rats19 wrote: ↑Mon Mar 11, 2019 2:52 pm
FTR... I’m with Doc... 100%
What! You believe that liberals are socialist!
Read up!
Liberalism is a political and moral philosophy based on liberty and equality.[1][2][3] Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but they generally support civil rights, democracy, secularism, gender equality, racial equality, internationalism, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of religion, and free markets.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberalism
As you may know, socialists tend to be a bit iffy about the concepts of free speech and free press and they definitely have problems with free markets, which is at the very core of liberalism. And it is this latter difference that makes liberals end up on the right side of the spectrum.
And especially in Europe (same source as above):
In the United States, liberalism is associated with the welfare-state policies of the New Deal programme of the Democratic administration of Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt, whereas in Europe it is more commonly associated with a commitment to limited government and laissez-faire economic policies.
ie what in the US often is referred to as libertarian values.
In Europe we still call this liberalism.
A difference between liberals and conservatives is that whereas liberals are generally internationalists, conservatives tend to be nationalists, and this sometimes spills over in a misguided belief in protectionism (as in the case of Brexit), whereas liberals
always are free market proponents.
I mean, that's where liberalism got started, as a revolt against government regulation of trade, information and religion.
Remember the Boston tea party? Remember what it was all about? Tariffs. An import tax on tea. The American revolution was a liberal revolution, and the declaration of independence, the US constitution and the bill of rights are all based on liberal values.
And this is what liberalism is still about. At least in Europe.
Socialists, however, are firm believers in strong governments and regulated markets, and this goes against the very core concepts of liberalism.