Originally posted by King James:
I am open to trying to learn what conservatives really believe...but I don't feel they are open themselves to what liberals really believe. Conservatives paint liberals with a very broad brush and assume they are all the same.
Sorry for jumping into the middle of your conversation but I think you have somewhat of a misperception here.
My families on both sides come from NC. They have been Democrats since the founding of the party. I didn't leave them... they left me. It is hard to break tradition but looking at the basic things that divide the parties and ideologies I simply couldn't support Democrats due to their direct association with liberalism.
Liberals began to take over the Democratic party in the early part of the 20th century and were pretty much in control by the time conservatives began their exodus in the 70's and 80's.
Basically, Democrats think that government power should be used to "do good"- to accomplish some ambiguous concept of equity.
Conservatives believe that the "good" is best served when individual rights are protected and people are expected to assume the responsibilities that go along with those rights.
Liberals do not directly associate rights with responsibilities... nor do they think of "rights" as something endowed by the creator but rather something created and dispensed by government.
Thus Democrats favor wealth redistribution and social engineering based on what
they believe is the desired outcome. They also conclude that homosexuals have a "right" to marry, employment, housing, etc.
Marriage is sticky but a genuine conservative/libertarian would say that the property owner has the right to hire/sell to anyone he wants based on his personal values.
The source of rights difference is also illustrated somewhat by abortion. A liberal says that a woman can do what she wants sexually... then avoid responsibility by having a "right to an abortion." A conservative says that yes a person has a right to make moral choices but that does not entitle them to a right to take another person's life... they must take responsibility for their choices.
Conservatives are largely value driven and believe in absolute standards/rules/laws. Liberals are much more relativistic. The argument over Clinton illustrates this well. Conservatives say "He committed a felony!" while liberals say "He didn't lie about anything important!"
Liberals promote things like outcome based education while conservatives promote absolute standards/expectations for student performance... though I disagree with Bush's pragmatic use of "big government" to accomplish a "conservative" goal.
Most people are blend of political opinions rather than being purely one thing or another. I also gave you primarily the two dimensional model of American politics. The three dimensional model is better as it incorporates a wider combination of views. The two dimensional view spreads certain libertarian ideals across the spectrum suggesting that a libertarian is a moderate- which couldn't be further from the truth.
Illustration- libertarians favor a repeal of drug laws... and the income tax.
