Bill Denton wrote:

You might consider spending some time with the dictionary, specifically
with "liberal" and "conservative". Our political scale is generally
considered to consist of a center, with liberalism to the left of center
and conservatism to the right.

"Left" and "Right" are terribly poor guides, in that to my left is a table
and my right a wall. "Liberal" vs. "Conservative" involves the willingless
one has to make claims about interpreting the intent of our Constitution.
A "complete" conservative takes none, and sees but the words. A "complete"
liberal pretends to know the minds of the authors better than the authors,
and therefore takes complete freedom with the words.

Conservative also means "traditional", which is getting less and less
helpful over the years as history grows to include so many different
"traditions". I'd not expect, for example, that following an economically
irresponsible administation Conservatism would suddenly mean economically
irresponsible.

[Although perhaps that's precisely what's occurring today laugh.]

Of course, all these are pretty silly anyway, in that they're one
dimensional. One can be liberal in economic topics while conservative in
social topics, for one very obvious and simplistic example.

Kerry is almost certainly economically liberal (although he's doing a
semi-decent job of claiming otherwise; I've no faith in that) and almost
certainly socially conservative. Bush is liberal in all areas. No
conservative would get the Federal Government anywhere near a "definition"
of marriage. No conservative would put tarrifs on steel (absent something
like someone dumping on us, or some such excuse). No conservative would
pass the so-called Patriot Act.

And so on...

[...]

All of this is relative: you can't compare the liberalism/conservatism of
1776 with that of today. Views on government have changed far too much to
permit that.

In detail, this is true. In a general sense, however, the same issues
remain valid: partitioning of responsibility between various branches and
levels of government, and with final responsibility resting on us.
Remembering both the "by" and the "for" is as valid today as it was a
couple of centuries ago.

- Andrew