What do conservatives stand for? [View All]

This is a serious question. If I had to describe a "conservative", in the traditional sense, would I be off base with the following(?):

A conservative generally speaks negatively about government becoming too big. In particular, the federal government should be limited in it's authority of the states. The best government is a small government that stays out of people's lives and let's states government themselves except to enforce the federal laws as guided by our constitution. Furthermore, the constitution should be interpreted almost literally and should not be subject to change at the whim of judges.

A conservative typically dislikes taxes being spent on social programs and thinks that, instead, citizens should be able to keep more of their own money rather than giving to the government. People who fall into the lower socio-economic classes should be left alone to "take responsibility" for their situation and not look to other taxpapers to help them out, OR, such people should turn to charities for help if necessary. Taxes that are collected should be spent, in large part, towards self defense militarily. However, the military should not be used as a world police organization.

Economically, a conservative generally thinks the government should stay out of corporate affairs execpt to regulate and enforce generally accepted legislative policies (such as child labor laws, etc.). A laissez-faire type system is the best system and this includes both domestic and global markets.

I've probably left out a lot, but if the above description is on target, then I don't think that I really have that big of a problem with conservatives. I don't necessarily agree with the philosophy as outlined above, but I am at least able to understand it.

However, (and again, this is assuming my definition was basically on-target), our current administration does not resemble that definition at all. I think that is part of the reason I hate them so much. They don't seem to really represent ANYBODY in our country, other than the super-affluent oil and giant-corporate industries.

Maybe my overall definition of "conservative" is completely wrong. If so, would someone please explain to me where I went wrong in my assumption of their philosophy?