Conservative attitudes, positions and behavior emphasize and prioritize stability and safety. If it’s not really broken, it’s not really urgent to fix it. Look before you leap. While changes may recommend themselves, there are always transient implemention costs, and not infrequently there are losses & losers, and even permanent drawbacks & downsides.
Liberal is not a strong or accurate antonym of Conservative. The Progressive associate of Liberalism (typically seen as a one hypenated word) makes more of a specialty of Change (sometimes verging to ‘change for the sake of change’). Liberal politics, with its emphasis on the Person and Individual, is allied with Conservatives in prioritizing generalized ‘Bill of Rights’ factors … while some Progressive threads are less so.
(and ultimately, Politics) are reflections of caution and safety.
Political Conservatism as we know it emerged as a concept from the French Revolution, and somewhat coincidentally but ultimately very significantly, from the American Revolution and the founding of the United States.