Callin' it Like it is

E.J. Dionne sums up nicely in the Washington Post:

The cause of Edmund Burke, Leo Strauss, Robert Nisbet and William F. Buckley Jr. is now in the hands of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity -- and Sarah Palin. Reason has been overwhelmed by propaganda, ideas by slogans, learned manifestoes by direct-mail hit pieces.

It can be hard to remember sometimes, but conservatism wasn't always shorthand for an ideology that tolerated no deviations and ridiculed thought. Someday the movement will have ideas again. When they do, we can perhaps have legitimate debate again in this country.