Can Conservatism Hold Together?
Julia Shaw /
News organizations were aflutter to report on the controversies at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) this past weekend. Several socially conservative groups boycotted the meeting. Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney were greeted with jeers and boos. One conference attendee was removed after calling the former Vice President a war criminal. Is conservatism imploding?
It depends. If the conservative consensus rests on support for specific policy proposals, then it is possible to find an issue to splinter the coalition. But, if conservatism is grounded “not as much at the level of policy as at the level of principle, where there is foundational agreement among a broad swath of the American people” then policy differences will not prove fractious. (more…)