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This article is from the Conservatism FAQ, by Jim Kalb kalb@aya.yale.edu with numerous contributions by others.

How can tradition do anything but endorse the way things happen to be--which at present means established liberalism?

If traditionalism were a formal rule to be applied literally it could
tell us nothing: the current state of a tradition is simply the
current practices, attitudes, beliefs and so on of the community
whose tradition it is. The point of tradition, however, is that
formal rules are inadequate. Tradition is not self-contained, and not
all parts of it are equally authoritative. It is a way of grasping
things that are neither merely traditional nor knowable apart from
tradition. One who accepts a religious tradition, for example, owes
his ultimate allegiance not to the tradition but to God, who is known
through the tradition. It is that allegiance to something that
exceeds and motivates the tradition that makes it possible to
distinguish what is authentic and living in the tradition from
nonessentials and corruptions.