George Bush is not a fascist and Ron Paul is not a conservative.
In broader terms, a "liberal" is someone who wants to change things, and a "conservative" is someone who want to keep things the way they are. In in the real world, the definitions change over time. For the past few decades, "liberal" means someone who favors higher taxes to support social welfare programs, and that big business is suspect but big governement is good. Governments should not regulate people's private behavoir unless it is seen as discriminatory to disadvantaged groups.
A "conservative" is someone who longs to return to the mythical American culture of the 1950s. Government should regulate private business less and private lives more. In theory, conservatives are all about fiscal responsibility, but George W. was pretty much nullified that.
Ron Paul is a libertarian. They stand for a small governent that taxes very little, the military is for repelling invasions only, and both business and private behavoir are mostly unregulated. This mean legal drugs, legal prostitution and your neighbor can open a bordello/drug market next door to your house.
Fascism are systems where an individuals needs come second to whatever the government determines its needs to be. This would not fly in Amerca anytime soon, and accusing Bush of turning America into a fascist state is like accusing a supermarket of turning everyone in the neighboor into alchoholics because they sell beer.
|