Are you a conservative or a liberal or something else?  Lets take a look but first; where did the titles come from?  In France before the French Revolution, only the king and his family, the nobles and the clergy could vote in the legislature, so more than 95% of the people of France had no voice in the government.  After the French Revolution, the people who wanted  more people to have a voice were called liberals–they wanted more liberalization in representation and they sat on the left side of the legislature.  Those who wanted to control representation and conserve the status quo were conservatives and sat on the right side of the legislature.  In todays wake of tribalism, those state that they are conservatives disparage others by calling them liberals and leftists. Labeling people today as Liberals is used to defame others today and this is not new.  After World War II, Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin said that he had a list of communists in the U.S. State Department, college professors and many in Hollywood and he intended to expose them.  He had no such list but many Americans were called before the House Unamerican Activities Committee,  First question was: “Are you now or have you ever been a member of the communist party?”  This unfounded allegation tainted a person’s reputation and many lost their jobs.  This happened to a friend of mine who was no more a communist than Mickey Mouse but he lost his job.  Hollywood people were blackballed and did not work in Hollywood for years.  Today the hot word is liberal.

So lets look at the definition of liberal and conservative.

LIberalism is a philosophy that is based on liberty, consent of the governed and equality before the law.  Liberals believe in free markets, free trade, limited government, individual rights, capitalism, democracy, secularism, gender and racial equality, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of religion and voting rights. At the extreme left reside radicalism which wants rapid change and is willing to use violence  to achieve these aims. Communists can fit into the far left.

Conservativism believes in promoting traditional social institutions in in the context of cultural tenets and civilization.  The central tenets include tradition, organic society, hierarchy, authority, and property rights.  Conservatives seek to preserve, religion, parliamentary government and property rights emphasizing stability and continuity. The extreme of conservativism is reactionary which want to g back to “the good old days.”  For reactionaries on the extreme right, violence to achieve one’s aims is acceptable.

Neo(new) Nazis, skinheads and the Klan fit into this reactionary group.

To reads more about McCarthyism read William Manchester’s The Glory and the Dream, a Narrative History of America from 1932 to 1972.

A follow  up on the news outlets;  The BBC gives us a view of Europe and the United States.  For a view of Asia go to www.hrw.org/Asia