text: if jay leno said he defined his politics as fiscally conservative and socially liberal, what does it mean?   technically, "fiscally conservative" means that he believes in the original designs of our founding fathers in terms of how much control of our money the government is allowed.  our federal government should be primarily set up for protection and infrastructure.  it should leave the other stuff to the states.   to be socially liberal, you would have to believe that the constitution does not specifically give enough rights to certain peoples and must be amended to include such rights.  historically, these rights are things like abortion, gay marriage, women's rights, and perhaps even such things as the separation of church and state (which is not stated in the constitution -- it merely says that "congress shall make no law" governing religion).