Team spirit

The question, of course, is whether or not conservatism is a philosophy or a political movement. If the former, then it should have a meaning more or less independent of what happens to be trendy political thought at the moment. If the latter, then Yglesias is right. I suppose that, among people who write about politics for a living, the latter fits into their mode of thinking more readily.

I think Bill is right. The Republican party is about winning elections. Sure, the party embodies principles, but these are changed or abandoned altogether if necessary at times.
Conservatism is a political philosophy, period. And it's been a very rigid model built on Reagan, which has been quite inflexible. I get very annoyed at Brooks, since he threw a lot of fuel on the fire of compassionate conservatism, and now he says gee winikers why don't they change? Well, dude, compassionate conservatism WAS the change! I would dearly love to be tempted by a Democratic party presidential candidate, but take a look at the roster and come back and tell me who you'd be comfortable with. Yeah, the Repubs aren't much better, but they're still better.

But when any movement gets caught up in groupthink, and forgets first principles in favor of power politics, it runs the risk of ossifying. The worst example of current groupthink is this insane notion that our national security is somehow dependent on the compostition of the government of Iraq.

"The worst example of current groupthink is this insane notion that our national security is somehow dependent on the compostition of the government of Iraq." Amen to that! Although, even if Bush and co. were alone in thinking this, and this was seen as "thinking outside the box," the Iraq war would still be a stupid idea. It's funny, in the past Republicans at least pretended commitment to time-honored conservative principles, some of which were "Kirkian" (or should I say Burkean?), but Rove and the Clever Men seem to view conservative principles as only fit for pansies and weaklings who don't know how to win elections. I guess there's a certain logic to this...as long as you ONLY want to win elections.

"...when the conservative mainstream marched off rah-rah to war, and condemned conservatives who didn't agree with us as somehow false conservatives..." Let's be honest, a lot of you guys did MUCH more that that. People who disagreed with the war were called un-American, unpatriotic, material supporters of Al-Qaeda. The word "treason" has been bandied about more in the last four years by conservatives than in the last 50. It's still used today. Hell, look at the last RNC, with all those beaming Republicans sporting Purple Heart band-aids, denigrating the service of a veteran who happened to disagree with them. I know this is supposed to be water under the bridge, but we cannot forget how many conservatives, when their side was in power, slandered so many of their fellow Americans.