Why are the conservatives in the U.S. the Republican Party and in Australia they are the Liberal Party?

Question

why is that in the U.S. the conservative Republican Party are opposed to liberals whereas in Australia the conservative Liberal Party are opposed to Australia becoming a republic?

Answer 1

When founded in the 1940s by Robert Menzies, the Liberal Party of Australia was there to oppose the Labor Party which was a state socialist party.  At the time the Australian Liberals were rather less "conservative" than they are now.

In fact, both major parties have moved to the right.  The Labor party shifted gradually between the 1950s and the 1990s, particularly under E.Gough Whitlam in the late 1960s and 1970s and later leaders.  

The Liberals kept much of their policy static for a long time.  By the early 1990s there might have seemed to be marginal differences between their Liberal and Labor policies if casually examined by an outside observer.  

In John Howard became leader of the Liberal Party in the 1990s and moved the party quite rapidly to the right.  

Elements of the Liberal Party in Australia are republican while I'm sure that elements of the Labor party are monarchist.  Howard was a monarchist, some of his ministers favoured a republic.



In Australia republicanism is a minor issue. While HM Queen Elizabeth might be monarch of Australia in name, she and her government in the UK do not have great influence here.  

It could be argued that it's the other way about.  A good deal of Mr. Blair's British Labour Party policies were lifted from those of the Australian Labor Party.  (Note different spelling).

Answer 2

The practice of divorcing words from their meanings is really a creation of the Soviet Commitern under Joseph Stalin. When Stalin took over the Soviet Communist Party one of his lasting legacies was plan to co-opt certain aspects of Liberalism. This was not an indication of Stalin altering the essential ideals of socialism, rather it was a political expedient intended to broaden the base of appeal for socialism particularly in the West and the Middle East where Liberalism was the dominant ideology. But what was the Socialist intellectual to do about Liberals?

The intellectual class simply adopted the name “liberal” (some also used “progressive”) and began referring to Liberals (Gladstonian Liberals, Libertarians, Classical Liberals, etc.) as “conservatives.” In effect they were saying that the Liberals were clinging to a form of liberalism that was outmoded and were refusing to allow their ideas to progress and evolve given changing social mores of the20th century.

Over time, Liberals, particularly in the US, began to self-describe as “conservatives.” Unfortunately the modern “conservatives” having allowed their own agenda to become infused with modern liberalism forced the creation of a new political monster, the modern Libertarian.

This is what happens when words lose their meaning.

Answer 3

who gives a d**n what Americans or Australians do?

Answer 4

because they are upside down