I've gotta agree on two different points. First with Anrig's last sentence.

"If the case against the dominant belief system of recent years is presented clearly and forcefully, many Americans who used to think of themselves as conservative will realize that they now have more in common with progressives."

So very true, and something I write about all the time on my blog. But I don't see how this in itself makes modern conservatism a failure, at least not in a message sense. If anything it makes the case that the American public is largely more progressive than what so-called conservatives want everyone to believe. Therefore, it becomes a message problem for the Democrats and progressives, not a policy failure or even an ideological one. I suppose I'm less concerned with the failures of movement conservatism as I am with the failures of progressives being able to formulate their issues to the public.

Secondly, I agree with Howard Ford above that conservatives are anything but small government and fiscally responsible. What possibly is an example from Bush's two terms that can constitute as small government or fiscally responsible-- the two supposed bedrock issues conservatives believe in. Again, this goes back to my message problem. The GOP is the first to attack Obama for spending plans while sitting idly by when George Bush took the largest surplus in history and turned it into the largest deficit in history.

It's my understanding that modern conservatism still claims to itself fiscal responsibility and small government. There's just not one ounce of credibility to that given the last 8 years of George Bush. Democrats should do more to remind the public of that than any "good" ideas from Republicans.

Posted at May 2, 2008 3:53 PM in response to Time to Win the War of Ideas--Finally