The thing is, American liberals call for more restriction and regulation of business, not less. Conservatives call for less regulation of business in the US.
I know, but since I'm not from the states, I will use my "european" (proper,
) defintion of "liberal" and so on: Liberal>Liberalism>Liberty
Liberal = in favor of big government spending, welfare programs, higher taxes, especially on the richest, strict regulation of business, etc.
Conservative = in favor of cutting government spending and welfare, de-regulating business, low taxes, etc.
In short, liberal = Keynesian. Conservative = Austrian school.
In terms of individual freedoms it gets confusing because almost everyone in the US is strongly in favor of individual freedoms. They just quibble on a few points. Conservatives tend to oppose things like legal abortion and gay marriage, while liberals tend to support restrictions on the private ownership of guns (although many have given up this debate as it was costing them votes, plus the US Supreme court ruled that private citizens have a right to own firearms).
I prefer the "political compass" to somewhat fairly plot politcal ideologies: Authorian to Liberal on one axis, and progressivsm (or "left") and conservatism (right) on the other axis.
Conservatism implies you favour to keep things as they always been (or used to be). The opposit of progressivism (changing things). So indeed you would expect religions, which often are conservative themselves, to favour a conservative approach, sticking to old values, principles and rules.
I think he meant libertarians, maybe?
As I said... liberals. And I'm all for liberal policies on social issues (so that would be pro-abortion, pro-gaymarriage, pro-euthenasia etc.). On an economic scale it's more tricky. I don't want to chain corporations down too much or it might harm business, on the other hand, they do need to be kept in check with some rules and regulations to make sure they don't go on a power abuse and screw over the general public. If you give people total freehand, be it in business or politics, there are bound to be some nasty bastards that will screw you over for every penny that you are worth. So it's about a balance of protecting the weak/poor and giving people liberties to run things how they see fit. I tent to side on site of caution though, as I just know some bastard would screw consumers/us over if he gets a chanche to do so.
