What's the real difference between liberals/conservatives?
Wow . . . so many responses with so little substance. So I've got another one, based off of the vast majority of what's been said so far . . . Both liberals and conservatives say that the other is evil and corrupt and make baseless accusations against them. They're both so convinced that their opponent is so wrong about everything that they never stop to notice their own errors or shortcomings. They will both cover up the failings of there own actions and programs in order to plausibly deny it when the opposing side points those failings out. They're both so caught up in the "my team good, their team bad" mentality that they've lost all connection with reality. Good grief, people. Just look at the stuff you're all saying. You all have exactly the same hearts. The positions on the issues are different, but that's all.
What's the difference between a liberal and a democrat?
A liberal is someone who believes in liberalism, which is political and ideological philosophy. Liberals have a wide array of viewpoints, but generally support freedoms and equality. These can range from freedom of speech to gender equality.Liberalism has been around since the 14th or 15th century, during the Renaissance where liberal ideas first came to prominence. Throughout history, liberals have supported progressive viewpoints that favor equality. The first few liberal viewpoints were the push for democracy and freedom of religion (17th century), followed by classical liberalism (18th-19th century) which supported banning slavery and serfdom, better working conditions, and colonial independence. Later, once these goals were achieved, liberal views shifted again towards the progressive, favoring civil rights and women’s suffrage (20th century).Finally, here we are now with modern or social liberalism, which is even more progressive and supports universal healthcare, immigration rights, LGBT rights, women’s rights, and greater wealth equality. Note how liberalism references mainly ideologies, and liberals simply believe in that ideology.In contrast, democrat is someone who supports the democratic party, and doesn’t reference their ideology. If the democratic party had conservative viewpoints, a democrat would also be conservative. However, in the U.S. today the Democratic Party has modern liberal views (see: Burnie Sanders), and thus Democrats are also liberal.The difference lies once you go out of mainstream U.S. politics. Socialists and communists are also liberal, just extremely so. So are European liberals. Both of these groups have liberal views, but aren’t Democrats because they don’t participate in U.S. politics and the Democratic Party. Therefore, most Democrats are liberal but not all liberals are Democrats. Likewise, Republicans are conservative but not all conservatives are Republicans.Note: Democrat is also defined as someone supporting democracy, such as in ‘social democrat’, but because this is the U.S. I’d assume that definition isn’t relevant.Thanks for the A2A.
Whats the difference between democrat, republican, conservative and liberal?
Democrats and Republicans are parties. Conservative and Liberal are philosophies. Conservatism is just what it sounds like, taking conservative positions on the issues. Positions that involve less risk and less changing of the status quo (on financial issues - spend less, on social issues - don't make many changes to what we have now, such as do not allow gay marriage). Conservatism tends to lean toward seeing things in a more stark, black-and-white, right-and-wrong, absolutism sort of way. In a grossly over-simplified way - Conservatives are essentially traditionalists who resist a lot of change. Liberalism is the opposite. It is being liberal with positions. Liberals often want to expand social programs and spend more on them (more government -provided healthcare, retirement, education, etc). Liberals also want to allow more socially (allow for gay marriage). Liberals tend to see things in a less concrete, more relative way. For example, Conservatives tend to think of "all" abortion being murder, but liberals are more included to believe that the mother should have the choice of getting an abortion or not and don't see the issue as harshly. Liberals are OK with change and changing the status quo. In today's American politics. Democrats tend to be thought of as "liberals" and Republicans as "conservatives." In a 30,000 foot view of the situation, that suffices in most ways, but it is never that simple. There are "conservative Democrats" such as Joe Lieberman was and "liberal Conservatives" such as some would tell you McCain is. So within each party you have branches of conservatism, liberalism, and moderation (those in the middle are moderates). I'm socially liberal (pro things like gay marriage and drug legalization), but financially conservative (smaller government, fewer government-funded social programs). So I am neither fully liberal, nor conservative. And I do not agree with either major party so I affiliate myself with the Libertarian party, a third party option that is socially liberal and financially conservative.
What are the differences between a Republican and a Conservative?
If you're referring to US politics exclusively, then one difference is that Republican should have an initial capital letter (since it's short for the Republican Party) and conservative should be all lowercase (since it's only the name of a philosophy, not a proper noun).Many who believe in conservative political policies are Republicans and many who are members of the Republican Party are conservatives, but it's not necessarily the case. Many conservatives find a home for themselves in the Libertarian Party or the Constitution Party or even as Blue Dog Democrats (the moderate wing of the Democratic Party). Republicans, likewise, don't necessarily have to be conservatives. It's very common, but it's not universally true. Consider the split between the Tea Party and those they call establishment Republicans. The Tea Party represents a subset of conservatives based around the premise that the most important issue in politics is that the people are Taxed Enough Already. Folks who, for example, favor Republican foreign policy and oppose abortion but don't much care whether their taxes are increased could easily vote Republican or declare themselves to be Republican through their voter registration without ever giving the Tea Party's economically conservative platform any support. [Update: Trump's big-government right-wing programs, like the wall, are better examples of things that are Republican but not conservative.]
Can liberals and conservatives compromise with each other?
Liberals should compromise on their anti-markets, anti-business, anti-rich people beliefs, and then conservatives should compromise on their anti-gay, anti-choice beliefs. Liberals stay out of conservatives wallets. Conservatives stay out of liberal bedrooms. It's called compromise and it will make everyone more happy.
What is the difference between a Conservative and a Republican?
Conservatives believe in not wasting tax payers money, a market economy. Some Republicans have become corrupt and ruined their party's name which once once stood for "Conservative." Conservatives also believe in rights of the Constitution which set up the United States for economic Growth in the fact that government should not intervene in private markets. That is why you saw 2/3 republicans vote against the bailout and 1/3 democrats vote against it. But once corruption got involved, the bill somehow passed even though it was against the people's will. 2/3 Conservative Republicans did not drink the Koolaid. Republican is a political party, Conservative is a view on fiscal policy. Just like Democrat is a party, liberal is a monetary policy(more gov spending). Conservative means that the government does not waste money and spend less money than they make at the same time does make more money than they spend. There is a difference in those two phrases. So not all Democrats are liberal and not all Republicans are Conservative. George Bush would be more of a Liberal Republican. Ronald Reagan is more of Conservative Republican. John McCain falls closer to a Conservative on his fiscal policy.
What is a conservative and a liberal? Is it like republicans and democrats? How do their beliefs differ?
This answer is good only for the current USA. Different definitions apply in different political climates.Liberal (see also Progressive) - someone who believes the USA is evil and fatally flawed, and so must be “fundamentally transformed” into something completely different.Democrat - a politician who works to destroy the USA to get votes from liberals.Conservative - someone who thinks the USA is pretty good, and ought to be preserved and protected.Republican - a politician who pretends to work to protect and preserve the USA to get votes from conservatives, while continuously making back room deals with their good friends, the Democrats.