This was a question my 10-year-old posed to me one day last week as we were driving somewhere in the minivan. Hard as it is to refine political discourse into something a 10 year old would understand, it's even harder to do in rush-hour traffic. Which was why, I guess, the best answer I could come up with was, "Well, it's not a dirty word"--assuming that she'd heard it in some pejorative context. I fumbled through some explanation about how liberals were concerned with the poor and needy, but even as I spoke I realized that implied conservatives are not interested in them, which I knew was wrong--but by the time I'd gotten that far, she'd lost interest. Today I was reminded by the comics. "Get Fuzzy" poses the question: how many conservatives does it take to change a light bulb? Answer: Nobody knows! They won't release that information! And: How many degenerate liberals does it take to change a light bulb? Answer: They don't change anything, they just cry over the broken bulb!
Very funny. But really, I'm still stumped. Here is the best description I can devise so far for explaining to a 10-year-old the differences between two very different but equally defensible world views. (Note: I'm not talking about the current occupant of the White House; the only group George W. Bush belongs to is The Party of George.)
Anyway: a liberal is a person who believes that one of government's top priorities, aside from national defense, is making sure that everybody--including the poor, the aged, and the very young--have the basic necessities of life (a decent place to live and access to health care), and who is willing to pay taxes to make sure they get that. A conservative is a person who believes that society works best when the poor and needy are given the tools they need to help themselves, and that government should reward individual initiative by interfering as little as possible in its citizens' lives.
Is that fair? I'd be interested in what other people come up with because, frankly, I could use some help.