According to google, conservative =
*resistant to change,
*people who generally like to uphold current conditions and oppose changes,
*a loosely defined term indicating adherence to one or more of a family of attitudes, including respect for tradition and authority and resistance to wholesale or sudden changes
“free-thinking" doesn’t exactly spring to mind when you read those
The American right in many ways is more Libertarian than Conservative. Libertarians used to be called Liberals in the US before the New Dealers coopted the term.
So what you really have are two sets of liberals pulling in different directions. Then you have the real conservatives, like Pat Buchanan, on the sidelines having a shit-fit.
