Liberal and Conservative don't mean what they used to, even a few years ago. Even the Democratic Party of my youth is sure as hell not the Democratic Party of today. The Left, both "old" and "new" has settled itself firmly in control of it.

There are many real differences between conservatives and liberals. Just one of these is how government is viewed:

A liberal believes the best solutions reside in government activism, preferably at the Federal level, since states can't be relied on to do "the right thing." He believes in passing laws, regulations, guidelines, restrictions and rules, and generating massive and expensive programs to solve problems. He believes that there is no human problem that can't be fixed by throwing enough tax money at it.

Regardless of whether the goals were righteous or not, no Democratic politician has ever proposed any major policy that did not increase the size and power of government over the citizen and his property.

A conservative believes--or should--that government is best which governs least. That problems are best solved at the local level when possible*, and by his own two hands when feasible. A conservative does not believe that forcing wealth from one group of people at gunpoint and handing it to someone else really counts as being "charity" or "generosity," although the politicians that do this are usually widely credited with such.

At least this is what a conservative should believe. While Republicans still drag their feet--sometimes--when government growth balloons, in recent years Republicans who have seriously proposed any major policy that actually would reduce the size of government have been as rare as hen's teeth. I certainly have seen nothing major along those lines from Bush. Sometimes I really miss Newt.

*including abortion, education, highways, and many other social and fiscal problems that have been Federalized in recent decades. There are issues now before the Supreme Court that should never have gotten to the Federal level at all.