I think this is a too simplistic premise; the conservatives want a top down power structure, while the liberals want a bottom up power structure. Why are conservatives concerned with state power, and balancing it with federal power? Seems against the restriction of power.

I think conservative means looking back into history for social structure and using historical precedent. Liberal (or more specifically Progressive) believes in 'development' of society. Society is all ways changing and improving and will end in an ideal form (like communism).

Looking a bit deeper at the social structure, the working class have been deliberately divided so they cannot act in their own self interests. The white working class feels besieged because it lives under the chronic insecurity of capitalism, and it feels excluded from the benefits of affirmative action and other state programs. This group can then be mobilized through racism, homophobia, and anti-feminism. This mobilization acts against their own self interests.

The left is no better. They divide the working class separating 'white' from 'people of color'. They are mobilized through anti-racism, anti-homophobia, and feminism. Meanwhile not intrinsically helping the working class in any meaningful way.

You may say that the Democrats have become neo-liberals, and they are essentially the same as the Republicans, but I think this misses the point. What is going on is class warfare, and conservative vs liberal is just spectacle and propaganda. It is a way to divide and mobilize the middle and working classes to act against their own self interests.