Why are there so many ignorant Liberals and Conservatives on yahoo answers?
I think it's the nature of a public message board, a virtual "free for all" about any topic. I prefer to "hang around" politics as it appears to be the most lively. Speaking for myself, I'll ask "serious" questions but like my right-wing counterparts, I enjoy a good "joust" trying to come up with witty and cutting answers, it's just the nature of Y-answers. You're right not all are ignorant but you have the choice to engage them or not, these are troubled times and I try to laugh and look on the bright side of things whenever possible.
What is the difference between classical liberals and libertarians?
For social freedoms, they seem somewhat similar, giving people freedom to live their lives as they see fit.Fiscally, modern libertarianism has amplified some very small points, and added an anti-government aspect, not intrinsic to classical liberalism.For example, the Progressive Era saw the breakup of massive corporate trusts, requirements that less fingers and rat hairs wind up in your hotdogs. Libertarians tend to want to hold some personal rights as pure, meaning they can be handed to a corporation and still held inviolate — you and I can shake hands and make a fair deal, so a corporation that wants to buy all the other oil corporations is just the same kind of deal, and I should figure out if there are rat hairs in my hot dogs without government oversight. Libertarians I’ve talked to tend to want the government to regulate only when something causes harm and then it isn’t allowed, but a lot of life is complex: does my neighbor making noise harm me, does a car with a tailpipe harm me, or a factory polluting? I don’t think classical liberalism as most people understand it has the same problems with splitting the difference on these issues and having a government come up with sane, balanced noise and pollution ordinances, where libertarianism wants to remove that government role or move it to the courts.Classical liberalism in its early days also operated in a different environment, so it’s hard to know exactly how to translate some aspects of it. Looking at Adam Smith, you’ll find someone who tended to oppose the entrenched interests of his time, where libertarianism often supports entrenched interests today.Or, you could throw all this out. Because both libertarianism and classical liberalism were terms people argued about … there was a strain of classical liberalism like Thomas Jefferson and Adam Smith, and a strain of classical liberalism that was basically pro-rich and anti-poor, anti-government, that took on Malthusianism as if it was an ideal … which actually looks a lot like modern conservative libertarianism. I wrote mostly from a view of classical liberalism in the ballpark of Adam Smith.
If a liberal-supporter had stomped on a tea partier at a rally, how would Fox News have reacted?
They would have been against it but some other Conservatives would have done the usual "See that's how Liberals are" dance routine as evidenced daily on Yahoo!Answers. Of course Michael Savage would have thrown out his usual acerbic comments as would Bill O'Reilly.
Is the downvote-answer feature necessary on Quora?
I think it is being unfairly gamed by liberal Democrats to suppress conservative thought and opinion. I have a Ph.D. in political science. I've taught at some of the most highly ranked schools in the nation. My early contributions, however, were quickly trashed by existing liberal users who seem to think it is wrong to even allow a conservative answer to appear on this site. I think making down votes public would certainly make it easier to identify who is responsible for collapsing perfecty good answers unfairly. I have, of course, brought a number of these unfairly collapsed answers to the attention of folks at Quora and I've been pleased to see them restored and protected after I made my complaint. Nevertheless, this is a tedious process that needs a systematic fix. At the very least, Quora ought to identify the liberals who are going out of their way to collapse answers for purely ideological reasons and to weaken what ever clout they enjoy on this site. My sense is that there is a sincere interest in seeing more conservatives contribute to Quora. This is especially important given the upcoming election cycle. I don't think it helps Quora to be known as a site that unfairly squashes conservative and libertarian comments and answers. One of the best things to do, in my opinion, would be for Quora to immediately uncollapse the answers of those conservatives who have been unfairly targeted and harmed by down voting, especially Jevan Lemoine.Mr. Jevan is a Tea Party Movement supporter who has come to be known as the King of Collapsed. From reading his posts, as a political scientist, it is obvious that he has been targeted purely for political reasons. I urge Quora reviewers and administrators to investigate Mr. Lemoine's treatment on this site as an example of what not to do. As far as I can tell, Mr. Lemoine has been very patient with Quora. As far as I can tell, he has been the victim of cyber abuse.
What is the tea party? What do they stand for?
The Tea Party believes in going back to the founding documents(constitution), and all the freedoms it bestows upon the people, and a small government, as in The Tenth Amendment, where it basically says "and the country can do no more" and yet since than we have seen it take on more and more power. Limited Government is the primary concept.
Are libertarians essentially conservative? A poll says that most in the military now identify as “independents” or “libertarians,” yet they love George W. Bush. Also, Ron Paul ran for president as a libertarian, but his son Rand is a Republican.
Ah, you do know how to hurt this libertarian’s feelings…Libertarianism is composed of a fairly broad range of beliefs. Any one particular libertarian’s perspective may coincide with a liberal’s, or with a conservative’s, or with neither’s. (See Defining the political left and right ) So, depending on whom you talk to and what issues you’re discussing, you may well get a slanted view of concurrence without understanding distinction.But, generally, libertarians will supportyou owning your own body, rather than the ruling class owning your body;you owning your own labor (and the product of your labor), rather than the ruling class owning it;foreign ruling classes owning their own citizens, rather than our ruling class owning them.I leave it up to you to classify which of these areas are “conservative” versus (US) “liberal”.Now, some of us are more consistent than others. And many of us have quite different reasons for why we believe ownership of the world should be as above.However, I sympathize, and identify, with your confusion. As I talked about in How I became a libertarian?, I came from the left. My political passions were primarily helping the poor and minorities and ending endless war. It took me a long time to finally understand the moral imperative for, and the beneficial outcomes of, human freedom!So I started going to libertarian meetings, and — Hoo-boy! — did I ever feel out of place. I would guess more than 2/3rds of libertarians are coming from the right. They’re certainly not focused on my hot-button issues, and I have to listen to glaze-my-eyes-over money supply and taxes!! I am a minority at libertarian parties.But there are concentrations that you are likely not aware of. You may want to check out the Bleeding-heart libertarianism - Wikipedia. While I might be classified in their taxonomy as an (catchily-named) “Anarchist Left Bleeding Heart Libertarian”, the following site collects “Strong Bleeding Heart Libertarians” who may well talk more your language:About Us - Bleeding Heart LibertariansIncluded by reference:Is libertarianism just a way of confusing moderates to vote Republican?How did you become a libertarian?