The "conservatives" that I don't like are the neo-cons. They are far too jingoistic.
I've got no problem with patriotism just jingoism.
A patriot says "I love my country and there's nowhere else I'd rather be".
A jingoist says "I love my country and everyone else should too. If there is anywhere else someone would rather be they're insane and should die".
Yet the jingoist tends to be tougher on immigration so they'd rather just have fun making the world jealous. The conservative movement used to be a movement with smart people who had ideas: Goldwater, Buckley, hell, even for all his faults Nixon was still a smart guy. Then the conservatives thought "Hey, let's run with people like Dan Quayle or George Bush (Jr.) or Sarah Palin". They went from promoting the valedictorians to promoting stupidity. Now I know that this isn't all conservatives but it seems like the ones they try to make their leaders are the ones who give conservatism a bad name. I wouldn't have agreed with a lot Nixon or Goldwater had to say but I'd trust them to do their job because they never tried to make stupidity a virtue.
Now I'm not saying everyone needs to be a genius to become president but there are some basic things you should know. Good example is when someone was asking W about Sunni vs. Shiite Muslims he was dumbfounded. He said he thought they were all Muslims. When you go to war in a shitstorm like the Middle East there are some very important things to know.
Now, to defend why I have liberal leaning views, nobody summarized it more than John Fitzgerald Kennedy.
If by a "Liberal" they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people — their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, and their civil liberties — someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a "Liberal," then I'm proud to say I'm a "Liberal."
* Acceptance of the New York Liberal Party nomination (14 September 1960)