Well, it looks like this war is largely over--although I would be surprised if there wasn't a bit of fierce fighting ahead. Also, according to many conservatives, this quick and relatively painless war has proven Liberalism wrong for all time. So in short order, you can look to see Conservatism being the only political philosophy around.
I can’t claim to be any great theoretician on the subject, but I have made certain observations. There seem to be two main branches of conservatism, what I will call Libertarian Conservatism and Traditionalist Conservatism.
Libertarian Conservatives are primarily concerned with the size of the government—they want it to be a lot smaller. Depending on how far they want to go, they would like to see government get completely out of the Welfare, the Retirement, the Housing, the Environment, and the Education business. They obviously want to see taxes slashed greatly, and they oppose government regulation, particularly in the corporate arena. In short they want government to focus on maximizing personal freedom (which generally means shrinking government). Libertarians are often indifferent to social issues, believing that the inability of the government to "legislate morality" renders such debate irrelevent. That said, some libertarians, on the basis of maximizing personal freedom, do support legalized marijuana or legalized prostitution.
I’ve often labeled Traditionalist Conservatives as Religious Conservatives, but recently released that that is inaccurate (as it is entirely possible to have a preference for tradition while not following any God). The Traditionalist' key concern is with preserving his or her interpretation of American Identity and Culture. Many are concerned with the preservation of American symbols, such as the Flag and the Pledge of Allegiance. Many Traditionalists support a strong military, seeing it both as a protection of the American way of life and as a symbol for what is best in our culture.
Another way of preserving a traditional American culture is through cutting off our borders, keeping out those who do not share our values and ideals. It should be said that many traditionalists have a fairly restrictive view of what an American is.
Of course, the largest subset of traditionalist conservatives are religiously motivated. They want to see traditional and generally religious standards upheld. The two most obvious areas of religious influence are in the Abortion debate and the Gay Rights debate, but it also plays into the continual attacks on Hollywood for corrupting our youth (Interesting how Madison Avenue, which is probably a bit more effective at corrupting our youth, generally gets the pass.).
The abundance of secret conspiracy theories is also, in my mind, a reflection of Traditionalist interests. You see, many Americans pay little more than lip service to their concerns, particularly when it comes to Hollywood. Why is that? Since they believe in a true American spirit that should exist among the American people, they have conjured up in their mind a sort of apocalyptic scenario. The Liberals completely control our education system, and our media system, and our entertainment system. Despite clear Republican control over all branches of Government, an abundance of some traditionalists still feel besieged. And this besiegement justifies their tactics.
Now let me be clear. Not all Conservatives fit neatly into these two categories. Most have a bit of Traditionalist and a bit of Libertarian ideas in them. It helps that for the most part the Libertarian and the Traditionalist focus on different areas of debate.
But now that Liberalism has been vanquished, the Libertarian and Traditionalist forces within the Conservative Movement may start to pull in different directions. The Traditionalist feels more comfortable with FBI scrutiny into Citizen's private lives, assuming that the innocent have nothing to hide, while the Libertarian will resist (and, indeed, has already begun resisting) such encroachments into their lives. It will be interesting to see what happens.
That is assuming that Liberalism is gone for good.
Keep in mind the distinction between Libertarian and Traditionalist Conservative; we will be revisiting them soon.
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