The most basic and fundamental difference between Conservative and Liberal philosophy goes back to the debate between Sir Edmund Burke and Thomas Paine, and whether it is mankind's nature to be good or evil.
As explained by the conservative Burke in his book, "On the French Revolution", conservative philosophy stems from a belief that man is, by nature, evil and therefore must be strictly controlled and harshly punished. Those are the only functions of government in the conservative mind, which is why to this day they believe the only proper functions of government are police and military. Any good that comes from mankind, they believe, is the exception, not the norm and it is only the result of strict discipline stemming from a fear of punishment that allowed a rare individual to overcome their evil nature.
Liberals believe, as explained by our founding father Thomas Paine in "The Rights of Man", that man's nature is essentially good and that evils done by man are the exception, not the norm. They believe that man's primary drivers are self-fulfillment and the desire to take care of their immediate family or tribe.
What this means is that when faced with the same scenario, different people will see different things based on their expectations of mankind. For example, when confronted with unemployment, liberals first think of the good, hard working people who are being screwed out of their living for slightly higher corporate profits and they create programs to help those people such as unemployment insurance. Liberals believe people are good and therefore they want to work and they desire the self-respect and fulfillment that comes from an honest day's labor. They also believe in a fair, living wage for an honest day's work.
Conservatives' first reaction, on the other hand, is to blame the unemployed for being lazy, (or worse, unionized) and thus deserving of being unemployed. For example, the Republican senate candidate in Arizona, Sharon Angle, called the unemployed "spoiled" and "lazy". When conservatives see a program designed to help people, such as unemployment insurance, their first thought is that someone might abuse that system and thus we should not do it. If you have ever talked to a conservative about unemployment or welfare in general you have inevitably heard some variant of the same argument, "Why should I help those lazy drug dealers?" or "Why should my money go to help worthless bums who don't want to work?". Because conservatives believe man is essentially evil, they believe that most other people do not want to work and they would rather sit around all day doing nothing.
While there is some truth to the arguments on both sides, neither one is 100% correct. There exists within everyone a framework for liberal and conservative thought, but one is usually dominant over the other at any given time. However, since liberals believe mankind is good, they believe in mankind's potential for growth and improvement, which is why every major advancement in human history has followed on the heels of a liberal movement, such as the Enlightenment or the American Revolution.
It is a truism that every villain is the hero of their own story, which lends credence to the liberal viewpoint but also explains why conservatives are able to see everyone except themselves as "evil" and apply harsh terms to everyone else that they would consider unacceptable if applied to them. They usually see themselves as the rare individual blessed with an ability to overcome their innate "evil" nature. That explains why so many conservatives try to play the victim. It also explains why so many outspoken moralistic conservatives who get caught doing something immoral, such as Republican David Vitter and his prostitutes or John Ensign's attempt to pay off his mistress, do not see any repercussions from their peers, because conservatives expect evil behavior as the norm but see themselves as a club who's members are the only people capable of overcoming that evil.
This leads to beliefs such as Calvinism, that conservatives have used to justify their support of the wealthy while demonizing the poor. They believe the rich must be blessed with some inherent virtue that makes them deserving of being rich and the poor must be lazy and immoral and thus deserving of being poor. Conservatives see everyone else as undeserving of rights, which is why they passed the Patriot Act, allowed American citizens to be detained indefinitely without due process, scoff at Habeas Corpus and Miranda rights and now they even want to repeal the 14 Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
The common thread among every major religion in the world is the Golden Rule, "Do onto others as you would have them do unto you." This thought is at the heart of Liberal philosophy. Whereas, conservatives would do onto everyone else whatever they can get away with, liberals believe that since we are all inherently good, we are all deserving of being treated with respect. Anyone who has paid attention to the news over the last decade knows that conservatives treat non-conservatives with very little respect. And why should they? Everyone else, in their mind, is evil and not deserving of respect.
How would you rather be governed, with respect or with contempt? That is the choice Americans have to make in upcoming elections.
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