Defining conservatism

Who is a conservative and what is being conserved?

A starting place:

One of the key differences between liberals and conservatives is their view of the essential nature of man. Liberals believe that man is essentially good and given the right environment, will mostly do good. Conservatives believe that man is basically bad, and lacking proper discipline and guidelines, will mostly do bad. Liberals wonder what we can change for the better; while Conservatives worry that changing what stands will almost always be for the worse.

Since our country and culture is so diverse it would be difficult to conserve much of anything beyond the Constitution. But just that allows us to conserve:

limitations of the powers of a Federal government, protecting the rights of the people by preventing congress from abridging freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, freedom of religious worship, the right to bear arms, preventing unreasonable search and seizure, cruel and unusual punishment and self-incrimination and guaranteeing due process of law and a speedy public trial with an impartial jury

And the Constitution says that list may not be complete.

But there is a much older tradition that people want to conserve. It includes:

religious intolerance, persecution of minorities, genocide, manifest destiny, might makes right, slavery, racism, sexism, white supremacy, Christian militarism and imperialism and homophobia

I know which set I want to conserve.