What do liberals and conservatives believe.

OK, I'm still psyched about Osama getting murderized, but back to more substantive concerns.

I want to take a step back and just try to focus on what liberals and conservatives believe, and why.

First, Democrats generally stand for the following proposition: The United States as a nation has a duty of providing a level of social security to all its citizens, regardless of whether they are rich or poor. This means that the government is involved in education (public schools), guaranteed retirement (social security), health insurance (Medicare/Medicaid/ObamaCare).  The converse to that, of course, is that rich people get better education, are able to retire, and get much better health care, while poor people don't.

And we're not doing this just to be nice - we're doing it because we are stronger as a nation when people don't have to work until they're on their deathbeds, when we invest in future generations, and when people don't have to go bankrupt when they get sick.  This is security - and in that security is freedom. If a person knows that he'll have a guaranteed pension when he retires, he can take more risks in life and feel more confident starting his own business.  So, although those sloganeering Republicans decry all of this as "socialism," it's really strengthening capitalism. That's why the middle class didn't come to be in this country until these social safety nets were put in place.

Obviously, I am a proud Democrat.

Republicans, generally believe in "small government." That means the less the government does, the better, as the free market is a better allocator of resources than the government. This means more private schools - possibly purely private schools. Privatization of social security. Vouchers instead of guaranteed health care when you're old. And of course, lower taxes. So the calculus here is people are "freer" because they'll pay less in taxes. Of course, a person making $50K a year who can't afford a good health care plan would probably argue that they're not really as "free" as someone making $500K when they get cancer and have to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in hospital fees...but sure, that's what they believe, and that's fine, I guess. It's just pretty simplistic - if taxes are lower, you are freer. It's a simple slogan (and powerful!).

A lot of times conservatives characterize liberals as just setting up these safety nets because they're bleeding heart hippies. They're not. Most liberals I know hate hippies! Free love can screw itself. We believe in these policies because they make the middle class stronger, and because it is wrong for poor people to have less opportunities to succeed than the rich.