Why does everyone in the US have to be labeled as "Conservative" or "Liberal"? (biased, economic)

[WhyRUMad]

The fact is that most of us are moderate. I for example, lean to the left when it comes to social issues and lean to the right when it comes to economic issues.

Both the extream right and the extream left are bat **** crazy. The fact is, most of us are somewhere in between.

I bet that half of those who identify themselves as one extream or the other, are actually more toward the center. But American politics have forced us all to pick sides. Sad indeed...

[skepticratic]

I think it's generally unwise to promote politics as a left/right issue. It makes sense in theory, but in practice, it assumes that their are two warring sides. In truth, if we use a truly unbiased spectrum, the Democrats and Republicans are both on the right but it's presented as if this isn't the case. This is likely to preserve the illusion that their are options, but it has serious negative consequences.

As a general rule, political labels can be dangerous. It forces us to assume what people believe. This is because most people have a poor understanding of what those labels even mean. Ultimately, if we have a better political education so that we knew what these words meant, we could have intelligent conversations with each other. Saying you're a conservative does not mean you support these policies. It means you have certain principles that you hold which you then apply to policies to justify your agreement or disagreement.