conservative vs. republican

I have always agreed with Alex's idea that liberal and conservative people should not be labeled as "democrats" or "republicans", because it often encourages voters to simply join a party and vote for said party without actually considering what the candidate has to say. It was very interesting to hear it from the perspective of someone who considers himself a conservative, because I have always sort of written off republicans as being the ones that are more likely to just choose a party as opposed to looking at the views. Obviously it's rather narrow-minded of me to believe that, and it's all because of those "political parties" that people group themselves into. I get a different idea about someone when they say that they are "conservative" as opposed to "a republican". It seems as if calling yourself "a republican" or "a democrat", using the noun, is defining to who you are. On the other hand, using "liberal" and "conservative" as adjectives is more like a trait, or part of the whole, which is more appropriate in defining a human being.