Liberal (or progressive) vs. Conservative (or traditional) on social issues

Free market philosophy vs. planned, controlled, monitored, managed (pick your adjective) economies

Isolationists vs. Internationalists

Cautious diplomats vs. assertive defenders of values

Scientific thinkers, worshipers of reason and logic vs. those who simply worship without reason
(guess I'm showing my bias a little here...)

There are so many ways to measure our ideology, our way of thinking.

And the different measures often conflict with each other. What if I realize that a minimum wage law makes no economic sense at all, yet I recognize that public acknowledgment of the hard-working poor, setting them apart from the true bums, is good social policy, and that there's more to life than economics? Does that make me a conservative or a liberal?

And if I agree with only 20% of the liberal candidate's positions and 80% of the conservative candidate's stances, but I also see that the liberal is the more decent human being, or that the 20% is what really matters in my life, does that change my ideological label if I go ahead and vote for the liberal?

While most of us clearly trend right or left on most issues, it's far from obvious at times, and the so-called political spectrum is much more of a multi-dimensional political space.