I mean, when we get down to it, conservative and liberal mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people. Despite the fact that abolitionism was largely fueled by Great Awakening inspired evangelism and most of its most ardent supporters hailed from some of the most conservative religious denominations (such as the Quakers), many describe opposing slavery as the "progressive" or "liberal" stance for its time - likely behind the thinking that challenging the existing and "traditional" establishment establishment of slavery was, in effect, challenging societal conservatism.
Disclaimer: I'm pro-choice, but this is an interesting hypothetical to help out my point. I doubt this will happen, but imagine a future 150 years from now where people look back with horror at the fact that we ever allowed legal abortions. Let's say society evolves to view abortion much like slavery - a moral evil that they simply can't fathom that we allowed, viewing the fetus much like the helpless slave of the 1800s. Will they look back at current social conservatives as "progressive for their time," being "ahead" on that issue? You see the issue with how relative these terms are. Unfortunately, each person must use his or her own definition, and while I usually (to maintain historical consistency) identify "conservatism" with pro-business policies that benefit the economically independent/advantaged and "liberal" with pro-worker policies that look to mold society to lend a helping hand to the economically advantaged, I'll use a much simpler definition for this exercise:
Conservative rating is based on percentage of issues that the candidate is loyal to Republican Party doctrine, with a "less conservative" boost given to those who I view as being more pragmatic, under the thinking that they might govern more moderately because of those tendencies.
MOST CONSERVATIVE TO MOST LIBERAL
Carson
Jindal
Cruz
Walker
Fiorina
Rubio
Perry
Trump
Santorum
Huckabee
Graham
Christie
Bush
Kasich
Pataki
Why isn't Paul on the list
