Simpleton: Are You Liberal? Conservative?

Simpleton (to iamyou) : Thank you for posting. Your comments about liberal “and “middle” got me to thinking. I think many of us make the error of defining other people politically based upon where we stand, i.e. anyone more liberal than me is a Liberal and anyone more conservative than me is a Conservative. I think this is where you go wrong in defining DFO. He may be more liberal than you, but by no means is he a Liberal. I’ve notice that many here accuse others of being Liberal or Conservative, but I don’t know that everyone agrees with what those terms mean. In college I was introduced to the following political spectrum: radical – liberal – moderate – conservative – reactionary. More below.

Question: How do you identify yourself politically?

Radicals want to change everything often simply for the sake of
change
Liberals favor change to fixed perceived problems
Moderates waffle back and forth
Conservatives oppose change and favor the status quo
Reactionaries are so opposed to change they want to undo the
change of the recent past and return to a previous time

Obviously the above definitions are overly simplistic (hence my moniker) but I’ve always found them helpful. The problem in defining anyone is that they seldom fall into one category for all issues. I’ve heard many a self-described Conservative say that we need to change the way we’re doing things. And many a self-described Liberal resist change at all costs. Assigning labels to others, or ourselves, probably does little to further an intelligent conversation.