Post by Lobstrosity on Dec 1, 2005 23:59:24 GMT -5
Okay people listen up. This is the ultimate decisive grudge match between two conflicting ideas of how this country and others should be run. Right now, consider me the referee. I am biased, as most of you know, towards the conservative side (I am conservative, NOT republican. In a moment I will explain). I will start by listing as best I can all of the attributes of the two ideas and their subclasses. I remind you that I have always seen both parties as important and necessary, and I still do. I realize that both parties have the potential to make a great country.
Liberals:
Liberals are the left-wing side of the political spectrum. The underlying concept is inclusive government, which means more government control at the social level. This means that the government will have more power and more programs to make sure all citizens get as much help and equal opportunities.
This is not the same as communism, which is an extreme form of liberalism where the government takes absolute control of all economic affairs.
While there are a few liberal political parties, including green party, I will focus on the main one, the Democrats.
Democrats:
As a liberal party, the democrats believe in stronger government power and control. But of course, this requires more money, and therefore higher taxes. Democrats focus on more healthcare, better school funding, and welfare. These are all things designed to help citizens directly, but require more money. This is why democrats are often seen as the caring political party, which, in all fairness, they are.
Conservatives:
The conservative ideals make up the right-wing of the political spectrum. The underlying concept here is the absence of government in economic affairs. It is founded on the belief that under a balanced capitalist society, the country's economy will run smoothly on it's own. At a social level, everyone is stuck with terribly unfair advantages and disadvantages. But in the absence of a controlling government, it is easy for someone to try to make a living and succeed-- or fail miserably. While in a conservative government, there is no help nor obstruction at a social level, the government does tend to have more power at a national level. This means more national decisions can be made, but in a good democracy, that's not a problem.
This is not the same as Fascism, which is an extreme conservative view, where the government has total national power, leaving all citizens to care for themselves.
The main conservative political party are the Republicans. (reminder this is NOT the group I support).
Republicans:
Republicans, like a true conservative group, believe in power at the national level and less direct government control over the citizens. Taxes are lower in general, but it means if federal funding needs to be increased (as in wartime), taxes may be raised. Republicans support morality based laws, such as anti-abortion, anti-drugs, anti-prostitution, etc. At the same time, they support use of the death penalty, which makes them a more "old-fashioned party" (not popular with kids today), thus the term "grand old party," or GOP. They are often considered the more greedy party.
Overview:
Liberals-
Pro: Help and fairness Con: High tax, brittle economy
Conservatives-
Pro: Flexible econ., personal freedom Con: Unfairness
Democrats-
Pro: Heathcare/welfare Con:Tax/less personal freedom
Republicans-
Pro: Less taxes/control Con: Highly Christian/moral
For those of you who are unsure of which political party suits you best, I hope this helps. I tried my best to be unbiased. Now that this has been posted, I shall allow my own biased opinions to show. Let the debating grudge match begin!
First of all, I am a conservative, but not a republican. Republicans are too religious, and religion should get the hell out of government, if at all possible. Furthermore, I find Republicans to be too careful in their approach towards social and economic government. They are too controlling, even for the less controlling of two parties. I have said many times, that we need so little government power at a social level, it should be the next closest thing to anarchy without actually being anarchy. Only very basic, very understandable, and very necessary laws should be enforeced by the police. Very few business related and corporate regulations should be allowed, only those that help small businesses should remain, but no laws that hurt large business should be put in effect. Little welfare and heathcare should be paid for by the government, as these things can be incorporated into the economy as well. I am very conservative on economic issues, but on many other issues I am actually quite liberal. I care not whether abortion stays (as long as it stays privately funded), and drugs are fine as well. Only non-profitable and powerful organizations should stay government funded, including police, fire departments, and prisons. However I do advocate public schools and government space-programs (because children and space are the future. . . but not necessarily combined, lol). National decisions would still be made nationally by the government, but with a strong democracy, the decisions are still being made by the people.
My overall belief is that we should remove local government and bring out the essence of capitalism at it's best. That is my idea of the perfect government.
Now it's everyone else's turn. Go ahead and point out any flaws you see in my idea, or post your own ideas of the perfect government you envision. Use my description of the existing political parties as a reference. Change and combine ideas, or create your own.
Liberals:
Liberals are the left-wing side of the political spectrum. The underlying concept is inclusive government, which means more government control at the social level. This means that the government will have more power and more programs to make sure all citizens get as much help and equal opportunities.
This is not the same as communism, which is an extreme form of liberalism where the government takes absolute control of all economic affairs.
While there are a few liberal political parties, including green party, I will focus on the main one, the Democrats.
Democrats:
As a liberal party, the democrats believe in stronger government power and control. But of course, this requires more money, and therefore higher taxes. Democrats focus on more healthcare, better school funding, and welfare. These are all things designed to help citizens directly, but require more money. This is why democrats are often seen as the caring political party, which, in all fairness, they are.
Conservatives:
The conservative ideals make up the right-wing of the political spectrum. The underlying concept here is the absence of government in economic affairs. It is founded on the belief that under a balanced capitalist society, the country's economy will run smoothly on it's own. At a social level, everyone is stuck with terribly unfair advantages and disadvantages. But in the absence of a controlling government, it is easy for someone to try to make a living and succeed-- or fail miserably. While in a conservative government, there is no help nor obstruction at a social level, the government does tend to have more power at a national level. This means more national decisions can be made, but in a good democracy, that's not a problem.
This is not the same as Fascism, which is an extreme conservative view, where the government has total national power, leaving all citizens to care for themselves.
The main conservative political party are the Republicans. (reminder this is NOT the group I support).
Republicans:
Republicans, like a true conservative group, believe in power at the national level and less direct government control over the citizens. Taxes are lower in general, but it means if federal funding needs to be increased (as in wartime), taxes may be raised. Republicans support morality based laws, such as anti-abortion, anti-drugs, anti-prostitution, etc. At the same time, they support use of the death penalty, which makes them a more "old-fashioned party" (not popular with kids today), thus the term "grand old party," or GOP. They are often considered the more greedy party.
Overview:
Liberals-
Pro: Help and fairness Con: High tax, brittle economy
Conservatives-
Pro: Flexible econ., personal freedom Con: Unfairness
Democrats-
Pro: Heathcare/welfare Con:Tax/less personal freedom
Republicans-
Pro: Less taxes/control Con: Highly Christian/moral
For those of you who are unsure of which political party suits you best, I hope this helps. I tried my best to be unbiased. Now that this has been posted, I shall allow my own biased opinions to show. Let the debating grudge match begin!
First of all, I am a conservative, but not a republican. Republicans are too religious, and religion should get the hell out of government, if at all possible. Furthermore, I find Republicans to be too careful in their approach towards social and economic government. They are too controlling, even for the less controlling of two parties. I have said many times, that we need so little government power at a social level, it should be the next closest thing to anarchy without actually being anarchy. Only very basic, very understandable, and very necessary laws should be enforeced by the police. Very few business related and corporate regulations should be allowed, only those that help small businesses should remain, but no laws that hurt large business should be put in effect. Little welfare and heathcare should be paid for by the government, as these things can be incorporated into the economy as well. I am very conservative on economic issues, but on many other issues I am actually quite liberal. I care not whether abortion stays (as long as it stays privately funded), and drugs are fine as well. Only non-profitable and powerful organizations should stay government funded, including police, fire departments, and prisons. However I do advocate public schools and government space-programs (because children and space are the future. . . but not necessarily combined, lol). National decisions would still be made nationally by the government, but with a strong democracy, the decisions are still being made by the people.
My overall belief is that we should remove local government and bring out the essence of capitalism at it's best. That is my idea of the perfect government.
Now it's everyone else's turn. Go ahead and point out any flaws you see in my idea, or post your own ideas of the perfect government you envision. Use my description of the existing political parties as a reference. Change and combine ideas, or create your own.
