So the American conflict is between two kinds of liberalism, classical, individualist liberalism, and the social democratic kind that addresses the history of the former's failures.

I'd be interested, though, in the underlying conservatism that attracts those classically liberal Americans (the alienated libertarian Southerners and Appalachians) to that brand of liberalism, and that leads them to call it rather a form of conservatism. What's the underlying alienation or racism about? It could be anti-humanism, which would make for a deeper American conflict after all, one between anti-humanists and humanists/proper liberals.

I think we need to distinguish between pretexts and real values. Just because one side says it cares about individualism doesn't make it so, or doesn't mean that side has thought through that value or principle.

Maybe we should think of the conflict as being between incomplete and more complete liberals/humanists. Or maybe the two sides differ in the degree of coherence of their formulations of liberalism.