I went to the live satellite feed theater showing of Glenn Beck '08 tonight.  He told about a caller who wanted him to explain what it is to be a conservative.  Laughingly, he said it was some liberal who was thinking, "HAH!  Got ya, sucker!  Answer that one, I dare you."  However he found it easy to explain it.  It was more interesting to me because someone in my SMIA group recently asked the same question.  She worked with lots of liberals, and sincerely wanted to explain conservatism in a clear and concise manner.  I will attempt to paraphrase what Glenn Beck said tonight.

"Conservatism is common sense.  It is the freedom to succeed, to make as much money as you want.  It is to the freedom to fail.  If you fail, you are then free to learn from your mistakes, pick yourself up and try again.  [Read about Thomas Edison, and the many failures he had before he finally succeeded in inventing the light bulb.]  It is the freedom to buy your own land, and build a fence on it."  (His story about trying to build a fence on his own land in liberal Connecticut is hilarious...and sad all at once!)

I also like Rush Limbaugh's definition of conservatism; it just IS! 

God gave us our freedom, America gave us the ability to make our freedom to create, to succeed, to strive to be the best we can be.  The Islamists want to take that all away.  We have to stop allowing the politicians and the MSM to convince us that we are divided.  We need to come together as Americans.