Off Topic — HabitableZone

Off Topic » in reply to The subject is conservatives, not Republicans.

The terms conservative and liberal have almost lost their meaning
Larry J — (archived)

It's true that the original post asked about conservatives, but it then asked about what would've happened had Hoover won in 1932. I took it from that perspective.

Some say that a conservative is someone who resists change while a liberal promotes change. However, when you look at real world examples, things get skewed pretty quickly. For example, Ronald Reagan was very much against the status quo in regards to our relationship with the Soviet Union, but how many people would consider him anything other than a conservative? Likewise, during and after the collapse of communism in the Soviet Union, hardliners who tried to hold on to the old ways were considered conservatives by the Press while those who wanted communism in other places certainly weren't.

Even closer to the present, were Republicans who wanted to roll back a bunch of government programs in the 1990s being liberal while Democrats who fought to maintain them being conservative? Do the words even mean anything, anymore? The word "liberal" certainly doesn't mean the same thing that it did 100+ years ago, so I doubt the word "conservative" has much value, either.

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