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I am very confused on the difference could someone tell me...
no fighting just explain it to me please. I dont want this to become a stupid debate that will lead nowhere.
It depends on which country you're talking about. Definitions of conservative and liberal are different in Europe as opposed to the U.S. or other places.
Since you're in the U.S., conservatives and liberals usually have different philosophies and value systems, and also different positions on issues. Conservatives tend to emphasize individual liberties and personal responsibility, limited government, a strong national military, a foreign policy based on national interests, and a free market economy. Liberals tend to emphasize equal opportunity, civil and minority rights, a role for the state in helping cure social ills, and a foreign policy advocating human rights and democracy along with national interests.
On the issues, conservatives tend to oppose abortion rights, federal affirmative action laws, state involvement in education, health care and the economy, and gun control legislation. They tend to favor the death penalty and "hard on crime" policies, as well as lower taxes. They also often favor privatizing social security and either scaling back or eliminating the welfare state. Many conservatives want some sort of restriction on immigration, and also favor a more unilateral foreign policy for the U.S. in international relations, frowning on UN authority.
Liberals tend to be pro-choice on abortion, favor separation of church and state, affirmative action, same-sex marriage, and also favor government action to protect the environment and provide health care. They usually favor some sort of gun control, oppose the death penalty, and favor a crime policy that promotes rehabilitation. It's hard to pigeonhole a position for liberal Americans in international affairs, but generally they favor a multilateral policy for the US based on diplomatic engagement and promotion of human rights.
A lot of these values and positions get lost in the ugliness of politics, so these are just generalisations.
If you go to Europe, the political climate is more liberal and secular than in the United States, but you will find many Europeans that hold strongly conservative positions on some issues. Asian/African Immigration and the European Union are two of the biggest right now.
There are different kinds of liberal and conservative. There are social liberals and conservatives as well as fiscal liberals and conservatives. Of course there can be lots of ways to break it down like religious, ethical, gun control, authoritarianism, national defense, etc but limiting it to the fiscal and social axises are common because it is too difficult to visualize more than 2 dimensions on a page in political science textbooks.
In the most general sense:
Conservatives wish to keep our current or return to real or imagined traditions of their predecessors.
Liberals question orthodox views and see traditions as limiting human progress.
Conservatives look back and liberals look forward.
Neither the Republican nor the Democratic party in the US fit entirely in either camp on all issues. For most voters social issues are more important than fiscal ones. Socially liberal/fiscally conservative voters usually lean Democratic while socially conservative/fiscally liberal voters lean Republican.
Think religionisgood's answer is good enough. Just want to add smth pretty obvious in that obviously people often have views that are liberal in some ways and conservative in others.
