How to Tell a Liberal from a Conservative

Probably the surest litmus test for distinguishing one with a liberal sensibility from someone who has a conservative one is the individual?s response to modern cities. Liberals find the multi-ethnicity, cacophony, and jostling crowds energizing and thrilling. Conservatives find those same cities emblems of social chaos (and, in the American context, dens of iniquity). The conservative response to the city is ?there ought to be a law.? For this reason, conservatives can never be libertarians. Thoreau?s ?the best government is the one that governs least? runs directly counter to the conservative fear of chaos. Conservatives will never deliver a smaller government. They may idealize and heighten the power of corporations?and hence want to lessen government regulation of businesses?but they will also invariably want to enhance the authoritative branches of government: the military, the police, and laws pertaining to morals.