The Difference Between Liberals and Conservatives

[festus]

I don't think I've ever seen the differences explained any better....



If a conservative doesn’t like guns, they don’t buy one. If a liberal doesn’t like guns, then no one should have one.

If a conservative is a vegetarian, they don’t eat meat. If a liberal is, they want to ban all meat products for everyone.

If a conservative sees a foreign threat, he thinks about how to defeat his enemy. A liberal wonders how to surrender gracefully and still look good.

If a conservative is homosexual, they quietly enjoy their life. If a liberal is homosexual, they loudly demand legislated respect.

If a black man or Hispanic is conservative, they see themselves as independently successful. Their liberal counterparts see themselves as victims in need of government protection.

If a conservative is down-and-out, he thinks about how to better his situation. A liberal wonders who is going to take care of him.

If a conservative doesn’t like a talk show host, he switches channels. Liberals demand that those they don’t like be shut down.

If a conservative is a non-believer, he doesn’t go to church. A liberal wants all churches to be silenced.

If a conservative decides he needs health care, he goes about shopping for it, or may choose a job that provides it. A liberal demands that his neighbors pay for his.

[HK4U]

Pretty much sums it up.

[BamaBoy]

A Conflict of Visions, by Thomas Sowell, gives a good perspective on this topic.

In short, conservatives prize liberty, while liberals are willing to sacrifice anything and everything for equality (of result).

Remember, though, that while conservatives are split into libertarian and authoritarian camps, such a division no longer applies to liberals. There used to be libertarian liberals, but there are virtually none left today.

[AZSATT]

Responsibility, accountability and liberty verses irresponsibility, 'victimization' and big-gov't legislation.

"United" we do not stand, and have not stood for many years. This nation still stands solely by the grace of God.

[Glockster20]

One of my favorite analogies in explaining the difference. An oldie but goodie... "The Ant & The Grasshopper"

*****MODERN VERSION*****:

The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.

The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.

Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be warm and well fed while others are cold and starving.

CBS, NBC, PBS, CNN, and ABC show up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food. America is stunned by the sharp contrast. How can this be, that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so? Kermit the Frog appears on Oprah with the grasshopper, and everybody cries when they sing, "It's Not Easy Being Green." Jesse Jackson stages a demonstration in front of the ant's house where the news stations film the group singing, "We shall overcome." Jesse then has the group kneel down to pray to Obama for the grasshopper's sake.

Nancy Pelosi, John Kerry & Harry Reid exclaim in an interview with Larry King that the ant has gotten rich off the back of the grasshopper, and both call for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay his fair share.

Finally, the EEOC drafts the Economic Equity and Anti-Grasshopper Act retroactive to the beginning of the summer! The ant is fined for failing to hire a proportionate number of green bugs and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the government.

Hillary gets her old law firm to represent the grasshopper in a defamation suit against the ant, and the case is tried before a panel of federal judges that Bill Clinton appointed from a list of single-parent welfare recipients. The ant loses the case.

The story ends as we see the grasshopper finishing up the last bits of the ant's food while the government house he is in, which just happens to be the ant's old house, crumbles around him because he doesn't maintain it.

The ant has disappeared in the snow. The grasshopper is found dead in a drug related incident and the house, now abandoned, is taken over by a gang of spiders who terrorize the once peaceful neighborhood.

[PascalFleischman]

A Conflict of Visions, by Thomas Sowell, gives a good perspective on this topic.

In short, conservatives prize liberty, while liberals are willing to sacrifice anything and everything for equality (of result).

Remember, though, that while conservatives are split into libertarian and authoritarian camps, such a division no longer applies to liberals. There used to be libertarian liberals, but there are virtually none left today.

Conservative Libertarians tend to focus attention on leaving government out of our lives.

Liberal Libertarians want things like drugs, gay marriage, and statutory rape laws prohibited.

[HK4U]

Responsibility, accountability and liberty verses irresponsibility, 'victimization' and big-gov't legislation.

"United" we do not stand, and have not stood for many years. This nation still stands solely by the grace of God.

+1. I agree and I am afraid God's patients my be running out. In the Old Testament book of Judges over and over again God would bless the Hebrew Nation and then they would over and over again return to their old ways. God would allow judgment to come by the hand of their enemies. They would cry out and God would here and save them. Before long they forgot God and all he had done and went back to their old ways. Again God would remove his protection and again they would be in deep trouble. I am afraid America has forgot the blessings of God and gone a "whoring" after false gods. If we think we can avoid judgment we are sorely mistaken.

[Scarecrow]

yeah that pretty much describes it.. one side is self sufficient and the other side is a bunch of crying sissy bed wetters:)

[BamaBoy]

A conservative libertarian says, "If guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns."

A liberal libertarian says, "If guns are outlawed, only police will have guns."

This doesn't mean that conservative libertarians and liberal libertarians don't share each other's concerns to some degree.

Authoritarian liberals—the vast majority of liberals today— want drugs, gay marriage, and statutory rape legalized not out of concern for liberty, but out of a desire to undermine traditional mores and values.

[mbass]

I don't think I've ever seen the differences explained any better....



If a conservative doesn’t like guns, they don’t buy one. If a liberal doesn’t like guns, then no one should have one.

If a conservative is a vegetarian, they don’t eat meat. If a liberal is, they want to ban all meat products for everyone.

If a conservative sees a foreign threat, he thinks about how to defeat his enemy. A liberal wonders how to surrender gracefully and still look good.

If a conservative is homosexual, they quietly enjoy their life. If a liberal is homosexual, they loudly demand legislated respect.

If a black man or Hispanic is conservative, they see themselves as independently successful. Their liberal counterparts see themselves as victims in need of government protection.

If a conservative is down-and-out, he thinks about how to better his situation. A liberal wonders who is going to take care of him.

If a conservative doesn’t like a talk show host, he switches channels. Liberals demand that those they don’t like be shut down.

If a conservative is a non-believer, he doesn’t go to church. A liberal wants all churches to be silenced.

If a conservative decides he needs health care, he goes about shopping for it, or may choose a job that provides it. A liberal demands that his neighbors pay for his.

Wow! Excellent synopsis and insight!!!
Polemical arguments are a great way to discern truth.
It, then, is up to the individual to make either a logical or emotional decision.