Nearly every time we turn on the news or radio and listen to someone party-loyalist blowhard talk about liberals or conservatives in a positive or negative light I am baffled. Baffled, because if you do maybe two or three minutes of reading, you will find that the ?liberals? and ?conservatives are supposed to mean Democrats and Republicans but the meanings of liberal and conservative match up poorly with their assumed counterpart parties.
In modern American politics, a traditional Republican is supposed to advocate for lower taxes, strong national defense, preservation or American moral traditions, and overall smaller government. Democrats then are advocates of bigger overall government, with somewhat higher taxes, more emphasis on social justice and opportunity, and less preservation of one culture?s values.
A person who is a truly a liberal in its classical sense is someone who is most generally against government intrusion into free enterprise and personal values decisions among groups and individuals ? essentially a Libertarian. A real conservative would then be against big government budgets of all kinds, but would also be a supporter of keeping traditional moral values in tact (pro-choice, anti-gay marriage, etc.) ? almost Theocratic. When you look at the actual orthodox political platforms of each of our major parties you begin to notice that each contains a liberal/conservative ying-yang within them, rather than being purely one or the other.
Modern Democrats justify the larger state with higher taxes to support social progressivism/liberalism. GOP supporters justify a smaller state and less tax to empower individual liberty. Neither is truly liberal or conservative, but are rather conflicting creeds that contradict their assumed modern day labels.
If you were truly conservative, you would not have advocated the massive development of government that occurred during the Bush administration with an additional government bureaucracy (dept. of Homeland Security), two expensive and perpetual wars, and the highest public education budget in our history to name just a few. The true liberals should rightfully be furious at President Obama?s ability to ignore the fact the racial profiling and both Patriot Acts continue to exist, and that our government in financially in bed with private banking institutions.
A Democrat is no more liberal than a Republican and a Republican no more conservative. Ideas of limited government and foreign intervention have not been preserved as advocated by the founders, and creating new ?rights? is no more freeing to citizens who are forced to pay for them.
In our current standing, it seems as if the hardest conservative is more of a Theocrat; and a hardest liberal is more of an pure Statist ? if their agendas where fully implemented. Liberalism and Conservatism have come to be known as something completely other than their original and classic meanings.
To be liberal is to be free thinking; to be conservative is to preserve traditions. This is why the usage of the terms ?liberal? and ?conservative to describe typical Democrats or Republicans is an irritating and most of all ignorant labeling of each. What we really have is a political oligopoly, a two-winged eagle that has a single head. The agendas put forth by both parties over the last few decades has been that of military growth, continued foreign intervention, additional rights (that must be paid by taxpayers somehow), and the monopoly of true political debate.
In modern American politics, a traditional Republican is supposed to advocate for lower taxes, strong national defense, preservation or American moral traditions, and overall smaller government. Democrats then are advocates of bigger overall government, with somewhat higher taxes, more emphasis on social justice and opportunity, and less preservation of one culture?s values.
A person who is a truly a liberal in its classical sense is someone who is most generally against government intrusion into free enterprise and personal values decisions among groups and individuals ? essentially a Libertarian. A real conservative would then be against big government budgets of all kinds, but would also be a supporter of keeping traditional moral values in tact (pro-choice, anti-gay marriage, etc.) ? almost Theocratic. When you look at the actual orthodox political platforms of each of our major parties you begin to notice that each contains a liberal/conservative ying-yang within them, rather than being purely one or the other.
Modern Democrats justify the larger state with higher taxes to support social progressivism/liberalism. GOP supporters justify a smaller state and less tax to empower individual liberty. Neither is truly liberal or conservative, but are rather conflicting creeds that contradict their assumed modern day labels.
If you were truly conservative, you would not have advocated the massive development of government that occurred during the Bush administration with an additional government bureaucracy (dept. of Homeland Security), two expensive and perpetual wars, and the highest public education budget in our history to name just a few. The true liberals should rightfully be furious at President Obama?s ability to ignore the fact the racial profiling and both Patriot Acts continue to exist, and that our government in financially in bed with private banking institutions.
A Democrat is no more liberal than a Republican and a Republican no more conservative. Ideas of limited government and foreign intervention have not been preserved as advocated by the founders, and creating new ?rights? is no more freeing to citizens who are forced to pay for them.
In our current standing, it seems as if the hardest conservative is more of a Theocrat; and a hardest liberal is more of an pure Statist ? if their agendas where fully implemented. Liberalism and Conservatism have come to be known as something completely other than their original and classic meanings.
To be liberal is to be free thinking; to be conservative is to preserve traditions. This is why the usage of the terms ?liberal? and ?conservative to describe typical Democrats or Republicans is an irritating and most of all ignorant labeling of each. What we really have is a political oligopoly, a two-winged eagle that has a single head. The agendas put forth by both parties over the last few decades has been that of military growth, continued foreign intervention, additional rights (that must be paid by taxpayers somehow), and the monopoly of true political debate.
