WHAT CONSERVATIVES ARE NOT - RUBBING OUT THE SMEARS

This site really explains conservatives far better than I could.

We all, liberal and conservative alike, tend to pigeon-hole the opposition. It's easier to dismiss the opposition's positions as crazy, stupid, or downright evil without understanding why they believe the things they do.

This site is dedicated to explaining the "why" of many conservative beliefs for those who want to know. This article, on the other hand, just seeks to dismiss the "crazy", "stupid" and downright "evil" assumptions many liberals make about conservatives.

WHAT CONSERVATIVES ARE NOT:
All The Same: Conservatives do not spring from pea pods. There are as many variations of conservative belief as there are professing conservatives. Most liberals don't spray old ladies' mink coats with paint in the name of the environment. In the same way, most conservatives don't believe the Clinton Administration was controlled by aliens. Do not expect conservatives to look like millions of clones. The list below claims to refer to conservatives in general, and cannot cover every exception.

Hate-Filled: Saying somebody's belief is based in "hate" is a smear-tactic, plain and simple. Disagreement or disapproval does not equal Hate. I can conclude that animal hair makes my daughter's eyes swell shut, and yet, not hate dogs. I can care about homosexuals, and enjoy the friendship and talents of gay people, and still object to naked gay men dancing in the streets.
Environment Destroyers: Conservatives tend to encourage industry. Industry provides jobs and enables parents to feed their children and keep their houses lit and warm. Conservatives tend to reject extreme environmental policies that destroy industry in favor of marsh insects, scrap fish, and obscure birds. They reject the idea that animal life trumps human life. However, conservatives also hate waste and destruction and want to conserve the environment.
In my family, we recycle everything we possibly can. Paper products, cardboard, steel cans, aluminum, glass bottles, plastic bottles and containers. All go to the recycling facility 17 miles away. We compost all our vegetable and fruit scraps. If we could live on solar and wind energy, boy howdy we'd do it. You know why? No more electric bills, and we could possibly help our fellow humans and make some extra money by feeding energy back into the grid.
The point is, conservatives care about the environment, but not to the point of earth worship. We should be wise stewards, good managers of the earth. Dumping raw sewage in the rivers is bad management. It is also bad management to allow deer to reproduce to such great numbers that they overgraze and then starve en masse come winter. It's dumb to turn thousands of acres of productive farmland (home to animals, waterfowl, and humans) back into desert in honor of a suckerfish.
Xenophobes: The United States is a nation of immigrants. Even the American Indians were once new to the land. We have no business rejecting foreigners or people of different skin colors or cultures. However, Americans still have the right to want to protect their country and uphold the idea of equality. Equality means both equal treatment under the law and equal responsibility.
Conservatives believe that anybody who wants to live in America should have to go through the same legal routes as everybody else. No cheating. And newcomers should become Americans. Learn English asap. Embrace American culture and values. Avoid sapping public resources.
Racists: In a connected issue, conservatives are not the racists in America. Maybe the conservatives in the 1960s rejected desegregation, but a lot has changed in 40 years. Today, minorities hold places of high respect in government, in law, in medicine, in movies and television - and conservatives enjoy and appreciate their talents.

Today, conservatives reject concepts like affirmative action that are racist. They reject racist policies because they do affirm Martin Luther King's desire to judge a man based on the content of his character and not based on the color of his skin. Conservatives just want people, black, white and tan, to take responsibility for their own behavior and be decent, law-abiding citizens.
Stompers of Poor People
Conservatives do not want to steal from the poor to give to the rich. They do not want to send grandma into the rainy streets on her ear. At the same time, conservatives don't want to steal the rich man's money and make everybody poor. That's what Socialism does. Conservatives want everybody who can work to do so, and they want the honest man to earn a decent wage for his work and not have it snatched away by the government. They want humans to help and depend on each other, and not on the imaginary deep pockets of Uncle Sam.
Conclusion
It's dangerous to label and assume the worst of anybody. Conservatives have a different perspective than liberals, different priorities, and different ways of approaching societal ills. It's wise to learn why we hold specific views, or what the well-developed conservative position is before passing judgment on ideas that may initially make no sense.

And actually, the fully-informed method of approaching the opposition should be the norm for all of us.