Political terminology

How would you describe political views that are more characteristic of Democrats than Republicans? What about political views that are more characteristic of Republicans than Democrats? In all honesty, I have struggled with political terminology along these lines. We simply don't have good words to describe Democrat-like and Republican-like views.

I'm sure there are people out there wondering about left-wing and right-wing views. There are actually serious problems with the left-right political spectrum. Not everything associated with politics fits this spectrum, and there are concerning implications for how the left-right political spectrum is handled. Right now, Americans seem to believe that the extreme version of big government is no government. Similarly, total government control is considered to be the extreme version of small government. Although I occasionally slip up, I usually try to avoid this ridiculous portrayal of politics.

How about conservative and liberal? You could argue that Republicans could be viewed as conservative because they are cautious with change, but are the Democrats really liberal? Considering how much Democrats believe in government control, they clearly do not fit the historical definition of this term.

Given a choice between calling people left-wing or liberal, I tend to side with liberal. Most people these days don't know about the freedom-oriented definition of liberal, so it doesn't cause much confusion. Since I have yet to find more suitable terminology, this seems better than treating big government politics like anarchy.

While I'm discussing political terminology, most independent voters are not independent. They are voters who do not register with a political party. In most cases, they conform to a preferred party. Others, who are frequently referred to as centrist, tend to conform to a midpoint between the two parties. Truly independent voters do not allow politicians to control their beliefs. This time, I actually have a word that better fits the description. So-called independent voters should instead be thought of as unaffiliated voters. It's not perfect, but this is more technically accurate than calling them independent voters.