You're right. A conservative is a contrarian. They fight change.
Chesterton's fence is a rational argument in favor of being conservative.
Chesterton's fence is a rational argument in favor of being conservative.
A "conservative" from Chesterton's time doesn't necessarily map cleanly onto the modern notion of the same name... Supposing the allegorical "fence" to be something like clean air or water regulation, one could argue that it's modern "conservatives" more often than not arguing to disturb things without considering second-order effects.
I really don't like referring to Republican's as conservative or Democrats as liberal precisely because neither party really sticks to those concepts. "Conservatives" as a political unit are not conservative and "Liberals" aren't liberal.
The world is a dumb place.