Conservatism is not parroting articles of faith

The Republican Party has become very doctrinaire. This is not conservatism.

Conservatism, going back to Edmund Burke, involves a pragmatic reliance on what has worked in the past and militates against blind ideological prescription. But that is precisely what today’s GOP has been doing: parroting 30 year-old articles of faith regardless of the circumstance.

Recession? Cut spending anyway! Deficit? Don’t you dare raise taxes! Rigid ideological purism is not conservative.