I've been thinking lately. (Shocker, right?) Why is it that I call myself a Classical Liberal, and believe in constitutionally limited government, and yet several of my friends call themselves Liberal, and believe in extremely strong government? In the time of Jefferson, I think they would be called conservative. In the days of the founding of the United States, Liberalism meant believing in small government, and natural rights. Conservatism used to mean in favor of conserving the rights of the monarchy and the aristocracy. Monarchy, as a system, believes very little in its people. It believes that a privileged class ought to control most EVERYTHING. Liberalism has come to believe in much the same things, especially in its latest manifestation under President Obama. The GM and Chrysler takeovers are proof of this.
Conservatism has come to mean conserving the rights, freedoms, liberties, and traditions of small government the United States has come to be known for.
This change in meaning of the two words is an advantage to the Liberal movement, and a disadvantage to the conservative movement. This is because Liberal has a connotation of moving forward, while conservative has a connotation of holding back.
Would anyone like to explain how these words switched meanings?
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Party_switching_in_the_United_States
See the paragraph labelled "The 19th century" under the History section, that may be helpful.
Basically, the Federalists were liberal (by today's standards) and the Democratic-Republicans were conservative, then they flipped sides, then flipped back again later and Federalists became Democrats and Democrats became Republicans.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Party_switching_in_the_United_States
I already posted something explaining this, but it looks like it didn't show up. See the link above, section "History", paragraph "The 19th century" I think that should explain it.
Thank you Cory... whoever you are...
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