"Conservative", of course, is as much a finger-pointing label as "Liberal"...except that those doing the pointing tend to use the one in a positive context and the other negatively - i.e., "Me Conservative, I good - you Liberal, you bad". I rarely hear people who would self-describe as "Liberal" saying, "You Conservative shit-bird, you". Whether or not either word can be restored to its former place is unfortunately as likely as "gay" ever meaning happy and cheerful again.

To me, small-c conservative has connotations of introspection and a purposely restricted outlook. I don't mean that in a negative sense. This is the sort of person who cares more for his own family and community than for someone else that he will never meet; he is environmentally conscious, but may be less concerned with the impacts upon environment that are far away. His concern over illegal migration is more focused on how that will change the local community than anything else and his basic objection to the welfare system as it currently exists in the US is more that his taxes are being used to maintain someone else someplace else than anything else.

On the third hand, Amos asked what do you know about the actual thoughts and practices of Conservatism? The Limbaughs, Colters, Imuses and the other shock jocks have defined the term, just as they have redefined "Liberal". I suspect that there are about as many true believers in that kind of Conservatism (as opposed to those individuals who believe whatever the tube told them most recently) as there are in their definition of Liberalism - and they could all be fit into a school bus to fight it out.