Re: What is with conservatives?

The problem that Conservatives are having right now is;
are we the party of Reagan or Bush or Gingrich, or are we Tea Baggers?
Or are we Limburgers, Coulters or Becks, or just dingle berries?

Since World War II, and especially since the 1950s, the function of the Republican Party has been to be the "loyal, . . . . moderate," "bi-partisan," pseudo-opposition to the collectivist and leftist program of the Democratic Party. Unlike the more apocalyptic and impatient Bolsheviks, the Mensheviks (or social democrats, or corporate liberals, or "responsible" liberals, or "responsible" conservatives, or neo-conservatives -- the labels change, but the reality remains the same) try to preserve an illusion of free choice for the American public, including a two-party system, and at least marginal freedom of speech and expression.

The goal of these "responsible" or "enlightened" moderates has been to participate in the march to statism, while replacing the older American ideals of free markets, private property, and limited government with cloudy and noisy rhetoric about the glories of "democracy," as opposed to the one-party dictatorship of the Soviet Union.

 -- Murray Rothbard, Making Economic Sense