What are conservative and liberal ideals?

[Singlestack]

I had an interesting discussion with my son and his friend yesterday - both juniors at CU - about what were the tenets of conservatism and liberalism. I disagreed with most of his friend's positions - think he had conservative and liberal confused. However, I told him I would ask here and see what a mostly conservative crowd would say - and he would ask his friends who professed to be liberal and see what they say - and we would compare notes. Anyway, here is more or less what I told him. This isn't a republican vs Democrat thing; some republicans act more based on the liberal tenets, for example. Feel free to add anything else you can think of:


CONSERVATIVE TENETS
================
General
- Freedom trumps security
- Government should be kept small and limited to constitutional activities
- Constitution and Bill of Rights are sacrosanct and must be rigidly adhered to by all government. Constitution only changed by established processes
- Courts must interpret law based on Constitution/Bill of Rights
- Words have a traditional and well-understood meaning & should not be redefined for political advantage
- Behavior matters, there is a different between right and wrong and right actions should always be pursued


Fiscal Conservatism
- Debt and deficits matter, and weaken us
- Budgets are important and must be stuck to
- Taxes should be kept low across the board. Business taxes reduced to encourage job creation, entrepreneurialism, and national financial strength
- Reduced regulation to favor private investment and business growth

Foreign Policy
- Intervention in foreign conflict/wars should be based on US national interests
- Unilateralism should be pursued if strong US interests and other countries don't want to participate
- Win wars with overwhelming force and quickly. No occupations or police actions.
- Maintain a strong military and strong borders
- At least a strong suspicion of UN activities, if not complete opposition to involvement with the UN

Social Conservatism
- Pro-life and pro traditional marriage
- Recognition of judeo-christian basis of US foundation
- Support for homeschooling and charter schools, public education funding should be based on education metrics/results



LIBERAL TENETS
===========
General
- The ends justify the means
- Security much more important then freedom
- Change the meaning of words in order to control the conversation
- "Nuance" in conversation is highly valued, and a sign of intelligence
- Political correctness to be taught and enforced wherever possible
- Courts should look to how other countries deal with similar issues, even if different than Constitution/Bill of Rights
- Political power and getting elected govern actions and behavior
- Moral relativism; no absolute "right" and "wrong"
- Government must always facilitate easier living for minorities in order to fix injustice, whether in voting, access to healthcare, or government entitlements

Fiscal Liberalism
- Deficit spending OK
- Government and Fed can control the economy and keep really bad things from happening
- Taxes should generally be increased across the board, and steadily
- Tax and regulation should be increasingly directed at high earners
- More and larger government social programs, especially for minorities
- Transferring wealth from rich to poor should be pursued all the time
- Increased regulation to protect the environment and keep businesses honest
- Government "investment" to help favor industries favored by liberals - green energy, for example

Foreign Policy
- Pro-UN
- Favors nation building and "spreading democracy"
- Favors intervention in police actions, genocides, and internal conflicts of other countries
- Disfavors unilateral military actions by the US
- Strong limits of the size and capability of the US military
- Favors weak borders to facilitate illegal immigration

Social Liberalism
- Female reproductive rights (Taxpayer funded abortion and contraception)
- Pro-Gay marriage/adoption
- Appeal of multiculturalism and affinity with muslim teachings
- Opposed to home schooling and charter schools; more funding power to public education at all levels and teacher unions

[ChunkyMonkey]

Dems anti private gun ownership
GOP pro private gun ownership

/Thread

[clublights]

ALL POLITICIANS HATE AMERICA AND HATE AMERICANS. if they didnt we wouldnt be in the position we are in. they did this, not one side or the other. BOTH.

I disagree with this .....

All Politicians LOVE power and LOVE wielding said power.... the fact we are in America and are Americans is a side note.

[Singlestack]

Guys - this isn't about Democrats and Republicans, as I stated in the OP. It is about what are Conservative and liberal ideals. Please don't assume that I'm trying to ascribe the conservative ideals to republican lawmakers - absolutely not the case.

[Jamnanc]

Remember liberals like cats and conservatives are dog people. Don't forget to throw in that all conservatives eat meat. Liberals also eat me just of the different variety.

[RblDiver]

Remember liberals like cats and conservatives are dog people.

(I'm conservative and like cats >.> )

[Bailey Guns]

(I'm conservative and like cats >.> )

STONE HIM!

[Ronin13]

Singlestack-
First off, let me apologize for everyone else (HBAR- we get it, you're bitter and fall into that trap that there is no partisan difference- of course from a cynical and skewed POV that could be viewed as true, but you fail to realize that there are two different ideas on how to "move forward" with America, one from the right, one from the left). Folks got a little off topic and seemed to have missed the target by an entire lane.
I know what you're asking, and what you wrote initially in the op is spot on.
To add, clarify and emphasize, here is what I can offer:
Conservatism
Running the Gov:
-Smaller gov.
-Less federal powers, more emphasis on state sovereignty
-Less laws and regulation
Social issues:
-Less reliance on government, more reliance on charity and private endeavor
-Pro-life, there are alternatives to aborting your pregnancy
-Welfare reform, only needed for those actually in need- short term

Liberalism
Running the Gov:
-More laws, more regulation
-Government can handle everything and anything
-More federal powers
Social issue:
-Again, the government can handle everything, they can take care of us, they have an obligation to
-Women have the choice to do whatever they want, no regard for differing definitions of what "life" is

That's how I see, but keep in mind, I'm heavily biased and see very little difference between modern liberalism and dreams of socialism.

[SAnd]

I'll oversimplify it a bit.

Conservatives believe that the people is made up of individuals that own the government.

Liberals believe the people belong to the government. There are no individual people.

[Singlestack]

Thanks Ronin - thats what I was looking for! I just received back from my son's (who is very much a capital L Libertarian, as Mike Rosen would describe him) friend some of what his liberal friends consider to be conservative ideals:

- Anti-minority
- Basically racist, and dedicated to defending only what white guys like
- Pro big companies and opposed to small business and the government
- Favor business growth and pollution over the environment (support for Big Oil is evidence)
- Hate poor people and are usually mean to them
- Only care about the US and not the rest of the world
- Try to demean women and even want to keep them from voting (you can't make this stuff up)
- Always try to force Christianity on others and convert them

Here are some of the Liberal ideals they came up with:
- Care about all people (kinder, more caring)
- More money for public education
- Distrust the military and people who have been in the military. Military people want to start wars
- Open minded
- Favor unions as a way to protect companies from exploiting workers. All workers should be unionized
- Conservatives who can't be taught proper thinking should be excluded from leadership roles and the government
- All viewpoints are valid and must be considered (part of open minded thinking)
- Helping minorities and the rest of the world is more important than debt/deficit
- By spending more, we can eliminate worldwide poverty

I was pretty disappointed in these results - more emotional really and not a lot of substance. However, not really surprised. Kids that age tend not to know a lot about this sort of thing, and are more swayed by easy to say emotional arguments - no explanations provided most of the time.