According to Wikipedia: 
Liberalism is an ideology, or current of political thought, which strives to maximize liberty. ^[1] Liberalism seeks a society characterized by freedom of thought for individuals, limitations on the power of government and religion, the rule of law, the free exchange of ideas, a free market economy that supports private enterprise, and a system of government that is transparent. This form of government favors liberal democracy with open and fair elections, where all citizens have equal rights by law, and an equal opportunity to succeed. Liberalism rejected many foundational assumptions which dominated most earlier theories of government, such as the divine right of kings, hereditary status, and established religion. Fundamental human rights that all liberals support include the right to life, liberty, and property.

  That definition needs updating. Liberals do not strive to maximize liberty, certainly do not promote freedom of thought (hate crime law); limitations on the power of government (created the welfare state beginning in the 1930s with the advocacy of the Social Security system), limitations on the power of religion (only when it concerns Christians); free exchange of ideas (ever try to state your side to a liberal? Liberal-run educational institutions refuse to hear any discussion against their ideology and doctrine set up by 60s/70s-minded professors and socialist-minded administrative staff); a free market economy (they love to standardize wages, encourage unions, and use the law/government to punish the wealthy for being wealthy – haven’t you heard them say the used-up terms like “laws are only for the rich”, and other class warfare diatribe and “evil corporate America”?); private enterprise (this one is a joke – they insist that the government intrude constantly with small and large businesses and stifle the little guy with their unfair tax system they refuse to get rid of); where all citizens have equal rights by law (unless you are “black” or anything other than “white” or a homosexual – then their rights are more important than others); and equal opportunity to succeed (unless your income is a certain level they feel makes you “rich” and then you owe it to those who can’t/won’t succeed).

  Liberalism (Democrat Party) once was for the common person against an era of aristocracy, democratic style, in America. That no longer applies since the liberals have become infatuated with the ideas of a socialist society tailored to make the government in charge of the people’s lives because they cannot do so themselves, or so they say.

  And to be fair, the Republican Party has resorted to complacency instead of following their platform of small government, less government intrusion, fair tax system coupled with frugal spending of the people’s money, and just plain jellyfish when it comes to standing against the liberal-progressive-socialist in today’s political realm we call Washington, DC. They have moved from democratic republic federalism to a diluted form of socialism.

  Libertarians have the right idea, but fail in the department of common sense when it comes to national security and doesn’t see anything wrong with government sanctioned infanticide.

  And with all this negativity, there is the independent politician, who may fit the bill when it comes to standing by constitutional law, individual freedom of choice, fair tax system, and true laws of equality with less government intrusion; but fail in the department of meeting the costs to run against the big money parties who can afford lavish campaigning, encouraging the media to side with them, and other benefits of having a lot of political party cash on hand.

  That leaves the voter with a choice of picking the best out of the worst and settling for whoever makes it to the primaries for the office of president, as well as who is available to pick for offices of representatives and senators. And senators are infamous for staying in the senate for life because no one capable runs against them or can because they don’t have the funds the official in office has. There would be no problem of a senator staying in office for a long series of elections, but they tend to run our country with the ideology of “business as usual” or tend to buy their support through various means set up in our political way of doing things.

  Once upon a time in America, voters could vote a “straight ticket” for a particular party that has their ideology of how things should be run in Washington (or state and local). But those days are long gone for responsible voters. In the case of the Democrat Party, the present leadership has pushed the DNC toward a more socialist platform and has even disgusted members of the party into resigning. The same goes for the GOP.

  Here is the Wikipedia definition of a conservative:
Conservatism is any of a number of political philosophies supporting traditional values or an established social order. Most conservative parties are on the political right, but there are countries where a conservative party falls on the left. Conservatism as a philosophy is much older than the left-right division, and it can include adherents from both. In the Netherlands, for example, defenders of ‘Dutch tolerance’ as a traditional national value and Islamist supporters of Sharia law both call themselves conservatives.

  True, the conservative wants to maintain traditional values. Why not? Our country was begun by a set of standards and values and it worked well for at least the first 100 years; then certain people decided, for reasons of their own, to try to doctor, change, manipulate constitutional law. The only failed value or standard of the Constitution was the equal rights law. Everyone was equal except the African American. It was shameful to write that in the Constitution and sign the document when some still owned slaves. The same applies with women’s right to vote, and so on. Conservatives are not into the idea of social order. That is the ideology of the Left, in terms of class warfare. This puts conservatives into the political mind frame of Karl Marx, father of socialism and instigator of communism. That department of thought belongs to the liberal-progressive and belongs to the DNC. The conservative American inherited their ideology from the founders, who believed, and rightly so, that the democratic republic with limited government, true checks and balances of the separated powers, and protection of property rights, individual choice should be maintained. Conservatives in government today have forgotten that the government’s function is not to provide charity and that particular item is reserved for private institutions. President Bush’s faith initiative policy does not concern the government.

Conservatism is good, when it is applied at the grassroots level. No one can argue that our nation’s leaders need to be conservative when it comes to the federal budget, yet listen to the Left’s diatribe concerning the evil and selfish conservative. A grassroot conservative may stand by his/her principles with fervor, but seldom do you hear them have fits of rage and deliver expletives and derogatory remarks based upon some diluted piece of information concerning their opponents. That disgusting form of politics is reserved for the liberal, progressive or whatever the member of the DNC chooses to call itself in an attempt to make it appear what they are not. Most conservatives are using their voting power, not organized violent demonstrations and name calling because they are too busy raising their families and trying to make a living despite the irons placed upon their wrists by a progressive-minded government that would rather do everything for them and become even more intrusive than they already are.

  As Walter Williams wrote concerning our gradual loss of liberties:
I fear that too many Americans have contempt for the principles of liberty and opt for solutions that employ the political arena to forcibly impose their wills on others. If that's the preferred game, then those Americans shouldn't whine when others employ the same tactic to impose their wills.

  Some progress has been made to rid ourselves of things like political correctness, established by a minority of Americans and imposed by intimation through the manipulation of the judicial system of America. In other words, you could get sued for just telling someone what you think. There is already a law against insulting someone in public, especially when remarks made are not true – it’s called defamation of character. The Left use that playing card when they confront their political opponents. We don’t need hate crime laws because there are laws against committing violent acts upon others. It has been prophesied that hate crime laws while become thought crime laws, and rightly so. Except for determining motive for a violent crime, it doesn’t matter if that person committed the crime because he/she hates that person because of their skin color, ethnicity, or religion. People commit crimes of violence because they are not fond of that person, obviously, so why have an unnecessary law on the books. We have too many laws anyway. We need to simplify government, just as that government must simplify its tax code and revert it back to what it was meant to be – consumption tax. Income tax is a direct tax, an intrusive tax, and has always been detrimental to the productivity and economy of our country. Recent results of just trimming the tax shows that this is so; yet we have elected officials who are hoping we will forget about that and let them continue business as usual in Washington.

  It may seem, at times, a losing battle – but battles have been lost, yet wars were won. We must remain focused upon the big picture, just as we should do so in other areas of concern – like the war on terrorism. It is taking so long and the way is difficult to destroy organized terrorism because our government didn’t take them seriously when they should have.

  Don’t give up. Our nation is worth the effort to push its reformation. We haven’t lost all of our liberties yet, and it will take a while to fix the problem – hopefully not as long as it took to reach this stage of degradation thus far. It is up to the people of America to make sure that their elected officials do their job. Grassroot America has a bigger margin than those that oppose all the things that made America great. We need to start putting them back into their place, because after all, America is designed to be ruled by the majority – not the minority. Respecting the rights of the minority is one thing, but letting them have their way because we are afraid to offend them is ridiculous and dangerous. Reading the Federalist Papers can give one a major insight upon which the foundation and principles of our government was intended to be.