The term Conservative harkens back to the traditional liberals in Europe that broke from the British Monarchy. They wanted to conserve Family, Community, Religious Freedoms and associated Moral values. They wanted government out of Churches, they wanted to have direction not only over their careers, but the revenues derived from those careers. They wanted moral government representation, and not a government driven church forcing them under threat of expulsion to submit to higher and higher taxes, with less and less personal freedoms. When they got to America they were in effect a religious Apartheid from the Monarchy of the church of England (Old Tudors - The Pope, King Henry VIII naming himself the head of the Church of England, and the Bishops and Priests), and they wanted to build a church around reformative teachings of Martin Luther (only God can forgive, no matter how much money you paid the church you could not buy salvation).
More modern conservatives promote some of the same ideologies, but push for smaller, lawfully constitutional, and a fiscally responsible government. Most fall along the lines of an awakening that taxation without just representation is theft, the power and authority of the family is only second to our responsibility to Christ, and the States should hold the majority of the power of government, with the feds having the smallest footprint and the lowest negative impact on our lives. I am guessing at this point, but in line with smaller government most would love to see the Fed, the IRS, the EPA, CIA, FBI and most other three letter government agencies abolished.
For me it comes down to conserving traditional values.
