Liberals and Reactionaries

I don't see the political debate in the US being between liberals and conservatives anymore. It is becoming clear that what passes for conservatism today is pure reactionary negativism. "I don't like my life and it's all YOUR fault!" Reminds me of how I feel once a month just before my period. The once-conservative Republican party is now the party of perpetual PMS.

Conservatism in my mind is closely allied with caution, with maintaining a tradition in sober equilibrium, of doing nothing rather than doing harm. There are ways in which I, a lifelong wearer of the liberal label, am very conservative at times. To protect and "conserve."