Here I admit I am an idiot when it comes to politics. It's something I've been meaning to learn about for a while. The few times I've tried to look up some basic terms online, it gets into a lengthy discussion, a one-sided argument. It assumes that you already know what a 'liberal' is, so it doesn't bother giving a basic definition and starts elaborating on something like the deeper meaning behind the liberal viewpoint. So it's been difficult for me to figure these things out. For my age (21) this lack of knowledge is embarrassing.

I want to know, at a very basic level at first, what some basic terms mean. Liberal, democrat, republican, etc. And maybe some other random terms to do with politics or government, like 'free market', 'capitalism', etc. Or, how a process basically works, basic political history, how the taxing process works, etc. It would be difficult to get too basic with me. And politics specific to the US are okay too.

I realize this is something I won't learn completely about on this forum. I'm just looking for some very basic information, so that I can go on to other websites explaining things in more detail, which assume I already know what the basic terms mean. I'd also love to know more about current political events, but can't at all do that when I can't comprehend the news articles because I don’t know the definitions of the terms they use.

Thanks in advance.