This probably gets into all sorts of philosophy of language concepts that I don't really understand, but when deciding what "real" conservative policies are, I don't know how you distinguish between the policies conservatives are supposed to have, and the policies conservative politicians actually seek to enact. I think the normal workaround is to call the former set of perfect-world concepts "libertarianism," but Tyler Cowen seems to merge the two in this post.
In any case, Greg Anrig is right. The basket of policies pushed by recent conservative politicians have done very poorly. And they're sort of the basket voters need to be evaluating when trying to judge conservatism and the candidates who pledge fealty to it. Any Marxist will tell you that "real" Marxism was never tried. That said, just about every time something called Marxism was tried, it traveled down much the same course, and failed in much the same way. Which is what you should be passing judgment on. Similarly, conservatism isn't ending up in this mess by accident. The constellation of interest groups and donors who fund the movement, when mixed with the preferences of the electorate (no, you can't take away my Medicare or cut my Social Security), tend to produce a fairly predictable and similar set of policies -- tax cuts without spending restraint, corporate welfare, weak energy policy, no health care program to speak of, etc, etc. In essence, that set of policies is what conservatism becomes in office. And so it's the set that should be evaluated.
Speaking of which, Greg Anrig's book, The Conservatives Have No Clothes: Why Right Wing Ideas Are Failing, is quite good. Check it out. It did leave me wondering, though. What's the recent, conservative, domestic idea that right-leaning folks can point to proudly? The closest I can come is No Child Left Behind, which has some worth (though does need reform) -- but massively expanding federal oversight over public education isn't a very conservative thought, and the bill was crafted by Ted Kennedy. I know the Right is proud of welfare reform, but what's the successor?
