confusion.
When we paint with a broad brush, we slop the paint where it doesn’t belong.

Okay nitpickers, how about this: “Conservatives think Liberals want to control their mind. Liberals think Conservatives want to control their mind.”

@Judi, This “Right Wing Modern Conservative” despises the Christian Right and makes up his own mind.

Seriously, though, as far as controlling minds goes, I think that there’s a segment of the Right (present company excepted, of course) that really does want a stake in the minds of the populace. Many of them seem to me to be aghast that we don’t all want to pray like they do, fear what they fear, and vote their way.

Lots of liberals, though, remember that just like “conservative” is rooted in “conservation,” “liberal” is rooted in “liberty.” Most Liberals I know don’t mind how people think, as long as it doesn’t infringe on other peoples’ right to live the way they want. They vote for the most liberty, mentally (not financially) speaking.

There is an important difference here. The Liberal generally doesn’t mind if the Conservative is opposed to things like abortion rights and gay marriage, as long as they don’t prevent others from partaking (“Against abortion? Don’t have one.”). However, the Conservative sees this as the Liberal wanting to control their mind, because the Liberal doesn’t want the Conservative foisting that agenda on others. (“That Liberal wants me to stop converting others to my beliefs, which is tantamount to wanting me to stop believing!”) At least that’s how it looks from my seat over here.

@laureth, The party that’s truly interested in liberty isn’t liberal, rather it’s Libertarians.

Also, If liberals can say “Against abortion? don’t have one”, why can’t that adopt that attitude toward other issues.

For example: “Against guns? don’t have one”.

Some of us do. ;)

I’m a Liberal and I believe in owning guns. I just think that like driving a car, people should be trained and not just carry them because they have a “right.”

I’m a liberal and in favor of the right to bear arms also. Almost every liberal I personally know is.

I think the right wing REPUBLICANS want to control your mind and body, not Conservatives. I see them as very different. The problem with the Republican party today is they have let right wing religious fundamentalists to hijack the party. There is no problem with being religious, there is only a problem when you inject it into politics and try to control the population along your own religious rules.

I feel compelled to mention along these lines that I think many Christians fail to think about what if eventually they become the minority in the country? What laws do they want in place? Of course we are far from Christianity being a minority relgion, but in particular cities across America there are large percentages of Jews or Muslims and within these cities, districts, and states, if you put in place laws to allow church and state to intersect the Christian might not be so happy. Take prayer in school; do you want prayer in school if the country is 80% Muslim? The majority of the teachers are Muslim? I find the Christians who fight for this live in communities where they are 99% of the population and never even bother to think what it is like to be the minority. And Abortion; I know pro-life Catholics who have had late terms abortions when it became obvious the fetus was not going to survive. They wanted their babies, and for sure they did not tell anyone in their religious communities what they did. These people are still pro-life in their own minds.

I will never understand why people would want to empower the GOVERNMENT to have the power to interfere or influence your childs religious teachings, or to be able to tell a person they must give up their own body systems for another (woman or man).

Someone posted this article in another question, but I think it makes my point.

“A formidable coalition of 150 Catholic, Orthodox and evangelical leaders are calling on Christians in a new manifesto to reject secular authority – and even engage in civil disobedience – if laws force them to accept abortion, same-sex marriage and other ideas that betray their religious beliefs.”

See, no one is making them accept it. They don’t have to have abortions, they don’t have to marry someone of the same gender. Yet, they take the inability to cause others to be unable to do these things as having to “accept” them. They would just have to accept other people accepting them.

I’m well to the Left of Liberal, and I am a very strong proponent of 2nd Amendment rights. The NRA is not militant enough for me, and I belong to an organization that makes them look like pussies.

@laureth Really how would that be any different then the religiously run Muslim states in the Middle east? I just don’t get their blindness to it. In the US you can be Amish and live as your religion and culture dictates with little interference from our government. I think the Dominoes Pizza founder is building a Catholic community. All fine with me, but stay out of the government, and creating laws dictating what others must follow who might be of different beliefs. These comminities should be participated in of peoples free will and the ability to leave should be there as well (although I realize if you are raised in this environnment it would be difficult to leave). Sometimes I wonder if the Christians need their own country where they have religious rule? Then maybe they will realize how good they had it in America and other countries when there was separation of church and state and religious freedom.

@JLeslie – I agree with you.

Liberals believe that solidarity is essential for a society. Conservatives believe that individual responsibility is essential for a society.

I think a combination of both is best.

Agreed if leaning heavily to the conservative side…

I’m a moderate liberal. But I think a good democracy needs moderate conservatives as well (we can do without the Dick Cheney or Sarah Palin variety though). Debates are good. Liberals and conservatives can learn from them.

@mattbrowne- Yeah but a European moderate liberal is a liberal liberal is the US.

proXXi says: Agreed if leaning heavily to the conservative side…

Funny, but I was going to say exactly the opposite.

I miss the conservatives. I think we need a healthy opposition to have a good government. I hope the Republican party can be rescued from the thoughtless radicals.

I think the labels are detrimental to progress. I am often labeled a leftist, commie, pinko liberal because my opinions differ from certain hard-line, hard-headed, conservative stances. In truth, I am much more a fiscally-conservative moderate than a liberal. If we spent less time and money arguing about semantics of solutions to the problems we ALL face, we might actually have time and energy to do something positive about them.

@pdworkin I hope so too.

Colin Powell declared himself a Republican. I think he could be a good mentor for a new generation of more open-minded and balanced Republicans. If Sarah Palin ever gets to be Vice President, I’m leaving this planet.

There are still a lot of RINO’s floating around. My father was one of these in my opinion and finally defected to the Democratic party 3 years ago. For those who don’t know RINO is Republican In Name Only. I think these Republican’s could be the future of the party, pulling in some Independents and Progressive Democrats along the way.