If I had to define Conservatism, I suppose I would say it is the belief in and practice of a series of really annoying, often times counter-intuitive, heartless rules that nobody likes and few truly want to believe in. These beliefs and principles are so unpopular, boring, and so square, that were it not for the fact that they keep producing the highest quality results, it's hard to imagine how anyone could even be a Conservative.
Too bad there aren't any Conservatives, or any real Liberals left in the world. Now there is just a bunch of big government spendies .. spending. They spend on wars without raising taxes, want tax cuts without lowering spending, spend on new programs without having any money to do it, etc, turning big government into bigger government. The only difference between Democrats and Republicans is what they want to spend money on, and what they want the big government to do.