So many points to address here, the first is liberalism vs conservatism. This is a no brainer as to which ideology has their head in the sand.

Conservatism opposed the following:
- freedom of religion (support christianity over others)
- abolition of slavery (think Jim Crow laws)
- equal rights for women
- equal rights for minorites
- the teaching of well support science such as evolution

Things that conservatism supported
- McCarthyism
- polygamy

Who in their right mind would support a philosophy with a poor track record on some of the biggest advancements in civilization as that?

Even looking at the definition of conservatism: "is a political philosophy that necessitates a defense of established values or the status quo". This is simply flawed. The idea that we've achieved perfection is unsupportable. Clearly from the list above conservatives were fighting to keep us in a society with a set of values that were terrible.