How were conservatives different from radicals and liberals?
Answers
“liberal” refers to someone who advocates change, new philosophies and new ideas. “Conservative” describes someone who avoids change, preferring to stick to the tried and true. But these definitions have changed over time, and modern definitions of these political labels are much more complex.
Liberals today are very much for individual rights but also lots of government intervention and control. They want everyone to be treated equally, especially concerning health care, gay marriage, illegal immigration and minimum wage. They are very supportive of the poor and lower middle-class, believing that the rich should be taxed highly to help the poor. They believe that the government should protect the people from themselves, banning gun ownership and making unionizing of workers mandatory. They are also pro-choice but believe that the death penalty should be banned. They want to decrease defense spending and scrap the Missile Defense program.
Conservatives today are for a strong military and taking the necessary actions to protect America, even if it means intervening in other countries preemptively. They are against granting amnesty to illegal aliens and want to prevent illegal immigration as much as possible by building a fence along the border with Mexico. They are against abortion and physician-assisted suicide, and they believe that there should be more faith-based government initiatives, like introducing more religion into schools.