Hello to everyone, speaking with american from U.S.A, reading their forum and seeing their forum I've discovered that for them "Liberalism" has totally another meaning from the original one. Liberalism on Europe is a rightist bourgeois ideology that defend the free-market and support the deregulation of economy, even an extreme deregulation. (and support also civic (and not social) right for the single citizen but it's most an economic thing). So, I'm asking to citizen from U.S.A present here, what mean "Liberalism" on U.S.A ?
In America, "Liberalism" means people do not want to take responsibility for their actions, they do not want to be held accountable. Everything is not your fault, it's caused by circumstances beyond your control. Liberalism is much more paternalistic than Conservatism. Conservatism sees individuals as having more responsibility, and thus tends to impose harsher punishments. Conservatism sees things more from the perspective of "good and evil", where the good individuals should just be left alone, and the bad individuals should just be gotten rid of. American Conservatives often say sarcastically that what Liberals are really trying to be "liberated" from is responsibility. These "responsibilities" that they want to dispense with include both social obligations and the right to be entrusted with responsibilities. Because in the Liberal view, individuals are, by their nature, not as responsible. You see that "responsible" really has a double-meaning. "Liberal" is not so much "more" freedom or "less" freedom, it's just a very different type of freedom. I think this is the best short explanation you will find.
tha'ts why conservatives and tea partyiers are likelier to be on welfare, food stamps, and corporate bailouts
If we exclude all the Liberals who are employed by government, in some fashion or another, that statement ceases to become true.
I figured you may want an answer from somebody who does not hate liberalism: Liberals in America are most closely aligned with our democratic party, though there are only two parties to choose from so it's a fairly dilute and moderate form of liberalism. Generally liberals want more government involvement in the economy, and less government involvement in social issues, but it is a bit more nuanced than that. Socially conservatives attract the poor here by saying they want to make America as Christian as possible by banning abortion, locking up anybody with involvement in drugs or prostitution, executing murderers and imposing lengthy sentences on other criminals for the sake of punishment. Liberals are pro-choice, want to reduce drug penalties (ranging from not locking up users to full legalization), want an emphasis on rehabilitation of criminals and drug abusers. When it comes to immigration, liberals want to welcome all comers while conservatives do not. Liberals want to restrict gun use while conservatives do not, so that's an exception to the rule. Liberals are more likely to oppose war and foreign intervention and want to shrink our huge military, while conservatives want to expand our military. Another exception that has slowly emerged over time is liberals seem less likely to believe in free speech now. Speech that degrades a specific type of person is an exception many liberals would like to add to free speech. I was actually "disowned" by a hardcore-liberal friend because I defended the right of Rush Limbaugh to say what he does even though we don't agree with him. Conservatives, on the other hand, will even defend the free speech of corporations to mislead us as if they were individuals. Fiscally liberals want to increase the tax burden on the rich and increase services for the poor. Conservatives prefer a flatter tax and believe services promote laziness and ought to be handled by the churches. When it comes to education and healthcare, liberals want more government involvement. Liberals want to impose more regulations on corporations to protect consumers, workers, and the environment. Fiscally I suppose you could say that liberals trust the government too much while conservatives trust corporations too much, though they're essentially one in the same over here so we get screwed either way.
Conservatives believe in minimal government intervention and maximum personal freedom, and that with freedom comes responsibility. For the conservative, society is a great family of equals; we all must proactively contribute for the benefit of the whole. The government is the servant of the people, according to conservatives. Liberals believe in maximum government and minimal personal freedom, and that the individual needs the government to survive. For the liberal, the government is an infallible parent who must always be obeyed and can do no wrong. The people are servants of the government, according to liberals. This is why conservatives fight for state rights and lower taxes, while liberals want stricter control over our personal lives and higher taxes.
One way to view the cultural difference here is that Europeans tend to use such terms as tools while Americans tend to use them as weapons.
From what I have observed, Liberals believe that the perfect world is just around the corner and one more election it will be here. Conservatives believe the perfect world existed sometime in the past and it no longer exists purely because of liberals who did something to america between 1920 and 1960 but I haven't worked out what yet..
