Young people are taught liberalism in the public schools.

People tend to become much more conservative as they get older.

Age and experience breeds logic and reason!

I recently asked a question about american "socialists" and I got like five answers. The thing that stuck out the most for me was that everyone associated liberalism with socialism.
Is this what many americans think of their liberal politicians?
They are both political ideologies. Sure liberalism is a widely used term but that doesn’t change the core ideas.
I can see why this would get hard when i’m talking to people from a different culture, with different mind sets.

No, of course not. What you are seeing for the most part is propaganda talking points from conservatives that try to conflate liberalism and socialism. There are liberals in this country and there are socialists. Most liberals are capitalists who believe in strong social programs. Liberals and socialists, in this country, will sometimes share similar viewpoints and at times have opposing viewpoints.

Hi all ~ I’m mainly referring to 19th Century European politics – not our modern world. I am trying to get this idea set in my brain. I know the two are entwined. From what I understand so far, radicalism is liberalism on crack (so to speak). BUT, during the 1848 revolutions, weren’t there conservative radicals? I’m a bit confused!
AGAIN – I’m asking in terms of 19th century Europe. Not present-day America nor your personal political opinions. Thanks.

I trust these videos will help you. look for the ones with titles you need, they are short so you will not need popcorn. LOL, but I believe even now they would apply. Have a great 2011!

http://www.battlefield315.com/p/conversations-z.html

This is America, not Venzuela. It’s not North Korea, and it’s not Finland. Liberalism is not liked much in America, so when will Democrats finally get this idea in their head and stop pushing all these crazy liberal ideas?
Nick, it’s a communist state. Can’t get any more liberal than that.

Lets hope not.

We did very well last night….but there is more to take in 2012.
I am for the Democrats giving us Republicans all the help they possibly can!

I’m raising my kids to be Liberal Satanists, and I’ve had them deny the Holy Spirit, help petition for Health Care Reform, learn about Evolution, and to accept people for being gay. What more can I do to indoctrinate them into Liberalism/Satanism?

I like to hunt Republicans.

‘Liberalism’ is defined as a social ethic that advocates liberty, and equality in general." – C. A. J. (Tony) Coady

Yes, it can apply to both.

The difference is the means in which you ensure liberty and equality.

If we took the power away from the federal government giving it back to the states like our founders intended, once the more liberal states started falling like domino’s (As California, Illinois and Michigan currently are) wouldn’t people see liberalism for what it truly is ? Which is a Cancer destroying our country. Thanks in advance for your answers. God bless.

You obviously haven’t read a history book in your entire life, because you would know about the federalist papers if you had. The founding fathers bitterly fought over the issue of states rights versus federal power.

And trust me, the 3 states you just named are great states experiencing minor difficulties at the moment. they’ll be back on top soon.

I have to write a paper that involves exploring the future of liberalism and republicanism and see if either solution will fix the current economic crisis. I have to examine the economic crisis through the lenses of liberalism and republicanism to see if the solution to the problem is liberal or republican. Can anybody help?

A great resource might be speeches Obama and McCain made during their campaigns which demonstrate the differences between a conservative (what you call republicanism) solution and a liberal solution.

Generally, liberals believe that only fiscal policy in the form of large government spending, which injects money into the economy and multiplies as it is used over and over, will salvage the situation. Increased regulation will be used to prevent future problems of this magnitude.

Conservatives are more likely to think that giving tax cuts to Americans and thus putting more spending money in their pockets will cause them to spend more and bring up the economy. Most conservatives are arguing for modest increases in financial regulation as well. Both arguments hinge on an increase in consumer confidence over time, and a relaxation of the frugality we have taken upon ourselves.

Other sources you might consult are Congressional hearings and floor speeches on the stimulus package that was passed, the Republican alternative budget proposal and the case that was made for it and any speech about the economy Obama has made since being elected.

Ultimately this is an opinion paper with no right answer, so concentrate on making reasonable predictions and a thorough analysis.

Or is it the ‘classical liberalism’ model that contemporary liberals are associated with?

I would think classical liberalism is the model contemporary conservatives are trying to preserve.

What conservatives are you talking about? Do you mean libertarians?

Conservatives certainly are not advocates of classical liberalism. They might think they are, but they’re pretty much only in favour of a free-market because they’re told it’s the patriotic thing to do.

From what I’ve seen in the US, American conservatives are very much in favour of freedom of religion (protesting any mosque built within 10 blocks of ground zero), freedom of the press (calling for Julian Assange to be assassinated), civil liberty (they were widely supportive of the patriotic act when Obama was president, and they opposed prisoners at Guantanamo from coming to the US for trial) and they’re certainly not in favour of limited government. They may be for less social programs, less corporate regulations, but they’re also in favour of pushing their social/religious agenda, such as banning everything that they feel contradicts the bible.

Contemporary American conservatism isn’t anything like classical liberalism, they’d still hate classical liberalism. They might be in favour of the time period as they always glorify the past, but they certainly wouldn’t be in favour of classical liberalism. Classical Liberalism isn’t much different from Social Liberalism. The only real difference is economic. Social Liberalism purport Keynesian economics, which was the mainstay among the Western powers from the 1940s to 1970s. Classical Liberalism advocated Monetarism which was practiced from the late 19th century up until the Great Depression (which is when it fell out of favour).

Folks, you need to learn your history. You should also know that the Republican party isn’t pro-free-market. The Republican party practices Crony Capitalism. The Republican party in their relationship with big business uses their political pull to give government subsidies (corporate welfare) to conglomerates like Exxon Mobile to make them even more profitable, as well as pushing for less regulations, specific regulations on major corporations. Small businesses get no favours from the Republican party.

Yes we need to limit the behavior and actions of people, but it is for the greater good and the greater good is more important than the individual.

In the end that is all Liberalism is about, building the perfect society where people have only those rights which are necessary and let the government bring social equality to everyone.

I think you’d like the movie zeitgeist.

It’s on YouTube fer freesias.

Since the red scare, communism has been viewed as evil, although the ussr and chinas govs aren’t communist they’re totalitarian.

Basically the capitalist system is ready to collapse on itself, banking has messed things up so bad that all the money in the world couldn’t pay the derivatives owed to the banks (just the derivatives)

The capitalist system will be gone by 2050, Theres just no way we can keep it alive