That's the official definition of conservatism, but I don't think it's accurate - or at least it's w hite wash job that doesn't truly explain conservatve psychology.

In practice conservatives:

1. Value war and violence, and promote and identify with narratives of personal, familial and national omnipotence.

2. Approve of strict social and racial hierarchies and are indifferent to - or favour - abuse and segregation of those they consider alien, different or inferior.

3. As a corollary to 1. and 2., conservatives actively seek personal privilege and do not accept the rule of law for themselves.

4. Conservatives approve of law for others when the law is used as in 2.

5. Conservatives approve of 'competition' as long as it is supported by privilege. Conservatives do not support truly open, free competition.

In short, for a conservative to win, someone else must lose - and they must be seen to lose. Publicly. Preferably in a ritualised game whose outcome is rigged.

Conspicuously absent from this list is rational strategy. Conservatives are capable of calculation, but not of prediction. Most of their responses are reactions, not innovations.