Conservatism of a previous generation.

Although I am not a doctrinaire conservative of any sort, I grew up with a Conservative,politically active ( at least when young) and , most important to my column, intellectual family. I went door to door for Goldwater ( albeit in a stroller) who can beat that? My Mother, Rest in Peace, sent one of the letters urging Ron Reagan to run for California governor. Nell carter ( Anne's mom) was her best friend for a time. I know something about conservatism. What the Tea baggers and Republican leaders have preached for 20 years is not Conservatism. It is a radical Right-wing movement with nationalist, theocratic, authoritarianism and possibly worst, anti-intellectualism. This is both reverting to an earlier, more reactionary and overtly racist era where the conservatives were often Democrats. William F. Buckley created a new yet old brand of intellectual conservatism based on Burke, Friedman and Hayek as well as Thomas Aquinas and the Intellectual Catholicism he begat, cumulating in C.S. Lewis and G.K.Chesterton. Buckley marginalized the Birchers and shamed the racists. This was the Conservatism I grew up on. It has many good ideas, is a consistent and rigorous political theory. I see nothing like this in todays conservatism. The hatred for science, distrust in expertise, blatant nationalism, and the weird slightly unhinged anger that makes normal political distourse a deal with the Devil were not part of National Review conservatism.These people, the Tea Baggers and the cynical plutocrats who leach off their energy are Rightist Radicals. If you believe this is what our decadent country needs, so be it. But don't call it by what it is not; Conservatism