Liberal vs. Conservative (Introduction)

by George Jelliss , Crewe, Saturday, October 10, 2009, 15:13 (5315 days ago) @ David Turell

I know the terms liberal and conservative have very different connotations in the US from the UK, and I don't want to get into political controversy.-You say that "It is the latter [conservatives] who question Darwin, Global Warming, and express other non-mainstream views."-The fact is that in the UK hardly anyone questions the truth of Darwinian evolution, and very few now have any doubts about the truth of global warming, certainly across the main political parties. Any dissent from these views is by a minority of mavericks. If there is any party whose members question the orthodoxies I would say it is the Liberal party over here.-I have the impression that there are two opposite cultures in the US. There was a list in The Times last Thursday of the top twenty-one universities in the world. Thirteen of them are US institutions and five are UK, the others being in Australia, Canada and Switzerland. So US scientists and scholars are outstanding leaders in the world of learning. Yet there is the other side of America consisting of the creationists and antiscience gurus and religious fundamentalists. It's like a split personality.-You quote Churchill about being a liberal when young and a conservative when older, but he was using those terms in a very different context, of the Liberal and Conservative parties in this country early in the twentieth century, probably to justify his crossing the floor of the house from one to the other.
 
My own background is of being brought up in a family that supported the Labour Party and the Cooperative Movement. This was the progressive party of Attlee that brought in the national health service, and gave independence to India. My impression is that Socialism in the US tends to be identified with Communism, and Anti-Americal Activities.

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GPJ