Thursday, April 30, 2009

Conservatism...not so much

With the Republican brand all but destroyed; with fewer than twenty-five percent of Americans self identifying as Republicans, as conservatism become synonyms with fundamentalism, ignorance of science and the acceptance of torture, it seems natural that some would  try hard to redefine and re brand the once proud tradition of conservatism.   Kim Phillips-Fein, a historian at New York University, tries to do it by arguing that its historic, post New Deal strength was as the party of big business.  I'm not sure it's a goal conservatives should aspire to today, but it's an interesting theory.