Do Democrats Believe That Government Should Be Transparent

Do you think Democratic Governments should limit their citizen’s freedoms during wartime?

When we are under invasion or in a state of rebellion, our constitution says our govt may do this. Therefore, during other wars, they may not restrict our freedom.

Sad thing, our founders didn't imagine we'd be off on imperialistic wars of choice (once we were done with that whole manifest destiny thing.)

Transparency in government and Blago....?

He campaigned on a platform of “transparency in government” yet at every question of his background, his beliefs, his associations, his friendship, and his business dealings Obama puts up blocks, avoids questions, circles the wagons, and ends up making the situation ten times worse thanks to rampant speculation.

Since it is common practice to discuss your successor, why doesn’t Obama simply tell it like it is? “Yes we discussed my successor, I suggested a few names, he suggested a few, but at no time did we ever discuss payment for the position or a pay to play scheme.” PERIOD.

Then people aren’t speculating. Saying “I don’t recall, I will ask around and get back to you in a couple days” just makes him seem guilty of something, even if he isn’t.

He has had incident after incident of this same “avoid and maybe it will go away” situations for his entire candidacy. Can we expect the same through his Presidency? And don’t you think that he should start living the pledge that he made of transparency in the government?

Do you think that democratic governments should be allowed to limit their citizens' freedoms during wartime?

Consider the fact that nothing ever has an answer that's 100% Yes or 100% No. All governments limit their citizen's freedoms. Some more than others. For instance, I have more freedoms in California than does a citizen of New York, a citizen of New York has more freedoms than a citizen of England, and England is pretty free. Governments have done a lot of stupid and/or evil things to their citizens in wartime, so wartime alone can't be an excuse. An example of this is nabbing the Americans of Japanese heritage in WWII. There are, however, some freedoms that must be restricted in wartime. I think that the proper answer is that a government should not unduly or unnecessarily restrict its citizens' rights.

What do these terms mean? republican, conservist, democrat, liberal?

Liberalism is an ideology, philosophical view, and political tradition which holds that liberty is the primary political value. Broadly speaking, liberalism seeks a society characterized by freedom of thought for individuals, limitations on power, especially of government and religion, the rule of law, the free exchange of ideas, a market economy that supports relatively free private enterprise, and a transparent system of government in which the rights of minorities are protected.

Conservatism is tethered to the traditions of a given society and therefore it cannot hold any single or universal meaning across the world. Additionally, conservative 'means' are often combined with other ideological 'ends' (e.g.: Conservative or Classical Liberal versus Radical Liberal). Conservatism is older than the left-right division in politics; and conservatives may align with either the left or right depending on the time and place.

Republicans and Democrats, or as I call them Dempublicans and Republicrats are basically the same thing. People trying to get their way and they can really by definition be both liberal and conservative despite their political affiliation. Party lines have become warped over the years and I doubt that it will ever straighten itself out.