Why "Conservative" and "Liberal"?

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AmericanVoice2004 offers potential voters both sides of the argument. That immediately forces us to tackle the question, "What do we call these two sides?" We have decided to label them "conservative" and "liberal" for the simple reason that these are the two most commonly used terms to describe political leanings in the United States.

We debated substituting different labels. "Pro" and "con" wasn't appropriate because in many cases(e.g. social security) the argument isn't about whether to have security for the elderly and infirm but how. "Us" and "them" doesn't work because the Institute for Local Self-Reliance doesn't offer its own position. We extract the key points from others who have been actively, passionately and politically involved.

"Democrat" and "Republican" would seem natural labels for this exercise. But we decided against using them, in part because parties do not always take a clear position on issues and in part because candidates do not always embrace their party's positions.

We rejected red-flag terms like "right wing" and "left wing" for obvious reasons. We decided not to employ terms like "progressive" or "populist" or "libertarian" because they are unfamiliar and often misunderstood.

Yet although we use "conservative" and "liberal" we know they are burdened with a great deal of historical and emotional baggage. And that this can interfere and even discourage the visitor to this site from willingly engaging the argument of one side or the other. We urge visitors to set their pre-existing prejudices aside.

Pundits pithily and wittily describe the difference between a liberal and a conservative. "A conservative is a liberal who has been mugged. A liberal is a conservative who has been arrested." "Liberals don't believe they deserve anything they own. Conservatives think they're entitled to everything they've stolen." Or as Marvin Gottlieb of the Dayton Daily News puts it, "a liberal is someone who frets that somewhere, somehow, somebody is getting screwed. A conservative is a person who frets that somewhere, somehow, somebody is getting something for nothing." British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli once remarked, "A Conservative government is an organized hypocrisy" while poet Robert Frost described a liberal as a man so broadminded he wouldn't take his own side in an argument.

These clever descriptions may indeed reveal an important core belief or attitude of these two political philosophies. But they miss their complexity and the rich and complicated history of each. For many activists steeped in political history the terms themselves are misleading and unhelpful. Recall that after her term in office Maggie Thatcher, British Prime Minister in the 1980s declared, "The kind of Conservatism which…I…favoured would be best described as ‘liberal' in the old-fashioned sense."

Sufficiently confused? Good. That may permit you to get behind the labels and seriously consider the arguments of those with whom you might traditionally disagree. We will all be the richer for your considered attention.