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Another consideration that muddies the waters is the failure of many people do distinguish between social and fiscal conservatism/liberalism as they are, I think, two very different sets of issues. For example, I myself am quite conservative fiscally but, given today's definition of conservatism vs. liberalism, I cannot really identify with either camp socially. While on fiscal issues the choice is much clearer, the problem with both parties, as I see it, is that they want to champion certain liberties while circumventing others while I favor protection of all individual liberties. While I sometimes want to pull my hair out listening to one side saying that the government needs to protect us from ourselves, my blood boils just as much when the other side tries to impose their own moral values on society through legislation. The whole issue is, IMHO, one of the unfortunate effects of the two-party system. Unless you're willing to vote for someone without a snowball's chance in Hades of getting elected (which I'm increasingly willing to do), you're often forced to vote not for the best candidate, but for the lesser of two evils.
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