Liberalism = Arrested Development (UPDATED)

The difference between small-c conservatives and small-l liberals in North America is little more than a matter of maturity.
The conservatives have a taste of it; the liberals do not.
Think about some of the key dividing issues and the common thread that ties them together.
Same-sex marriage? It's a focus on the now, not on the future. Unfettered abortion rights? Ditto. These are almost litmus tests in the political world of the left.
Then, look at the juvenile rage that emanates from many leftists when it comes to President Bush. It clearly debases the debate (and, even though I tend to be small-c conservative, I'm not walking in lockstep behind all of his ideas). And I don't even want to take you to the Daily Kos post on the elevation of Pope Benedict XVI and the instilling of the f-bomb in his birth name).
See, it's not a far trip from liberal to libertine.
For liberals, it's all "I want. I want. I want."
The sad part is, once liberalism had a vision of the past, a comprehension that we are on a continuum that began long before our great-great-great-grandparents were conceived and that should continue - barring the ultimate cataclysmic event - for long after our great-great-great-grandchildren have passed on. There was a responsibility for the future. It even had a belief that people could and should have opportunities to climb the ladder of success.
Now, liberalism has become its antithesis. With the exceptions of the sexual issues referenced above, it wants things to stay just as they are. They have what they have, aren't likely to get a helluva lot more, and want to keep it. Environmentalism? A ploy to ensure that the lower classes won't have the opportunities to rise, while enriching the elites and their allies.
Progressive? Ha! Ha! Ha! Anti-progressive is more like it.
Taste in leaders? Style rules, substance is insignificant.
In discussing CPC leader Stephen Harper, Canadi-anna delivers the point.
"He'd probably never raise his voice let alone hit someone, he doesn't cheat on his wife, I'd bet he helps tuck in the kids at night -- and makes every effort to do the right thing so he'll be a good example for them. And he's smart, and he's funny, and private. These qualities are the kind of qualities adult women look for in a man. It's teens and twenties who look for the charm and 'charisma'. Maturity looks for decency and Harper is the personification."
If you can find them, try to read "The Unmaking of a Mayor" by William F. Buckley Jr., the godfather of modern U.S. conservatism, and "The New Elite" by David Lebedoff. They reveal the real nature of contemporary liberalism far better than your humble poster could ever hope to.
And, as Right Girl put it, "If we stayed children forever, with no common sense, we'd be liberals."
UPDATE: Exile from Hillary's Village took my core idea and ran a lot farther with it... very well, too. I urge a visit.