Samira wrote:
Social conservatives, including the religious right, tend to want to control social behaviors such as sexual mores and recreational drug use. They don't particularly care what it costs.
Fiscal conservatives are breaking away toward libertarianism, because they don't care so much about the social controls - to an extent, at least - as they do about controlling the cost and return on investment.
For lack of a better term, political conservatives are more concerned with America's standing in the world and with military dominance. Again, they're not so concerned about the cost, at least of their pet causes.
Fiscal conservatives are getting squeezed from both sides, although (humans being messy and somewhat inconsistent) there is some overlap there.
I tend to group fiscal and political conservatives in the same group. It's usually very similar, though who knows? I wouldn't be surprised to see major shifts in political groups. It's happened before. I seem to recall that it wasn't too many years ago when the african american vote was pretty much secure in the pocket of Republicans.
But in general, the political stance conservatives are taking on social issues is pretty much a literal interpretation of the constitution. As I like to word it, I look at the rule as being
"You are free to do whatever the hell you want with your life, and reap both the consequences and rewards of doing so. The only limit being that you don't prevent someone else from doing the same thing" (Exclusions may apply; any attempt to dig up ridiculous exceptions to this rule will be summarily ignored)
I dunno. I don't particularly consider myself socially liberal though. I generally think of social politics as more regarding things like welfare and other government programs for people.
Social conservatives and religious fundamentalists aren't really the same thing. We try to box everyone into these neat little categories, but it doesn't really work that way. In real life, there isn't a neat little line, where you fall as a conservative, a liberal, or somewhere in-between.
Controlling people's day to day lives, shouldn't the role of government.
Quote:
But I really think pubbies should feel bad. I mean, you sold out to religious weirdos and now you're reaping the rewards. Legislating morality is at direct conflict with what should be the party's line. Hypocrites should have a negative self-image.
What the hell is pubbies? *looks it up* Nope still don't get it.
Blegh. I'm certainly not one to direct harsh criticism at conservative leadership.
But yeah, legislating morality is a direct conflict with the basic conservative principle of "A smaller government is better." You cannot legislate morality without increasing the amount of power that the government has (Even if it was a good idea to begin with, which it is not).
Edited, Jun 13th 2009 12:14pm by Karelyn
I was so confused, I went and checked my filter, but it was fine.