RIP, Movement Conservatism

[endicom]

American Thinker
J. R. Dunn
Feb. 27, 2017

Among his other accomplishments, Donald Trump, without ever intending to, has fractured conservatism – something that was long overdue.

The American conservative movement has come quite a distance since the middle of the last century, from a small coterie viewed with contempt by the larger culture to the front ranks of a juggernaut that set back the plans of this country’s left-wing collectivists to a degree that its founders would not have considered possible. (Recall William F. Buckley’s statement that the role of conservatism was to “stand athwart history, yelling “stop.”  Incredible as it may seem, “history” did stop.) Today, in large part due to its own success, it is on its way back to coterie status.

More... http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2017/02/rip_movement_conservatism.html

[Norm Lenhart]

It died out when principle became a bad word and called 'the problem' by leftists infiltrating the ranks with the express purpose of destroying conservatism.

Today we see people claiming to be conservatives pushing for giving Planned Parenthood money, calling for economic slavery to the blessed homosexual of Christian businesses and myriad excuses of why Sharia should be imported to America unfettered.

Conservatism died because 'conservatives' killed it through their own apathy. They could not be assed to purge liberalism from their ranks, it got a toe hold, spread and metastasized.

[endicom]

It died out when principle became a bad word and called 'the problem' by leftists infiltrating the ranks with the express purpose of destroying conservatism.

Today we see people claiming to be conservatives pushing for giving Planned Parenthood money, calling for economic slavery to the blessed homosexual of Christian businesses and myriad excuses of why Sharia should be imported to America unfettered.

Conservatism died because 'conservatives' killed it through their own apathy. They could not be assed to purge liberalism from their ranks, it got a toe hold, spread and metastasized.

I'm not sure that it ever existed. In the political ranks, anyway. Fiscal conservatives were usually guys from states with small populations and with a talent for grabbing, on a per capita basis, more than their share of federal dollars. The bible-hawking social conservative was apt to be the guy caught in a cloak room with a male page.

They are mostly just politicians like the rest.