Conservative or Liberal? (official poll)

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I'm a pragmatic liberal. I realize that not everyone is going to do the right thing, even if you ask them nicely.

All we can do is make an educated guess on what the best option at any given point is.


More often than not, the most effective solutions are to treat each other with respect, share, and let people do their own thing. Many people though are absolutely terrified of treating others like human beings.

If politicians support abortion, they eventually lose their consituent base. Plain and simple.

They are definitely small government, but they can easily be seen as crazy and far-off because they are known for their hard stance against the war on drugs. I remember an advocate of the libertarian party came to our school, he gave his spiel but I think that he frightened people off with his strong views more than he attracted them. He should have taken an approach that would appeal more to moderates, at least if he was hoping to convince people of his views.

I lean more towards conservatism I suppose. I tend to think that free-markets work, at least better than government and that government works better when it is closer to the people it serves. I also have a view that nations are legitimate and that they are obligated to their people and not necessarily other those of other nations.

I'm an issues-Constitution voter. Whoever's for issues that concern me and aren't trying to use the Constitution as toilet paper get my vote, regardless of their party affiliation.

Ok, well, then the question falls down to what you consider constitutional and what issues you view as important. No side stands for using the constitution as toilet paper and all parties/political ideologies have issues that some people care about. I guess you can call yourself a moderate but I think that everyone(or almost everyone) here votes based upon your criteria no matter what political beliefs they hold.

For the most part, yeah, I guess you could say I'm a moderate. I'm more inclined to vote against parties bent on making laws that I think unconstitutional, like gun control, the Patriot Act, things like that.

Neither. Or both, depending on one's viewpoint.

When it comes to fiscal policy, I am a conservative. I support the free market and I trust the private sector more than I do the public sector. I believe unions are out for their own interests rather than the interests of those they supposedly represent. (For that matter, I feel the same way about the government a lot of the time.) I believe welfare should be an emergency safety net, not a way of life. I believe that excessive taxes are bad for the economy.

When it comes to social policy, I'm a liberal. I favour gay rights and support the idea of gay marriage (which has legal sanction here in Canada). My only comment about abortion is that if someone is against it then they shouldn't have one, and that I oppose any laws restricting it. I believe that discrimination based on sex, age, race, religion, gender, or sexual orientation is wrong.

I guess that makes me a moderate. I used to be a card-carrying member of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada until they were absorbed by the right-wing Alliance Party. Now, no national party reflects my viewpoint.

You should try reading up on the Libertarian party, then. That's Libertarianism in a nutshell right there.

I'm familiar with the Libertarians. Just my own $0.02, but IMO they'd scale back government a bit too much for my liking. I do favour some goverment initiatives such as unemployment insurance and our public health-care system, for instance.

This is one of the main disadvantages to our Constitution. It was written at a time which none of the modern media outlets were even invented yet. It was also written at a time when there was a constant fear of war between either the French or the British as well as a time when handguns and assault weapons (the weapons that the Left wants to restrict) were not available. There were also neither corporations or labor unions in the time of the Constitution as well. I see that most of the debate from the Right and the Left in America today is how to interpret liberty from the Constitution into a modern frame reference.

I'm really only 'conservative' on one issue, that being the War on Terror. The reason I now label myself as a conservative is because I expect it's the only issue that's going to matter 10 years from now, with the possible exception of gun control.

I'd say immigration is a pretty large issue to be considered, unless you put that under the WoT.

Well as for voting, I usually just try to pick the lesser of 2 evils irreguardless of party affiliations. Though I don't feel so secure that my vote will count. Politically, I am neither liberal or conservative, my views are too unique to slap a label on. Though in many reguards, I tend to favor european democracies moreso than the american democracy. I believe whole heartedly in freedom of the individual, but certain freedoms should be disbanded, such as biggotry and stuff that leads to group a doing bad things to group(s) b. However, political correctness is an abomination, and a mockery of free thought.
Gun laws, that is an interesting one.... On one hand, we must preserve our right to bear arms, to defend ourselves against criminals, and if need be our own government. But, guns in the wrong hands are extremely dangerous. This is why I believe we should do more to accept the presence of constitutional (and currently fringe) citizen militias. Because that way, we could screen our fellow citizens who are responsible for keeping us safe, screen their medical, legal, rehabilitational, and psychiatric suitability. I am not involved in any way with the citizen militias, though I once knew someone who was involved. In the beginning of our nation's history, citizen militia service was mandatory for all able bodied men. But over time they became slack, until it eventually faded off, and now if you join one you run the risk of being labled a terrorist (even though the militias are reactionary, not proactionary).

Liberal, like any good American. Though the term was invented as a pejorative, liberalism is the basis of American democracy. I intensely dislike conservatism, and I feel that I am justified in this because conservatism was exactly the problem that led to the decline and eventual demise of the Ottoman Empire and several other great civilizations in human history. Sinking too deeply into conservatism inevitably leads to stagnation.

Oooh, I see you have a little bit of an argumentative streak. One, I don't think that being a liberal is a requirement for being a good American, in fact, part of my contention with the left is that many of their values contradict the traditional American values of less government intervention and individual independence that I believe have made us the great nation we are today. The term liberal was not invented as a pejorative from all that I can tell though, given the linguistic link between liberal and liberty, it is just used as such by modern conservatives. The justification for your hatred of conservatism really depends on a few things, are you mad at conservatism for its own sake, or the ideas behind conservatism? One can lean conservative politically but have ideas stemming from those who do not consider themselves conservative, in fact, many great minds who have contributed to conservative thought are actually just those who believe in classical liberalism. So, given that conservatism does not necessarily mean a lack of change for its own sake but rather a range of political thought that can advocate certain changes in the name of its ideals and that promotes certain dynamic structures, can you necessarily charge conservatism with causing dangerous stagnation?

On a side note though, I will admit that certain elements of conservatism are unnecessary and could lead to stagnation, however, I would be foolish to argue the perfection of an ideology, as there is no perfect one.