On taxation: Liberals:      Want higher taxes to fund social programs Conservatives: Want lower taxes Libertarians:  Want extremely low or no taxes On Business Regulation: Liberals: Want highly regulated businesses , restricted from allowing people to smoke inside, restricting portions of food they can serve, mandating that they do not discriminate based on race and/or various other factors, mandating that they provide services to their workers Conservatives: Want little regulation on businesses, generally allowing them to operate as they please Libertarians: Want little regulation on businesses, generally allowing them to operate as they please On Gay Marriage: Liberals: Want gay people to be treated equally under the law Conservatives: Want to discriminate against gay people and keep marriage as between a man and woman Libertarians: Want the government to have absolutely nothing to do with marriage, de facto causing them to be in support of gay marriage On Government Safety Programs: Liberals: Want a lot of government programs like the FDA to approve drugs and food, etc. Lots of government restrictions, testing, approvals, certifications, etc Conservatives: Want a lot of government programs like the FDA to approve drugs and good, etc, but not as much as liberals Libertarians: Want the government to have absolutely nothing to do with approving drugs, food, devices, etc On Health Care: Liberals: Want to have socialized health care, where everybody has access to health care regardless of their ability to pay Conservatives: Do not want socialized health care Libertarians: Do not want socialized health care On the right to bear arms: Liberals: Want the right to own weapons to be extremely restricted or revoked Conservatives: Want the right to own weapons, although with some limitations Libertarians: Want the right to own weapons with few if any limitations On censorship: Liberals: Are generally against censorship other than in extreme cases such as CP possession Conservatives: Are generally in favor of censorship of things that offend them, including pornography in general Libertarians: Are generally against censorship in all cases, including extreme cases such as CP possession On enforced racial equality: Liberals: Are generally in favor of things such as affirmative action , requiring businesses and education institutions to have a certain percentage of people from various racial backgrounds Conservatives: Are against things like affirmative action, leave it up to the institutions to decide their own policy Libertarians: Are against things like affirmative action, leave it up to the institutions to decide their own policy On prostitution: Liberals: Are generally in favor of the government regulating prostitution, and it being legal, particularly legal for the people selling sex Conservatives: Are generally in favor of prostitution being illegal for all who participate in it Libertarians: Are in favor of prostitution being legal On drugs: Liberals: Are generally in favor of decriminalizing drug possession and legalizing soft drugs such as marijuana Conservatives: Are generally in favor of increasing penalties on all drug crimes, and keeping all drugs illegal Libertarians: Are generally in favor of legalizing all drugs On intellectual property: Liberals: Are generally in favor of abolishing or greatly reducing intellectual property laws Conservatives: Are generally in favor of maintaining current intellectual property laws Libertarians: Are split about 50-50 between maintaining current intellectual property laws and reducing or abolishing intellectual property laws. Particularly in the case of pure information, libertarians tend to be in favor of at least reducing the current intellectual property laws. On age of consent: Liberals: Tend to favor 16 Conservatives: Tend to favor 18 Libertarians: Tend to favor lower than 16 on abortion: Liberals: Tend to be in favor of legalized abortion even into later pregnancy Conservatives: Tend to be entirely against abortion and in some cases even contraception of any sort Libertarians: Tend to be in favor of legalized abortion, although the exact cut off date is debated on government surveillance: Liberals: Tend to be against heavy government surveillance Conservatives: Tend to be in favor of heavy government surveillance (If you have nothing to hide....) Libertarians: Tend to be extremely against almost all government surveillance On War: Liberals: Tend to be against war in most cases (ie: Vietnam, Iraq, etc) Conservatives: Tend to support war in most cases Libertarians: Tend to be against war in most cases (ie: Vietnam, Iraq, etc) On education: Liberals: Tend to be in favor of science Conservatives: Tend to be largely anti science and pro religious Libertarians: Tend to be in favor of science, although they are against public schools in the first place