DivinePaladin said:
Hey, I didn't invent the term, I'm just using it as it fits! In fairness, as well, America is the most conservative liberal country out there, really, so the difference between liberal and conservative is a matter of how conservative our liberals are. Then again, looking at Brexit, perhaps we have competition in the coming decades in that regard. Doubtful since most Brexiters will be dead within 20 years, but you never know. |
I disagree. Real conservativism (adoration of institutions including the nation and state) doesn't widely exist in the U.S, at least not to the extent as one can find in European countries. There is no equivalent to the Conservative (Tory) party in the U.S, for example, and there is certainly no equivalent to the far-right European parties. Trump is quite noteworthy here, but Europe had its own versions of Trump decades (in modern history) before Trump got big. The most fitting description of the U.S is that the far-right and the far-left have been chopped off (by the nature of the first past the post system), the effect being that the center is more right-wing, but there is no actual far-right (softened fascist) element like in European countries. Trump might change that. But we will have to wait and see. The U.S political system is just a conflict between classical liberals, neo-liberals, and social-liberals (all forms of liberalism) with progressivism (yes it is different form liberalism) and European-esque conservativism sprinkled in from time to time.
In Europe a conservative is somebody who wants to preserve traditions and institutions (such as in Britain - one would want to preserve the monarchy, capitalism, nation-state, etc.) This has been the historical definition of the term. In the U.S a conservative is just a classical liberal or neoliberal who is to varying extents religious. In Europe a liberal (in its purest sense) is a person who promotes laissez-faire along side social tolerance (what we - in the U.S - call classical liberal or libertarian.) In the U.S a liberal is what Europeans would call a social liberal (a mixture of social democratic and liberal ideas.) There are no real socialists in the U.S. There are no real fascists in the U.S. Both of these exist to varying extents in Europe.
