Am I a Liberal or Conservative?

Quote: JimRockford

Conservatives favor decisions at a more local level.
Until the local government makes a decision they disagree with, then they favor higher levels of government to override.

Both major parties are results-oriented and just want what they want. As you point out, Conservatives will say otherwise until a given state (and not even always one they actually live in!) is doing something they don't like and now they want Big Daddy Fed to do something about it.

Libertarians mostly just have principles. We also tend to accept the reality that not every situation is going to work out ideally, and by getting what we do want, we also need to be willing to accept that some things that we don't (individually) want will likely happen.