while i agree with the general description you provided about conservatives remaining unwilling to try another approach MT, the same does happen to go for liberals too, with regard to that.
one can find any number of liberal policies that have proven to be enormous failures yet that are perpetuated, with the same blindness that conservatives have towards their dogmatic approach to issues.
i have to disagree with your first sentence, in that classical conservatism is hardly "playing not to lose". In fact, one of the few admirable qualities at the heart of true conservatism is rooted in "rugged individualism".
This is where i feel the true problem between conservatives and liberals lies.
At its core, conservatives believe in rugged individualism, and scorn compassion and innovation, and trying new ideas to aid individualism with assistance.
At its core, liberals believe in compassion, support for effort, forgiveness of mistakes or lack of capability etc...and scorn the go it alone approach.
there is nothing wrong with either of these approaches, and, a combination of these approaches is in fact, to me, the most preferable thing we can hope to have in this country.
The problem, is that each of these ideologies, naturally take it to the extreme...
Conservatives become overly selfish, take a bit of self-centered and compassionless approach to things that an enlightened society should be striving for...we should be rugged individualists...but we should also be smart enough to know that we work to that end so we can provide others with assistance in their quest to be individualist.
Liberals become overly lackadaisical, believing that smothering, supporting, excusing and cajoling and spending to no end can solve things, in and absence of any or enough individual initiative.
It is both ideologies that prove wrong, it is the doting, overly spoiling parent vs the stoic, sink-or-swim parent...both are lacking serious things that the human needs to succeed.
what happens if you have a poor, but incredibly hard working kid, who relies on him/herself, works their ass off, studies hard, gets excellent grades and gets accepted to a fantastic college...but cannot afford it.
The arch conservative says "ah well...just get a job to put yourself through school"...and yes, that is fair to ask...But what if that still is not enough?
When someone exhibits these qualities, a true conservative should say, "this person is emblematic of what we hope for"...as such, we should help him make up the difference with a college loan, that this person will pay back one day when has earned his deserved success. that to me, is right.
on the other foot:
what happens if you have a poor, but incredibly lazy kid, who sits around, does no homework, never studies, screws around gets crummy grades, does not get accepted to any college and has little to no skills because of his laziness.
The arch liberal says "ah well...he is the product of a bad environment, we give him free schooling, then we will get him in to a jobs program, then we will get him in to school on lower standards etc." and just keep giving and giving with no sign of any understanding on the part of the benificiary of his responsibilties.
When someone exhibits these qualities, a true liberal should say "this is a kid who needs to show us he appreciates our faith in him, and that he will do his utmost to take our support and prove us justified in our belief in his future success".
unfortunately, in both cases, the Arch-Conservative and Arch Liberal, completely twist the true principles at the heart of the philosophies they allegedly espouse.
I was once told by someone (my college professor) what i found to be just about the perfect summation of this absurd dichotomy...he said:
"Arch Liberals simply cannot acknowledge the successes of the past...and Arch Conservatives simply cannot stop living in them."
I cannot think of any more apropos description for why neither the far left or far right, has any answers to problems, when burying their heads in the sand of their relentlessly dogmatic approach to the extremes of their ideologies is the reason.
