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Lurkingandsearching t1_itk7sjg wrote

Not really, Conservative and Progressive as a label is actually not functional as it's just an where an opinion on a policy is. Washington was right when he said Parties were a bad idea, but human nature made it so they would naturally occur. You can be Progressive on some things, Conservative on others, and Regressive on a few things too.

Conservative means keeping the status quo, like wanting to protect free speech. Progressive means changing it, like wanting to change current banking regulations. Finally regressive, which is returning to a previous state, like removing the amendment that banned Alcohol or removing the illegality of Marijuana. Because regress is taken into the negative, it gets the worse rap, so it makes a good buzz word to attack policies a party doesn't like.

They are currently used as basically marketing terms, thus is why I used them because explaining how the terms are suppose to be used in Realpolitick is rather hard to explain. Like explaining Right (Federalism) vs Left (State Power) to people who use them how they are used post 19th century. Now both parties are Federalist (spare the Southern Republicans, but the Federalist pay and run the party). I think the closest definition we use now is the French one, but even that's a bit loosely adapted.

Sorry for the long winded explanation, but I try to stay non-partisan the best I can, though I admit I have my bias's on policy too.

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Caldwing t1_itlopqi wrote

The modern usage of the word conservative doesn't align very well with historical political terms and I think it's best understood completely separately. When people talk about "conservatives" today, at least in North America, they are referring to people who want a strongman leader enforcing social hierarchies and protecting the ability of an arbitrary elite to dominate the less fortunate.

Historically this described nearly all political entities regardless of their other beliefs. Basically people have been absolutely horrible for most of recorded history.

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Lurkingandsearching t1_itm2j94 wrote

>Historically this described nearly all political entities regardless of their other beliefs. Basically people have been absolutely horrible for most of recorded history.

That is a very reductive way to view things.

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