Let me try to get at some kind of conservative essence. I think the core framework of conservatism is the community; while liberalism begins with the individual. Conservatism also respects tradition; while the greatest liberal value is freedom. Each, of course, believes that its core assumption is the key to the ideal society. Conservatism holds with reverence, the past and duty, while liberalism preaches reason autonomy and initiative.
Needless to say, our present liberal and conservative movements are jumbled up mixtures; with both mixing principles from both sides of the divide in their current programs.
Another, more abstract way of characterizing the two is view conservatism as structural thinking, while liberalism is process oriented. One might say the conservative thinks in structures while the liberal thinks in processes. Conservative thought is geometric, while liberal is algebraic. Conservative thought is architectural, while a liberal metier is musical.
The United States poses a unique challenge to conservative thought. Our founders represented more than anything else, the ideals of Enlightenment thought. Central here is the role of Reason. Our Constitution enshrines the ideal of thinking about problems -reason - and the people's right to make changes where deemed desirable. Both concepts, Reason and Change, are at odds with a genuine conservative outlook.
Another - deeper - problem for Conservatism is the integration of Free Enterprise with the basic ideals. Free Enterprise, in the sense of trading goods is probably as old as man, though in general trade was largely governed by custom until the 19th century. Beginning then, trade broke loose, so to speak, from customary rules of exchange and pricing. From the outset, this idea of a free market was entirely liberal. As a political movement it was a challenge, by a new, merchant class against the established conservative norms nobility and the landed gentry.
In today's world we can note that Free Enterprise has given us the great American industrial baronies, like Dupont, or Exxon and Walmart. The question is, how do these social forms comport with the conservative outlook? We must acknowledge that organizations like this have had an enormously destructive effect on the fabric of society. Our little town hangs on. It was once a vibrant place, with its own harness factory, feed store, grocery and clothing emporium. The stores are gone. The way of life is gone. Soon all the farms will be gone. All that one might hope to conserve--of a community as a social organization as well as a working economy. Our people will have to go into city apartments or homeless shelters and live on welfare payments. This is what free enterprise does. Where, I ask, is conservatism? It seems to root for our destruction.