When I tell people that I'm a conservative, they assume that I mean I subscribe to a list of positions on (or have beliefs about) various issues. That's not what I mean. Conservatism is a temperament, not a set of beliefs or positions. Peter Berger expresses it well:
I consider myself a conservative politically. It is a conservatism based on pessimism, not on faith. It is skeptical of rapid change, because such change is frequently for the worse, and it is doubly skeptical of all utopian visions of a perfect society, which are very likely to lead to tyrannies. This type of philosophical conservatism makes one to favor reform rather than revolution, gradual change rather than dramatic transformation. It does not always lead to the embrace of agendas labeled “conservative” in contemporary American politics, though my assessment of the empirical realities makes me favor the market over the state in many contentious issues. I have for many years now maintained my party registration as a Republican (often while holding my nose). Being a registered Republican in Brookline, Massachusetts, is comparable to being a Zionist in Saudi Arabia.
Do not commit the following fallacy: (1) Keith is a conservative; (2) Keith believes that p; therefore, (3) Keith's believing that p is a function of Keith's being a conservative. I am many things besides a conservative. Many of my beliefs and values, even in the political realm, have nothing to do with my conservatism.
Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D. 