Conservative and Liberal

Conservative and Liberal

From my dictionary: “liberal: generous; tolerant; broad-minded; favoring progress”  “conservative: tending to conserve; opposed to change; cautious”.

If being tolerant, generous, and broad-minded means you are liberal, then “liberal” sounds like a pretty nice thing to say about somebody. If trying to conserve and being cautious, especially about changes, means you are conservative, then that too sounds like a pretty good attitude. When we hear these terms applied to politicians, the meanings get all twisted.

Self-styled “conservative” politicians say it is fine for the government to listen in on your phone calls, read your mail and your emails, and find out what kinds of books you read because it serves “national security”. They want government to stop regulating businesses. This would leave companies free to dump poison into the water and the air, sell products that are toxic, reap the profits and leave the mess for somebody else to clean up. That is not conservative in any sense of the word. That is radical and extreme. 

“Conservatives” constantly assert they want to return to some not specifically designated time in the past, when things were supposedly better. I suppose they mean they want to return to an era when women could not vote, black people in the South had no rights, and children were routinely used as factory labor. When conservatives start talking about “values”, it seems they are talking about things like honor, moral standards, and integrity. All of that sounds good until you realize they only want those standards to apply to other people. There is a long list of conservatives who have been consistent and outspoken about their support for “family values” but who have engaged in financial chicanery (sometimes rising to the level of criminal activity) and extramarital affairs.

Politically, the liberal perspective is based on the assumption that the only function of government is to serve the citizens. Conservatives believe government should literally take care of business. Conservatives rail against government “handouts”, while raking in government cash with both hands. Phil Gramm used to publicly denounce those who receive government money. He was born in a military hospital at taxpayer expense, and never received a check without the name of some kind of government entity printed on it until he was at least middle-aged. There was a rally against health care reform in which a man shouted for the government to keep its hands off his Medicare. Perfect.