In part 1, I’ve described how both sides seem to view the other one. But what are they, really?
If you go by the meaning of the words, “liberal” comes from liberty, a.k.a. freedom. “conservative” comes from conserve, keep, maintain.
I think most people would agree that, from that definitions, liberals would be “better”, right? Freedom is good (though some would argue against “too much” freedom, as that’s unpatriotic) , and “conserving” usually means “holding back”.
Of course, we’ve seen before that things can be misnamed. Still, we don’t usually see conservatives saying that so-called “liberals” aren’t liberal at all, nor do we see the opposite, so it’s my guess that the terms have mostly been accepted, and that people usually don’t think about what the words actually mean.
Still, my point remains: in my opinion, at least, and in the opinion of any who value freedom and in moving towards a better world, rather than staying as we are (or even as we supposedly were, in some golden age), the meaning of “liberal” is much, much better than the meaning of “conservative”.
Again: I’m talking, here, about the meaning of the words, not about what liberals and conservatives really are.
By the way, I do not consider myself a “liberal”. Or a “conservative”. I’d say I’m mostly a libertarian (with a lot of Ayn Rand influences), though there is no libertarian(ish) party in Portugal (so I tend to vote against people I despise).
More to come…
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The historical “Liberal” was actually more like the modern “Libertarian”. At some point, the word got adopted by the Democrats and now has somewhat of a perverse meaning to what it meant historically. It’s a shame. I also would consider myself to be a Libertarian.
You might enjoy my post on the difference between Democrats and Republicans (http://www.autodogmatic.com/index.php/a/2006/02/19/repubocrats_or_demolicans_what_s_the_dif)
that was absolutely retarded and onesided i could point out that conservatives also have some perverse connatatons: “Conservatives are known to be braindead–greedy religious whackjobs that exploit God for their own monetary gain.”
blueskelton: huh? Are you commenting on what I wrote, or on something entirely different? Because I don’t see how your comment applies - I was just talking, here, about what the words mean, not attacking either side.