I would define liberal as believing that government is the answer to problems. Poverty? Let's raise taxes and redistribute the money to the poor until everyone has enough. Crime? Obviously our wealth redistribution hasn't gone far enough because there are still disparities in outcome. Squandered your salary for 40 years? We better have some sort of social security to make sure this doesn't happen again! Poor education system makes your citizens uncompetitive in a global market? Better levy duties on imported goods and pass laws to prohibit foreigners from holding that job. In general, let's just trust in the government and that they'll do a better job with deciding what's best for society than what individuals ever would do.
To me THAT'S liberalism. But my thoughts are colored by being a libertarian in the most socialist province of Canada.
To me conservatism is believing that the individual should have the right to succeed or fail on their own merit and that getting government involved in day-to-day life of citizens is a huge mistake. But as I said I'm a libertarian. I actually like the US Constitution and Bill of Rights quite well, have no suggestions for improvment, and just wish federal govt would limit itself to the rights actually granted to it by those documents.
Could you imagine how retarded a US constitution drafted today would look? It boggles the mind...
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