The frustrating thing for me though, as a conservative, is that liberals (and plain old Democrats) are just more fun than conservatives. Most of my friends are liberals, and most of the things I enjoy are enjoyed primarily by liberals. I find most conservatives IRL to be too dull, proper and straight-laced. I think the country is in better hands in terms of finance, defense, and street-level morals, but true conservative life is boring. This is not to say there aren’t funny conservatives…there are, and some of them have been mentioned here. But basically the liberal way of life is in my opinion a more full, free and enjoyable life. But then so is the life of childhood, and therein lies the rub for me. I view conservatism as a stronger, more adult way to behave and to handle problematic issues. Therefore, I have liberal friends for fun, intellectual conversation and fullness of life, but I vote Republican out of pragmatism.
I would add also that while I don’t view conservatives as quite the cold, uncaring, heartless creatures they (we) are portrayed as being, it is true that conservatives try to hold on to either the way of the past (the good old days) or to life as it currently exists, and aren’t all that inclined to upset the status quo. This isn’t out of heartlessness or lack of caring, they just think attempts to upset the apple cart will result in more harm than good, whereas virtually all the attempts at making life better for individuals as opposed to society at large come from the liberal camp.
By and large, I’m in favor of these goals, but I usually disagree strongly with the way these attempts to create positive change manifest themselves. Take racism, for example. I recall during the days when racism was on everyone’s minds that news programs would frequently omit the fact that this or that robber or murderer was black out of fear of bolstering a negative stereotype of blacks. Needless to say, this caused much confusion and ineffectiveness in trying to get the public’s help in identifying criminals, and certainly some of these criminals got away scotfree as a result. Another example would be women’s rights, where once upon a time if you dared to speak anything indicating the slightest difference between men and women (even if it was something obvious like physical strength) you were reviled as a sexist.
So basically you have two camps: one of which is trying to hold on to the status quo at the expense of greater individual freedom and security, and the other is trying too hard to alter the status quo by throwing out the baby with the bath water and ignoring common sense in pursuit of the greater good.
So, anyway, give me friends who are liberal for intellectual stimulation, fun and a general enjoyment of life, but conservatives for the handling of finances and defense and the general overall direction the country takes. I have always felt that if the country were split in two, left to right, with all the liberals on one side and all the conservatives on the other, that within five years the conservative side would be prosperous, orderly and repressed; and the liberal side would have collapsed due to the fact that there are no conservatives to fund it, crime (and criminals) would be running rampant, and that barring its being taken over by another country due to a weak defense, it would have simply degenerated into anarchy, which it seems to me is the logical extreme of liberalism. So, in the final analysis, I guess we all need each other – and therein lies the genius of our founding fathers. It’s not a perfect system but it works better than any of the others.