I would argue that at their most basic: liberalism and conservatism is a dispute over vision. The liberal man and woman dreams of a better tomorrow. The conservative man and woman is content with the present or even sees the past as their ideal. Now the specific ideas of what liberal and conservative philosophy have changed over the centuries arguably. But the basic premise behind those ideas stay the same. It’s why yeah damn right I’m proud to be a liberal. Liberalism has the guts to confront the status quo and say “This isn’t working.” Conservatism more or less is “Well we’ve always done it this way, let’s not.” Now do sometimes we rush on change? Perhaps so but an eagerness to protecting the status quo? I can frankly think of nothing that goes against the American spirit. I’m not saying you can’t be conservative and American, I’m saying that our spirit is at its core small letter, l- liberal. Whether that’s the Continental Congress or Obergefell and his fellow plaintiffs attempting to get marriage equality rights. It is not “Let’s stick with England because they’re the mother country.” or “Well the Bible says this and that about same sex relationships.”