Is Conservatism Dead?Mike Rappaport

The declarative version of the title of the post, rather than the inquisitive, is the thesis of a New Republic piece by Whitiker Chambers biographer San Tanenhaus.   He writes:

Yet, even as the right begins to regroup, it is not clear that its leaders have absorbed the full implications of their defeat. They readily concede that the Democrats are in charge and, in Obama, have a leader of rare political skills. Many on the right also admit that the specific failures of the outgoing administration were legion.

Yada, yada, yada.  Look, I believe that conservatism hurt itself badly with the lethal combination of big government conservatism with incompetent government conservatism.  But the ideas of smaller government conservatism remain strong.    

The essential problem with claims like Tanenhaus's is that they fail to recognize that incompetence and extremeness by the liberal Democrats has the power to devestate the new age of Obama.  I am not saying it is going to happen, but it is quite possible and that would be the end of talk about the end of conservatism.  Just remember that Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton both presided over periods that began with the end of conservatism and ended with its triumph.  Moreover, it was disapproval over George Bush's presidency and the behavior of the congressional Republican that created the problems for conservatism in the first place.