The meanings of the terms liberal and conservative are much different now than when they were originally used during the French Revolution. These changes have affected various aspects of the terms in both positive and negative ways. For example, an easier classification method of the American people has been enabled, while the terms themselves have been rendered useless in some ways due to the ludicrous extent to which people are generalized.

During the French Revolution of the early nineteenth century, the term liberal was used for those Revolutionists endorsing personal liberty, economic liberty, or both. A conservative, on the other hand, was originally someone disagreeing with the French Revolution’s extremes and remaining loyal to state, religious, and aristocratic powers. During the time surrounding Franklin D. Roosevelt’s "New Deal," Roosevelt changed liberal to refer to those loyal to his political agenda of an active government. Opposers were called conservatives. These are the definitions currently used to define liberal and conservative.

Despite the changes in meaning, the two terms were never made more specific. Thus, two people calling themselves liberal may share active views on a few issues, but may divided on many others. Two conservatives may have the same problem of sharing a name but little else. Because the two terms are meant to encompass virtually everyone’s political views, and since the diversity of political views alone could lead to countless divisions, the generalizations evident in the terms are ridiculously broad.

Nevertheless, aside from this seemingly immense oversight, the terms liberal and conservative are tools essential to the easy classification of the American people.