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Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Protean conservatism

Recommended reading: "Real Conservatism," by D.R. Tucker at the Huffington Post. To a large degree, I share D.R.'s frustration with the current state of conservatism. (For both of us, reaction against right-wing dismissal of global warming was a big factor in such disillusionment.) However, I avoid calling some desired set of ideas "real conservatism" as I think there are better and worse forms of conservatism, not a readily definable authentic type versus bogus types. Conservatism long has taken various forms (often simultaneously) and changed frequently--Coolidge's was different from Goldwater's, etc. The protean nature of conservatism is well discussed in The Conservative Century: From Reaction to Revolution, by Gregory L. Schneider, a book I read a couple of years ago.