Simple Descriptions for Political Ideologies
Liberals want to change things and make life better.  Unfortunately, most liberals employ far more zeal than thought in the things they do and unleash much unintended evil in the name of "fixing" things.  They are millions of liberals with a million causes that weep and wail and gnash their teeth.  The Democratic party nominally panders to the most powerful of these causes, asks the whole squelching mass to support these "winning" causes (which they dutifully do), and dangles the rest with the hope that their personal cause might get big enough to be prostituted by the mass of liberals in the future. <p>
Conservatives want to return to the past.  They had all the old stuff figured out and knew how to make money and get power off of it.  They hate change.  Of course, if change is actually needed, conservatives are the last people to call.  The world of fifty years ago is always a lot better than today.  The future is to be feared.<p>
I like libertarians.  I am one.  The biggest problem with libertarians are that they don't actually live in this world.  The world that they hope to achieve is the one where all the evil folks are gone and everyone that is left are pretty straight thinkers that are basically well-disposed to each other.  It is the way of the future.  Conservatives hate it because they love the past not the future.  Liberals don't like libertarians because their favorite cause (and likely their existence) probably won't be relevant in that wonderful future-world.<p>
Libertarians trust free individuals.  Liberals trust groups.  Conservatives trust the "old days".