Definition of 'liberal'?

C

chris in va

New member
My friend aknowledges the need for firearms concerning protection.

However, having grown up around NYC, she is a little confused about the meaning of 'liberal' and sympathises with many of their ideals.

Seriously, can anyone point me to a site that generally defines the liberal ideology without showing them in a negative light?
 
Theres hundred of different liberal approaches out there, though basically it means they are not limited to tradition and orthdoxy and promote reform for the benefit of the people. They tend to be more open to new ideas They tend to also promote more tolerance of others points of views. What that means? Basically a whole bunch of stuff.

It was considered very liberal to give every child education, to end slavery. Some people believe in the good of the people they need to take away firearms. Others are the opposite and believe in the way to maintain the freedom and safety of the people they have to be armed. Then you have the likes of hardcore versions of leftism that include differing approaches like communism and socialism, while others would believe in promoting capitalism for advancing people's stations.

Its a complex question with no single answer but vague ones and until you start asking about more limited aspects you could write books upon books on the subject. Of course people are neither conservative or liberal in real life. They have aspects of both.
 
The founders were liberals? They made the choice to fight for the defense and best interest of their new nation,(instead of seeking the approval to do so by other nations governments), believed in the right of free men to keep and bear arms, and believed that one should be loyal to their own country. Liberals, not quite.
 
The Founding Fathers agreed to break with centuries of tradition, rebel against the absolute ruler of the land, and change their entire identity from Englishman to American. For people of that day, that was a monumental decision. That could quite possibly be the most liberal thing in American history,the abolishment of slavery being a very close second IMO.

Limeyfellow offered a very good definition. But we must be careful not to confuse actual liberalism with the Leftism and anti-mainstream types that pass themselves off as liberals. True liberalism is a good thing. That's why it makes such a good cloak for the leftists to wrap themselves in. Things like "improvement" and "moving forward" appeal to people. But instead of really looking for what would be best, and moving in that direction(the true forward), the Leftists of today just use these lies about good intentions to push their agendas, even if it ends up hurting more than it helps. And it often does.
 
I hate to break it to you but you don't seem to grasp the concept of liberals...and yes, the founders were self confessed liberals and free thinkers.
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+1 - in around the 1770's, people like the founders were certainly not "conservatives" in the sense of maintaining the existing order (monarchy). They proposed a new order of government, drawing heavily on both the Greek and Roman forms of democracy, mixing in Republican ideas (Republican = based upon the formation of a Republic), to create a unique and bold concept. What the United States has is a Representative Republican Democracy. Their concept was of a Federal government that was limited in power and states having much more power that the Fed.

You are confusing liberal with statist, leftist-socialist.
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+1 here too.

Today's "liberals", in the late 50's or early 60's, would have been called "communists". Today's liberal/leftist movement disdains certain principles such as personal independence, home schooling, property rights (unless it's to protect public lands), right to arms, limited federal powers and more.


It is no secret that the Soviet Union saw opportunity to use our rebellious youth and many unions to further their ideals as far back as the 1930's. Look up the history of the ACLU. It was not founded to promote the Bill of Rights, but to use it to protect communist party members from prosecution.
 
Sheesh, you guys all sound like a bunch of libertarians.

But seriously, while the words "Liberal" and "Conservative" have actual meanings, it's getting to the point that the liberal and conservative labels mean nothing at all. I was watching a documentary on HBO about Barry Goldwater and how he started the conservative movement in modern American politics. By the end of the film they were calling him a liberal because he didn't believe issues like abortion and homosexuality had any place in federal politics and were actually state issues.

The labels are no more relevant than the names of your favorite sports teams. I'm an Oakland Raiders fan, so it goes without saying that I hate the Denver Broncos, but in the big scheme of things none of that means anything at all. All the labels are good for is so the politicians and the media can stir up a panic to make themselves relevant.
 
Umm...the meaning of "liberal" has changed considerably since the founding of our nation. "Liberal" now means that one believes that the government should have a wide range of powers for taking care of the citizenry through social welfare programs. Modern liberals are generally proponents of the "nanny" state believing that it's the governments job to mother and take care of all of us..that means redistributing wealth from wealthier citizens to "take care" of the poorer citizens. That also means protecting us from all "harmful" things like guns, pollution, etc. Basically..things that the Constitution does NOT authorize the government to concern itself with.


Founding Fathers such as Jefferson were NOT proponents of a nanny state...they believed that individuals were responsible for themselves and their families....not the government.
 
200 years ago, the word "gay" meant "happy." Today, the word "gay" means "homosexual."

200 years ago, the word "liberal" meant "essentially agreeing with Thomas Jefferson." Today the words "liberal" and "conservative" are both derrogatory words used to indicate someone who is entirely too wrapped up in bipartisan politics.
 
The terms "liberal" and "conservative' are all relative to where you are standing when you take your look.:p
Here on the gun boards anybody that is anti-RKBA or pro-922(o) is a "liberal".:D
 
"It goes w/o saying that I hate the Denver Broncos". "Careful, them's fightin words..."

Yep, like me!:eek: :D

I agree to some extent of what most people have posted. A couple of key terms come to mind that I don't think I've seen in this thread:

Secular Progressive. Whether conservative, republican, southern democrat, libertarian, etc. This is one of the most feared terms I believe should be for the latter beliefs.
I think it sums up one of the major agendas of the liberal minded individuals.
 
Newspeak

If you want a good introduction to the way words are changed to influence thought, read "Animal Farm"; for a more exact example, read "1984". Both were written using the name George Orwell (which was not his real name, by the way).

The original definition of liberal was a person who opposed government intervention into the affairs of men; originally conservative meant one who wanted to conserve the present status. Those meanings have changed due to what would be known as "popular usage". Today meanings would depend on the actions of those who profess to be one or the other.

In the 1950s many in the "mainstream media" were seeking a way to make communist ideas less alarming and more acceptable. They substituted the work liberal.

And it has not been 200 years since gay meant happy. For me, it still does. I refuse to allow the media to steal a perfectly good word in an effort to give some level of dignity to a behavior that is not very.

I think someone has already written this but what used to be called right and wrong are now called right and left. Depends on where you stand.

John
Charlotte, NC
 
To get back to the original topic, I cite New Jersey's former Senator Bill Bradley, who, in his retirement speech in 1995, said that "the Democrats think
the government is the answer to everything and they prefer the bureaucrat
they can control to the consumer they can't understand."
 
Its really pretty simple: liberals believe that government is the solution to every problem. They support government controls or regulation of virtually every human activity, from education to business to welfare, and on and on. The contemporary liberal essentially believes that the common man is incapable of managing his or her own affairs, and that the elites in government will decide what is best for him. Modern liberals seem to have a philosophy that we are all victims or one sort or another and that we need the government to protect us and level the playing field if inequalities are present. That the inequalities may come from varying levels of hard work, ability and dedication mean little to the liberals. Gun control is a natural response of the liberal mind since it strives toward a society where only the government, i.e. the police, possess the means of violence. Better for the average citizen to become a crime victim than to have the ability to act independently and use a weapon to defend himself, thus exposing the inability of government to protect its citizens. The liberal always supports higher taxation as a means of giving the government the funds to affect social change rather than leave individuals in charge of where they want to spend their money. On a practical level, the liberals of this country have become dominated and beholden to various special interest groups that benefit from both bigger government and less reliance on individual effort and ability, such as the unionized government workers, minority groups that seek government assistance or advantages, and so-called intellectuals that know what is best for everyone. The conservative is one who essentially wants to limit government to those functions that absolutely require it, such as providing for the common defense, and running the infrastructure that allows individual enterprise and activity to flourish, such as having a fair and independent judiciary, building and maintaining roads, and possibly having a very limited social safety net for those incapable of self sufficiency.
 
Short definition & joke.

1. A liberal thinks big government is the solution. A conservative thinks big government is the problem.

2. A conservative sees a man drowning 20 feet from shore, throws him a 10 foot rope and tells him to swim to make up the difference.

A liberal sees a man drowning 20 feet from shore, throws him a 40 foot
rope, then lets go of the end in order to find someone else to help!
 
1. A liberal thinks big government is the solution. A conservative thinks big government is the problem.
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This is why generalization and attaching new definitions to old terms are bad ideas.

Generally how it works is a person calls himself X (he may or may not redefine X depending on whether it already has a suitable definition that makes him look good), then everything that is not X, like W, Y, and Z, he redefines it to look bad and tags everybody who he disagrees with with those labels.
 
When is a liberal a liberal?

From a European perspective, liberal is practically synonymous with American in that it is viewed in economic terms as someone who supports capitalism. In the US it is the word used to define someone who has liberal attitudes to social issues, i.e. gay rights, abortion etc.

Funny how the same word can define someone right wing in Europe but left wing in America. Of course, the political centre ground in Europe is way to the left of that in America.

How about leftist views in social issues and right wing views in economic issues? Sounds like the definition of a libertarian!
 
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