is conservatism finished?
Wilfred McClay asks "Is conservatism finished?" in the pages of Commentary magazine (h/t: Suzanne Fields at TownHall) is interesting, although not completely for the reasons McClay might have intended. He refers to conservatism's "run of two decades or so," conveniently beginning his timing with "the conservative coalition that came to power with Reagan's election in 1980."
This is a common tactic on the Right, but it is simply inaccurate: Reagan was not the beginning of the latest conservative resurgence, but its apogee. Conservatism's run of nearly four decades in the Oval Office began with Nixon's victory. (When considering his presidency and Dubya's, I can understand why conservatives want to focus on Reagan; what else remains?)
McClay views the GOP's handwringing and finger-pointing this way:
Paradoxically, the profusion of books about the death-rattle of conservatism might be better understood as a sign of conservatism's continuing importance. It is no small matter when writers as diverse as Jeffrey Hart and Andrew Sullivan want to contend for the ownership of, or at least identification with, the label "conservative"...