That's a good point. The political conversations that we are having here in the the US are not our own. We are having the conversations that the parties feel comfortable with. In fact, we are having conversations that are centered around issues that the parties have found to motivate their base. It's pretty sad, really. I think the global warming debate is an excellent example of this. If someone in the US is a supporter of fiscal austerity, they are likely not to believe in anthropomorphic climate change, and vice versa. It's pretty ridiculous that you can predict such disconnected opinions from the other.liberal and conservative, have come in to so much greater use over the last (say) 20 years. Before, people would just say "republican" or "democrat", but people nowadays, in both parties, feel so un-connected with, and distrustful of their own respective parties, that they have abandoned those labels - for equivalent ones.