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To be honest, I actually admired Hatrack's assertion that conservatives CONSERVE things. Too bad HE didn't actually do much of that, but at least he recognized the concept.
Conservativism is cautious thinking, preservation of useful traditions, pragmatic application of tried and true tested ideas and values, honoring the pocketbook of the taxpayers, devotion to old fashioned customs, limited or simplified government.
By the way, things like honoring the military, patriotic love of country, devotion to God and family, none of those things are the exclusive province of conservatives, no matter how much they insist they are, no matter how often they label others outside the conservative circle as godless America haters intent on destroying traditional family models.
And there is no reason to be surprised to learn that one can encounter liberals who share certain conservative values either.
But the most important thing to bear in mind is the fact that conservatives and liberals need each other, because without the loyal opposition keeping the other side honest, the other side always gets weird.
And that's what's been happening this last decade or so.
Conservativism means Stop. It means NO. Put that technology down and get back in the closet, you horrible object. It means the good old days were when you caught polio at the neighborhood pool, because if that was good enough for Jesus, it was good enough for us.
More recently, it has picked up the destructive conditioning meme of "the rugged individualist," which is the exact opposite of how humans work.
It's an ideology suited to the post-world war II era, and that's long gone.
