Democrats.

Sorry folks. George Bush is conservative. His pop is conservative, Ronnie Ray Guns was conservative. You either own it, or not. You don’t like what American conservatism has wrought? Then you’re not an American conservative.

Me, I never was, so I have no such cognitive dissonance to deal with.

If the Republicans go back to being the Country Club Republicans, they will be irrelevent starting tomorrow because there is definitely not enough Country Club types to be relevent in politics let alone win elections.

You forget modern conservatism’s alliance with the religious right. It gets them some hard core votes but is finally really alienating the moderates enough to have a major effect, especially after the Schiavo fiasco.

The 50’s were not conservative when you realize that the top margainal tax rate was over 90% and the legacy of economic central planning left over from World War II still dominate the goverment.

However, for conservatism to be relevent, there has to be enough people to support the philosophy. In the future, there will not be enough people will to support it.

The other problem conservatism has is that it takes things away without giving as much back. In the short term, conservatism cannot win against a political movement willing to provide “free” healthcare, education, and housing.

The mistake American conservatives made – of course – is that they stood by Bush, even when it had become crystal clear that Bush is anything but a conservative.

Of course he’s conservative. Tax cuts, relaxing environmental regulation, putting conservatives on the Supreme Court.

If fact, the only thing unconservative Bush has done, the Iraq war, is one of the few things conservatives still cheer for him over.

There are arguments defending the ideology of the Roman Empire. Apparently failure came from straying too far from the core ideas.

I have an ideology at the core of which is the proposal that we install guardian angels instead of humans as our representatives in government. It has never been implemented, and, therefore, has never failed.

I’m sure conservatism as an ideology hasn’t failed, but it’s certainly been damaged by it’s association with the Bush regime.

agreed.

That’s not to say that in 8-10 years the pendulum won’t swing the other way, but for now this is the trend.

This is obvious to those of us who’ve been around for half a century or more.

To superdestroyers comment I would add this: Conservatism would benefit greatly from not being perceived as primary enablers of the corporate nanny state.