Dec 182011
What do these words mean?
Text book definitions are pretty straight forward.
Liberal means more and conservative means less.
Use them in a sentence. Please give me a liberal helping of mash potatoes. (Any normal sane person would give me a lot or more. )
or Please give me a conservative potions of mash potatoes. (Any normal sane person would give me a tiny bit. )
Now in the context of political stance or which side of the political spectrum you side they really don’t mean more or less anymore. Some say Liberal means Progressive and conservative means status quo. Other terms I’ve heard are big gov vs little gov.
None of these makes sense when applied to the Democrat or Republican parties though.
So then you have to consider what issue and how each party falls on that issue.
Take gay marriage for instance. People would generally agree that Democrats are “socially liberal” and would like to see gay marriage whereas Republicans are “social conservatives” and want to see all gays burn in hell. So what the fuck does the term socially liberal mean? If liberal means more then I’d expect the government to want to regulate who can and can’t get married to be socially liberal. This is not the generally accepted view point!
Socially progressive makes slightly more sense but I still don’t make the connection to how that term means more accepting of alternative life styles!?
So I’m left completely confused as to why Liberal and Conservative doesn’t always mean “more government” or “less government.”
If you take the opposing stances of the two parties you’ll find they really cherry pick what issues they’re liberal and conservative on. The Democrats are not the “liberal party” and the Republicans are certainly not conservative. Unless the definitions of these words are so skewed that no relavice still applies to being more/less/progressive/status quo whatever.
The more I try to wrap my head around the terms “political terms” of liberal and conservative the more confused I get.
Text book definitions are pretty straight forward.
Liberal means more and conservative means less.
Use them in a sentence. Please give me a liberal helping of mash potatoes. (Any normal sane person would give me a lot or more. )
or Please give me a conservative potions of mash potatoes. (Any normal sane person would give me a tiny bit. )
Now in the context of political stance or which side of the political spectrum you side they really don’t mean more or less anymore. Some say Liberal means Progressive and conservative means status quo. Other terms I’ve heard are big gov vs little gov.
None of these makes sense when applied to the Democrat or Republican parties though.
So then you have to consider what issue and how each party falls on that issue.
Take gay marriage for instance. People would generally agree that Democrats are “socially liberal” and would like to see gay marriage whereas Republicans are “social conservatives” and want to see all gays burn in hell. So what the fuck does the term socially liberal mean? If liberal means more then I’d expect the government to want to regulate who can and can’t get married to be socially liberal. This is not the generally accepted view point!
Socially progressive makes slightly more sense but I still don’t make the connection to how that term means more accepting of alternative life styles!?
So I’m left completely confused as to why Liberal and Conservative doesn’t always mean “more government” or “less government.”
If you take the opposing stances of the two parties you’ll find they really cherry pick what issues they’re liberal and conservative on. The Democrats are not the “liberal party” and the Republicans are certainly not conservative. Unless the definitions of these words are so skewed that no relavice still applies to being more/less/progressive/status quo whatever.
The more I try to wrap my head around the terms “political terms” of liberal and conservative the more confused I get.
If the Republicans are the “conservative party” then how can war be a conservative thing when direct military intervention is about the most government you can have?
How can passing laws on who I can and can’t marry be less government? It can’t! it’s more! So should we call it liberal?
Now I can sway any republican into renouncing their party as long as they’re not religious nut jobs that think the government needs to regulate their morality on others. It’s simple I just say conservative means less government right? They says yes and then I show them how the republican party is anything but that. They understand and see the hypocrisy pretty quick when a republican says they want small government but support the patriot act, war on drugs, ban on gay marriage or support war. (disclaimer as long as they’re not a religious nut case this works)You can’t say you’re fiscally conservative and support the war/bail outs/bloated government agencies/redundant government agencies/raising taxes and even supporting the 911 victim fund. (Yah I went there.)
All those things are liberal spending themes that grow the government. Not saying they’re good or bad I’m just saying they’re all, MORE.
Funny as a liberal you can support the war and by text book definition not be a hypocrite because war is more government. This didn’t jive during Bush’s career when more then half of America took issue with the Iraq war. Most of the democrats cried foul when the GOP ate some Yellow Cake and went to town. I almost wonder if they(the democrats) did it because the people were upset, or if they wanted to make the people upset (because the democrats all voted for it at the time) or if they truly felt slighted by good ole boy Bush?
Don’t know but my point is war is not conservative in any form. Most of my republican friends would agree that Bush was a “Progressive!” Funny… I thought he was so far right/conservative that there would be no way anyone would think he’s a liberal or progressive. I thought that would be so solid that nobody could disagree yet here was in-front of me. Bush sucks because he’s big government. WTF just happened!
To this day I don’t know what the terms Liberal and Conservative actually mean in the context of politics.
How can passing laws on who I can and can’t marry be less government? It can’t! it’s more! So should we call it liberal?
Now I can sway any republican into renouncing their party as long as they’re not religious nut jobs that think the government needs to regulate their morality on others. It’s simple I just say conservative means less government right? They says yes and then I show them how the republican party is anything but that. They understand and see the hypocrisy pretty quick when a republican says they want small government but support the patriot act, war on drugs, ban on gay marriage or support war. (disclaimer as long as they’re not a religious nut case this works)You can’t say you’re fiscally conservative and support the war/bail outs/bloated government agencies/redundant government agencies/raising taxes and even supporting the 911 victim fund. (Yah I went there.)
All those things are liberal spending themes that grow the government. Not saying they’re good or bad I’m just saying they’re all, MORE.
Funny as a liberal you can support the war and by text book definition not be a hypocrite because war is more government. This didn’t jive during Bush’s career when more then half of America took issue with the Iraq war. Most of the democrats cried foul when the GOP ate some Yellow Cake and went to town. I almost wonder if they(the democrats) did it because the people were upset, or if they wanted to make the people upset (because the democrats all voted for it at the time) or if they truly felt slighted by good ole boy Bush?
Don’t know but my point is war is not conservative in any form. Most of my republican friends would agree that Bush was a “Progressive!” Funny… I thought he was so far right/conservative that there would be no way anyone would think he’s a liberal or progressive. I thought that would be so solid that nobody could disagree yet here was in-front of me. Bush sucks because he’s big government. WTF just happened!
To this day I don’t know what the terms Liberal and Conservative actually mean in the context of politics.