Just last week, I heard a contrast made between being a “conservative” and a “progressive” (by the way, that’s the new term for liberal). A “conservative” was defined as someone who looks back, who holds on to things of the past, whereas a progressive is someone who looks forward to the future, ready to embrace new ideas, even new truths. Of course, carefully defining the words like this is a thinly veiled attempt in pejorative monikers by those on the left. That being said, there is some truth in the definitions.
Conservatives do, indeed, look back at the past. We carefully examine what has been and shown to work (or not) and attempt to learn from those lessons. 
We resist change, typically, as we tend to want to understand better what we’re changing to more fully. That is to say, we don’t accept new things simply because they are new, but that does not mean that conservatives do not accept new ideas, methods, etc. The position we take, though, it seems to me, usually centers around the idea that the one presenting this new idea, method, etc., bears the burden of proof as to why this new thing is better.
Progressives, on the other hand, seem to look more to the future, in their words. They use terms like “progressive” because, I would guess, of its root word, “progress.” “See, we stand for progress. The conservatives are stuck in the past. Come progress with us!” Indeed, the idea of progress is appealing. If you’re faced with a problem, you want progress in finding a solution, right? The problem as I see it with the liberal — I mean progressive — approach, is that they seem to think that all change is good. Take the recent California Supreme Court same-sex marriage ruling. It was ruled as progress, but progress toward what? I would contend that it’s progress toward enshrining a sinful, immoral behavior in our laws and societal norms.
What I think progressives miss, whether it’s from willful ignorance or malicious intent or something in between, is that not all change is good. In fact, change for change’s sake is almost guaranteed to fail, but this is indeed what we are being sold politically, theologically, and doctrinally. Most frighteningly, many Christian Americans are taking the bait.