From: Steve Peterson (peterson.steve@verizon.net)
Date: Mon Apr 26 2004 - 20:42:11 BST
Hi Wim, (Platt)
You said:
>> Do I understand rightly that in the current American political context
>> "conservatives" tend to "liberate people" and "liberals" tend to
>> "conserve
>> old systems that they still consider valuable"
>
I don't think you can make any sense of American liberals and
conservatives (or Democrats and Republicans) based on the literal
meaning of those terms.
Platt said:
> Conservatives tend to liberate people from the heavy hand of government
> while liberals tend to consider the heavy hand of government good for
> people.
>
Conservatives like to say that they are for small government and that
liberals are for big government, though I think you would be misled if
you took their claims seriously (except in Platt's case, I think he
really means it), but there may be important distinctions along the
lines of how each understands the role of government.
Conservatives would generally like to see less interference of
government in business (though conservative politicians are just as
likely to support welfare for businesses of their constituency as
liberal politicians) and liberals would generally like to see less
interference of government in issues of personal morality.
If you think of American conservatives as socially conservative and
economically liberal (in the European sense) you'd have it about right,
especially if you throw a good proportion of Christian Fundamentalists
into the mix. Think of Democrats as economically socialistic, socially
liberal, atheistic, potheads. When in doubt, check for sandles.
It's often not very intuitive trying to guess which sides they should
fall on for a given issue.
Try this quiz!
Which group is stereotypically against...
abortion rights
capital punishment
the UN
sex and birth control education
gun control
unions
gay marriage
affirmative action
lower taxes
censorship of controversial talk radio hosts
welfare
the French
public funding of religiously affiliated aid groups
public funding of the arts
stem cell research
the words "Under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance
increased funding for the military
having sex with interns
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