>

This is a very good point! And it needs to be reinforced.
The traditional, mainstream ideology in the US is Liberalism. True conservatives are people who want a more conservative form of Liberalism, while progessives want a more progressive form of Liberalism.
People who advocate authoritarianism, or theocracy, or racism or sexism are not conservatives. They are radicals who are opposed to liberalism.
People who advocate communism, or radical redistribution of wealth, or abolishment of private property are not progressives. They are radicals who are opposed to liberalism.
Actual left-wing radicals are very rare in the US. Rightwing radicals number in the tens of millions.
You confused me with 'liberal' in the title, and 'conservative' in the text. Surely even in the US, liberal & conservative are not the same? >

Not op, but maybe it's an ESL situation.
From a strict, classical sense, liberal and conservative aren't opposed, Pprogressive and conservative are. The opposite (again in a classical sense) of liberal is authoritarian. Most of the conservative US started using liberal as a pejorative in the late 60s during the cou ter culture revolution, since it was college-age driven with liberal arts educations. ironically since in that sense it means something along to "holistic, well rounded " education, as opposed to a trade school that teaches one specific topic.