Originally Posted by Lenny2

Well when he says the democrats want a big government to control your lives he's referring to big government overseeing corporations.
When it comes to individual liberty the democrats have been leading the fight for those rights for decades (starting with the civil rights movement)

The conservatives believe that any increase in government taxation, spending, or regulation interferes with people's freedoms. So in the name of freedom corporations should be allowed to pollute freely and not have to pay for the cleanup, they should pay a lower tax rate than the average citizen and workers should have no rights whatsoever because it makes it impossible for these multi-billion dollar conglomerates to "compete".

However in the name of national security they're willing to throw out the entire bill of rights and throw trillions of taxpayer dollars into the military industrial complex.

So to make it simple

Democrats fight for the rights of the individual over the corporations while Republicans fight for the rights of corporations over individuals.
When republicans refer to big government taking away rights, it basically means they're trying to get corporations to stop polluting or using slave labor or avoid taxation.