  When you read right-wingers like Ann Coulter, you think: why isn't this woman medicated? But, luckily, such extreme cases of disregard for human decency and paranoia are rare; the majority of conservatives are thoughtful people who simply suffer from one problem: they have no concept of difference. They share this belief that either 1) everyone is the same, and therefor have the same opportunities as they do, or 2) everyone is not the same, at the most basic level, and therefor policies like eugenics and slavery and pre-emptive war against heathens should be duly considered as valid. This common belief helps us to understand alot of ideas that come out of the conservative camp, for example: "Equal rights = Special rights".
Since everyone has an equal shot, if they aren't lazy or drug addicts or homosexuals (and those are choices anyway), any law designed to "protect" individuals from discrimination are not only patronizing and offensive to said group, but also are blatant attempts for these so-called "oppressed" minorities to get an unfair advantage. If there isn't a level playing field, that is clearly because the aformentioned people are degenerates who need to be whipped into shape, instead of coddled in their weak, sinful pleasures. The examples are numerous. One generalization that rings true is the characterization of conservatives as having self-oriented compassion. Now, I don't mean to say that they are selfish, or that they are compassionate only to themselves. They are compassionate only in situations they have personally experienced; for example, a conservative who has lost a child to gun violence will not agree with that part of the Republican platform, while one who has not will refuse to even entertain the notion that such a tragedy can happen to someone responsible with guns. Another example would be conservatives who have gay children; while they may be amenable to gay rights, because they have first hand witness of the horror many GLBT people face living in this country, they will still advocate the death penalty for abortion doctors. That is, until one of thier children has to have an abortion for one reason or another. "But," you might say, "What about conservative black people, or Log Cabin Republicans?
" First off, most of them will say they're trying to "change the party from within. " We all know that's crap in such a self-absorbed community, but they honestly want to create a socially liberal and financially conservative political entity. Secondly, there are crazy people in every demographic, from Don King to Anna Nicole Smith, to Omarosa and Sam on the Apprentice.
I'm talking about the general community, not the exceptions. Liberals still foster somewhat of a sense of self examination and testing that is sorely lacking in the conservative arena. They see it as weak seeming and waffling to mull over opinions and decisions after they're set. They make that common mistake in believing that bravado is confidence, and confidence is weakness. Allow me to assure you that it takes far more confidence to question one's own beliefs than it does to vitiate the beliefs of another.
Regardless of the reasons for the conservative's outlook, they results are clearly around us: collapsing social support structures, destructive and badly planned wars exacerbated by an almost willful ignorance of other cultures, environmental and energy policy driven by corporate interests instead of sound scientific input, and eroding civil rights. Narcissus would be proud; the world is falling apart and we're obsessed with an image in a pool of water. 
