Unright

As a typical American, I only have vague notions of what exactly is meant by such terms as "conservative" (or "neo-conservative") and "liberal". Mostly those terms are defined unflatteringly by the opposing group.

Since I have summer break coming up, I thought I'd request some literature to help get a clearer view of the current US' political scene.

Anyone want to reccomend a book or two that best describes what a liberal is and what a conservative is? Something written from a person with the same point of view and clearly describes the philosophy of each of the current political movements.

Thanks in advance

Mojo_PeiPei

I think you should buy a book by Al Franken and Michael Moore, and then either O' Reilly/Hannity and Ann Coulter. Between the four authors you would be able to find some idea of what they say a liberal/conservative is and at the same time they can bash their opposition idealogy.

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cj2112

I think you should stay away form all of those authors as they do more damage to their respective causes than they do good. Ask for literature from the two major parties that define their philosophies. this should at least give you some fair information.

Elphaba

Heh. Mojo, between these four authors, unright will be forever lost and confused.

Let's all try to find some neutral source, shall we? Unright, if a good source is found you will learn that these specific terms really mean nothing at all. There is nothing black or white in our two-party system. It's all shades of grey.

Elphaba

Unright, google "Political parties in the United States" for a good start.

ubertuber

Not to discourage anyone from self-education, but you're not going to learn much that will help you in practical terms. You can learn a lot about political history by tracing the evolution of this basic terminology, but honestly it won't help in discussions here or anywhere else. For instance, people have a hard time deciding if libertarians are off the deep end as liberals or conservatives. Everybody's got their own idea of what "liberal", "conservative", "neo-con", etc. means and what those groups believe. So basically they are only useful in the broadest of ways - you can't really convey or perceive any nuance from their use. And that doesn't even begin to consider the scope of individual belief and variation within those groups.

My advice for a summer project: commit to reading every story in the International, National, and Washington sections of the NY Times every day all summer. Also start reading biographies of presidents. It'll take a while (because reading the stories requires the very knowledge you are trying to gain, so it's a bit of a boot-strap problem), but you'll be on decently firm footing by Fall, in time for the bulk of the November election madness.

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politicophile

The chair of my college's government department told me yesterday that "Reflections on the Revolution in France" by Edmund Burke is the best tribute to conservatism you're likely to find anywhere. For a good statement of liberalism, I'd look for something by Louis Brandeis, who is probably the most articulate liberal of the 20th century.

I'm afraid more modern books on the subject will tend to be geared towards unfairly criticizing the other side while making little effort towards actually presenting the benefits of their side: Al Franken, Michael Moore, Ann Coulter, etc. are the worst choices you could make.

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The peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is, that it is robbing the human race; posterity as well as the existing generation; those who dissent from the opinion, still more than those who hold it. If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth: if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error. ~John Stuart Mill, On Liberty

flstf

Conservatives = Less government control of economic issues. More government control of social issues.

Liberals = More government control of economic issues. Less government control of social issues.

Libertarians = Less government control of everything.

There are exceptions to all of these especially in regards to religion and political correctness issues.

aKula

Also I'd add that what you're probably looking for are what the words mean within the USA not outside of it.

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SecretMethod70

Neo-conservatives should *not* be confused with conservatives.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoconservative

And then, of course, there is Neo-liberalism.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoliberal

Follow the other links on those pages. There's a wealth of information on wikipedia to get you started

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Unright

Awesome, thanks a bunch politicophile and also ubertuber. Just what I was looking for.