Conservatives: Delayed Liberals

The nature of conservatism generally reduces down to either objection to novelty or an emphasis on a gradual shift away from traditional norms, and looking to the past is therefore considered an admirable thing by conservatives.  It thus might seem as if conservatives would scarcely ever insist on the same points made by liberals.  What is ironic about their respect for tradition is that they tend to come to the same conclusions about certain issues that liberals do, only after the public has sided with the liberals of their day.

Give some vocal and proud conservatives enough time, and they will soon sound very similar to the liberals of several years or decades before--the same liberals they may have fiercely opposed at the time.  They might have sparred quite vehemently at an earlier point when an issue was seen as something for non-conformist progressives to rally around (like interracial marriages), but as soon as the issue loses its cultural volatility, they are entirely willing to defend the new norm.

When a conservative does not want to endlessly preserve a certain tradition, they may simply advocate for a slow change, one that does not upset the status quo abruptly or deeply.  They might openly advocate for something merely a few years after it is introduced, waiting until the broad social shift has already occurred rather than trying to champion those behind a cause as they struggle to initially assert themselves.  The focus of this approach is placed on the mechanism, speed, and impact of change rather than its moral necessity.

Liberalism itself is marked by its own thorough hypocrisies and follies, but conservatives are often so fixated on demonizing liberals that they fail to recognize delayed liberal tendencies in themselves.  For this reason, conservatives from one era and liberals from another might outwardly resemble each other.  The genuinely conservative person reacts with selective outrage at any sudden change to the heart of their civilization, maintains their outrage as the change becomes politicized and accelerated, and then mellows towards that change once it becomes an established expectation.