I want politicians to do what is best for the country and for everyone not rich (nothing against the rich, I just expect them to fend for themselves). I find that most Democrats are either corrupt or incompetent, and that most Republicans are either corrupt or aren’t trying.</p>
<p>
Agreed, but the worst part of it is that most people (not just politicians) will only study science that agrees with their views. Show a pro-Global Warming person an anti-Global Warming paper and they will usually fail to read it, and vice versa.</p>
<p>
I actually found that quite funny, because I know a lot of retired military personnel who are against “government-run healthcare” despite the fact that all of their own healthcare comes from Medicare and the VA.</p>
<p>First I want to reiterate the point that conservatives are not for small government. They are only for small government when it comes to social welfare programs (food stamps, public education, universal health care) because they hate those. When it comes to the military or social issues (gay marriage, abortion) conservatives love having a huge, intrusive government. </p>
<p>In my opinion, engineers are mostly libertarian. They do not care about social issues because they don’t focus on them that much in school or their careers. We don’t talk about the gay marriage debate in fluid mechanics class or argue about abortion when trying to build a bridge. On the flip-side, engineers are more fiscally conservative because we understand that things like efficiency, budgets, and productivity are important. We like to cut the monetary fat. Additionally, many engineers work for defense contractors or energy companies so that may make them more economically conservative.</p>
<p>boneh3ad, those are conservative positions. “Defending traditional marriage”, “protecting the unborn”, and “supporting a strong national defense” are conservative positions. If conservatives were truly for small government on all levels, they would be libertarians.</p>
Actually, Xinio is right. Technically, conservatives “generally support the social and economic status quo” and liberals “generally support political and social reform” (American Government: Power and Purpose, 7th Edition)</p>
No disrespect, but how is that a valid argument? Accountants don’t talk about gay marriage either when they are in accounting class. Well if you wished, a professor can throw an anecdote about gay marriage, and make fun of sciences. Literally very few people care about those things until they are in off hour, and they start pouring thoughts randomly.</p>
<p>I think engineers are more conservative because they think others don’t think as logically as they do.</p>
<p>PurdueEE… Last time I checked all of those entitlement programs are loved by liberals, not conservatives. No conservative voted for the health care bill, liberals are always trying to increase welfare benefits, and the only people trying to fix or get rid of social security are conservatives. Just because they use scare tactics once in a while saying peoples’ welfare benefits are gonna be taken away doesn’t mean they’re for the program; They’re just trying to appeal to the masses.</p>
It’s 50/50. There are conservative democratic and conservative Republican. That’s being said, the overall conservatives come from the Republican party. If you are with the news, then you have an addition portion called Tea Party, which is actually part of the most conservative Republicans out there.</p>
<p>“There are conservative democrat and conservative Republican.”</p>
<p>That’s true but a conservative democrat isn’t really a “conservative”. A conservative democrat just means they are conservative relative to other democrats. Same thing goes for liberal republicans… They aren’t “liberals”, they’re just liberal for a republican.</p>
<p>Well it’s a mixed thing. Some people joined the party initially because they favored the agenda that party proposed at the time.</p>
<p>As time goes some people found themselves more conservative or liberal than the rest. They remain in the party for various of reasons, one can be, as you said, their conservative views are just relative the the democratic agenda. But it’s debatable because when it comes to the conservative issue, they are most likely standing on the Republican side.</p>
<p>I am sure there are democratic that are “democratic in name only”. </p>
<p>Yes. The majority comes from the Republican and the tea party.</p>
<p>rejecting evolution/ global warming/ stem cells/ abortion/ that the earth is more than 6000 years old is about as anti-science as you can get… and this is certainly not just a fringe element of the those that identify conservative.</p>
<p>“rejecting evolution/ global warming/ stem cells/ abortion/ that the earth is more than 6000 years old is about as anti-science as you can get.”</p>
<p>Well the science on global warming seems like it’s still up for debate. And being against stem cell research and abortion has nothing to do with being anti-science, it’s an issue of morality. I agree with you on evolution and the age of earth though, but not all conservatives have those views.</p>
<p>“rejecting evolution/ global warming/ stem cells/ abortion/ that the earth is more than 6000 years old is about as anti-science as you can get.”</p>
<p>I know many people that hold to old earth creationism. It funny some conservatives do not know about old earth creationism.</p>