Sorry, But Conservatism Isn’t Dead Just Yet There's nothing 'extremist' about Constitutional idealism.By David Harsanyi
February 27, 2018 As long as modern conservatism has existed, there has also existed a genre of liberal punditry that laments the inexplicable extremism that’s taken hold of the Republican Party. This week, The Washington Post’s E.J. Dionne penned one such concern-trolling piece — the kind he’s written dozens of over the past few decades — in which he argues that extremism has now killed conservatism altogether.
“It is time to read last rites over the American conservative movement. After years of drifting steadily toward extreme positions,†writes Dionne, “conservatism is dead, replaced by a far right that has the Republican Party under its thumb.â€
Don’t call the priest just yet.
For starters, the driving issues of American political conservatism haven’t changed much since 1964, and they are unlikely to drastically change any time soon. Of course movements go through cycles of varying intensity, focus, tenor, and leadership (some far better than others), but most factions of today’s Republican Party, from establishment types to Tea Party types to Donald Trump types (in actions, if not always rhetoric), still lean heavily on the promise of tax cuts, deregulation, religious freedom, economic growth, constitutional originalism, and robust defense to sell their agenda. Good or bad, this underlying agenda would be just as recognizable to a Republican in 1980 as it is in 2018.
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http://thefederalist.com/2018/02/27/sorry-but-conservatism-isnt-dead-just-yet/
