To conserve essentially means to keep or hold or remain unchanged. So in my opinion conservatism, or the republican party, is much mor oriented to controlling the rights of others to keep from them encroaching on what they have (property, access to govt funding, american land, sacredness of marriage) where as libertarianism is much more open and unnattached to who gets what as long as its equal, focused more on individuals not being excluded (equal marriage rights, open borders, less restraints on access to govt funding). I hold a mix of both viewpoints and try to keep myself from choosing a side based on what i gain vs what others lose. I wouldnt say either side is better than the other. Id say if we arnt choosing love, we have more to learn. We shouldnt want, or decide what others are entitled to, and shouldnt expect anything more than we'd expect for everyone else regardless of nationality, creed, sexual orientation, or political stance lol.
As far as what these parties are shifting toward, id agree actually to a point, and have noticed the motive shift in both parties as well. Id say thats a side effect of short sitedness by people choosing with their emotions to cling to a party and embrace its viewpoints without really paying attention to why. There is no democrat or republican in reality, just people protecting what they think is right. I truely hope the way our young generations can learn comphensate for this through realizing the power of critical thinking, and fact based reasoning as opposed to appealing to emotions. There will be no winning side as long as people choose their side out of emotion. Not that emotion is a bad thing, it just not what we should base our logic off of when determining how to govern eachother. People are biased and self oriented. Not all, but most. Its my hope we grow out of this phase and learn to solve our problems together. Thanks for your comment :) @wish