So, you’re a leftie, too, eh? Conservatives believe AS STRONGLY as do liberals in using govt to control society — they just are more open about they desire to use govt control because they’re losing.

Lefties have created a society where the govt FORCES companies and people to behave in certain ways (ever try to *not* hire a … pick your ‘protected’ class of hiree), while the right wails because they would have the govt FORCE hirees to accept that businesses are the protected class whose rights to hire or not hire them outweighs their desire to be hired, no matter what.

Lefties have created a “justice” system where a person can be sued, or even kicked out of college, for using “unacceptable” {eye roll} words because it hurt someone’s feelings. Conservatives would have people accept that some others should be “allowed” (even phrasing it that way makes me wince!) to say or do things that might hurt others’ feelings. So, the left would “protect” (like a parent?!) the weak self-image of some people (whom the left thinks) must be protected from hearing bad things); while the right would “protect” the… you know … FREEDOM of people to SAY anything they want to say to anyone they want to say it too!

There is no difference in the DESIRE to control — and have the govt force control on — people. The only difference is in which things they think need to be controlled, and controlled toward which ends. But the left is absolutely winning — look around! So, the right makes noise, because they cannot make action. And the left then acts as if the right is nearly winning because the left’s goals are “self-evident” in society!

So, teaching these things in elementary school to every child (whether their parents approve or not), and also punishing children, adults, businesses, everyone who does not support these things is somehow not “promoting” them? (You don’t punish them? Ever seen a firm sued for refusing to hire a homosexual? Ever seen a child get detention or expelled for being ‘anti-gay’? College-kid sent for “retraining” after calling someone a derogatory term? What do you think that sort of thing IS if not “promotion”?!) (More like a requirement!)

“the whole point is that you are free to make that choice.”

Ever try to *make* your “free choice” to get your children protected from learning about homosexuals and their lifestyle(s), or to keep them within the belief structures their families hold (whether or not you agree with those beliefs)? Even “forcing” religious children to learn evolution in school is an invasion. (But you’re okay with it, because you support it — you ‘freely’ choose it. What about the folks who don’t? Take away their freedom, do yah?)

(And yes, I think not “believing” — or, rather, not accepting the science that supports evolution as the best-fit explanation — is flat-out asinine. But since when are people not allowed to be complete asse…err… completely asinine?)

And, no I’m NOT religious (I’m a Nietzchean anti-modernist, if you must know) and I believe religion is a (disgusting) product of slave morality. I don’t see much (if any) difference between the sheep on the right and the sheep on the left — they’re both baa-ing their heads off at each other as they allow themselves to be herded toward the abattoir. And no, I’m not “conservative” either — I’m so far off the chart to the right/reactionary I consider conservatives to be too liberal for my tastes.

But if you force people to ‘go along with’ your views, then who’s the dictator?

(Not to suggest some disparaging is inappropriate for the right AND the left — but it’s clear who picked the words!)

During the Progressive period, There was a growing Fiscal conservative wing of the Republican party (President Taft was a member of this wing), which opposed the more Traditionally Liberal wing (President Teddy Roosevelt was a member of this wing). During this same time, during the power struggle between Taft’s wing, which began to take over the Republican Party, and Roosevelt’s wing, which became the Progressive party, Woodrow Wilson, a member of the more liberal wing of the Democratic party, took the election. The Progressive party dissolved, and its members split apart again, some rejoining the Republican party, and some joining the Democrats, which strengthened the liberal wing of the Democratic party (Though due to the strength of the Democratic party in the south, they were still very conservative), and strengthened the Growing conservatism of the Republican party.

Zoom forward to Herbert Hoover, a Fiscal conservative, who was blamed for the Great Depression becoming as bad as it became. FDR then took the helm, after the next election, and his Liberal policies with regards to the New Deal drew more liberals under the Democratic party, and similarly, conservatives moved more towards the Republican Party (though as we can see in Dwight D Eisenhower, they were still fairly Socially liberal).

The main things that solidified the conservatism of the Republicans were the McCarthyism of leading Republicans, such as Nixon, and the growth of Civil Right support from the Democratic party. Much of the conservative support for the Democratic party came from the south; Once JFK and to a greater extent LBJ passed Laws regarding Civil Rights, and LBJ’s Great Society, The South fled from the Democratic party, and to a big extent, cost Democrats heavily. This had the result of pretty much swapping the ideology of the parties over the course of ~100 years.

Although, we still need to remember, not even this is all that true; The parties which were around during the 1800s (or even the late 1700s) were not recognizable on this mono-axis system. The Democrats (and Antifederalists) had a lot of similarities to the Libertarians: Keep the government (read: Federal Government) out of our money, and our lives. The Republicans (and Whigs, and Federalists) were more willing for the Federal Government to regulate things. Most of this was part of a power struggle between Federal and State Government. Democrats weren’t even like Libertarians, because they still wanted governmental power, but they wanted it in the hands of the state. Republicans merely wanted power out of the hands of the state, because they saw the power abuses that the states would do, and they feared smaller decentralized tyrannies more than a central tyranny. So, yeah… I spent way too much time on this, but I hope this helps a bit.