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Thursday, January 10, 2008

#353 Here's what 20 years of procrastination can do

At least 20 years ago, while having a discussion with a local newspaper reporter, I mentioned the idea of writing a paper on the differences between liberal and conservative. Today, I decided to do something about it. My first step was to google conservative vs. liberal. It gave me 12,900 options. I decided to go to this site first. It was a good thing I did. Someone else has taken the same steps that I had contemplated those many years ago. Not wanting to reinvent the wheel let me recommend that you visit the site and draw your own conclusions. The author fully discloses that these terms are directly from a dictionary and a thesaurus.

Here is a very brief review of that site. The author provides more details for each of the general terms.

Liberal:
  • Generous
  • Tolerant
  • Broad-minded
  • Favoring reform or progress
  • Progress
Conservative:
  • Tending to conserve
  • Tending to preserve established institutions
  • Opposed to change
  • Cautious
My guess is that you are already applying some of these terms to the current batch of presidential wannabes. You might even apply them to yourself. Let me know which ones apply to which candidate if you are so inclined. Borrowing from Serena Joy, either comment here or post your ideas on your own blog and link the posting to a comment here.

Have fun.

#353

8 comments:

The Phosgene Kid said...

I don’t believe there is any difference in the current crop of candidates, aside from the obvious color gender thing. Mostly they are all self serving elitists with their own agenda. This agenda is set by all the contributors that want something for the money they put towards the candidates campaign. We will never have a democratic process as long as so much money is involved.

Karen said...

Love, love, love your new look, Jack!

Have to think on the liberal - conservative thing... right now my brain hurts.

*grin*

BBC said...

It would be hard to label me, I bounce all over the chart.

Skunkfeathers said...

Considering what I hear in "liberal" press is anything but tolerant and compassionate, I find the google definitions wanting.

But eh...in a purely defined state, I fit neither. I am in the great "fly over" middle. And not uncomfortable being there, a place where reason and common sense still hold sway.

Polly said...

Not conservative in a flying fit. The only thing I am conservative about is the environment. I shall refuse to be bitter and cynical about the US candidates as even though anything would be better than Bush et al, I really think Obama has the feeling for the future ( if he can survive).

Good luck...in breaking the mold/mould of the old way of thinking.

Michelle O'Neil said...

Very interesting definitions.

Which one looks like love and which one looks like fear?


(Found you on Darlene's blog).

sage said...

I would be all over the map--which is why I don't like the terms liberal and conservative--they've been used and abused so much they've lost their meaning.

Anonymous said...

Sorry...hate the labels. This is the first thing I've read on your blog, and I have to gently suggest that there's a lot of bias in them. Then again, maybe it was your intent to stir up contraversy (sp?)? Okay...I'll keep poking around :)