In general I think "liberals" don't like being labeled that way, while conservatives are quite happy to be called conservative. I think that's an interesting contrast. Basically, the core worldview of conservatism is "the ways of the past should be conserved" -- i.e. what has worked in the past is good, and change is dangerous. Obviously that's an oversimplification, but the "center of gravity" of conservatism is expressed as "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". By contrast, those on the other end of the spectrum are more likely to see the world as in constant change, and have the view that we need to change with it... adaptation is favored, and thus the more appealing term "progressive" arises as a replacement label for "liberal". I think both sides of this spectrum have valid points, and mostly the conflict arises because of the way the human mind works: we tend to split everything into dualities and "take sides", etc. This is just the nature of concepts -- polarization occurs in the act of discriminating "this" from "that", and in our ignorance we identify with one side or the other, hoping to draw some sense of personal solidity by clinging to half of the truth.

They aren't opposite terms. It's possible to be a conservative liberal or a liberal conservative. When the U.S. party platforms are added to the terms, then the terms become opposite to each other. liberal = free, free minded conservative = stay to traditional ideas

I think that those terms are extremely vage and cover many different, often contradictory realities. Many people either want to be considered as such (conservative or liberals) or don't want it, or they say they are the only true ones, or the only ones that make it right. A party could have called itself conservative, and evolve with time as not being conservative at all, but keep the name. Moreover, what it means could be very different from one country to another, even with globalisation. Mostly, the supporters of those politics do not define them as it could be defined in a dictionary: - conservative usually do not want to conserve everything, for instance, if there are not in charge, they will certainly change things if they are elected. - liberals usually do not want to have liberty on everything and certainly not "impose" liberty, which would be a contradiction. I gave some further information about those terms in this answer: http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/2474895 You can also find further information here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberalism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservative

I think it's interesting that they seem to have changed identities over the years. Liberal used to lean toward individual freedom. Today it seems to have become emblematic of gov't control, especially over the poor. Meanwhile, conservative has gone from the 'smoke filled rooms' of business deal-making to the idea that individuals should be responsible for their own futures. Just goes to show that both systems are so intertwined that they are little more than shadow puppets designed to fool the People into thinking they really do control their gov't. The other day, Congress' approval rating dropped to a record 9%, but there's STILL no change in the foreseeable future. That kinda says it all, doesn't it?