Everyone yelling about things like gay rights and/or religion or this or that is ridiculous, it's all a distraction

I could not agree more. It is these people that will destroy the world. Not only do they fuel distraction they also muzzle debate.

It's NPR, they have an agenda. Just follow the money.

That might be true on social issues, but otherwise, it isn't. They're almost as much in favor of high spending and big, intrusive government as the liberal Democrats, and in terms of foreign policy, they're probably even further down the interventionist, lets-play-world-police path than even the Democrats are.

They might want to re-evaluate what a conservative actually is, because that study is garbage, as far as this conservative is concerned. On the balance, Republicans haven't been all that conservative in quite a while.

You attack this political scientist for being an idiot (which he really is) then give a completely incorrect version of what Conservatism is. If you cared to pay attention to philosophical premises and historical thinkers which founded the “ideology” it would be realized that your definition of Conservatism has more holes than a slice of Swiss cheese. Please remember I am saying this, not to offend you because I generally enjoy your posts, but rather to correct you from future error.

What you described as Conservatism is actually Classical Liberalism to Conservative Liberalism. The former being more Libertarian and the latter being slightly more socially conservative. Either way modern definitions of Conservatism are just taking Liberalism, finding an era of its reign you favor, and assigning the identification of Conservative to it. This completely disregards any and all intellectual contributors to a genuine Conservative identity, philosophy, and practice. I find that particularly annoying because I actually consider myself a true Conservative and have dedicated priceless hours to understanding its core tenants, only to then read about people arguing in favor of Liberal positions and claiming they are Conservative warriors.

The United States has never had a Conservative tradition; it has been the battle of the Liberals since its inception. This whole misapplication happened thanks to the 19th century Whigs in England who were opposed to the dramatic new reforms being proposed by the more radical elements in their party who later became Socialists. In order to defend Liberalism against the growth of Socialism they had to create an argument in favor of the Liberal (Whig) system. To do this they needed the help of Conservative arguments, for this Edmund Burke’s writings sufficed because it was abstract enough to be applied even to non-Conservative systems. In so doing this the Whigs dug in for the defense of laissez-faire capitalism, free-trade, constitutionalism, and unbridled liberty against the radicalism of its left-wing; i.e. they defended a particular era of Liberalism.

If you want to be a Classical/Conservative Liberal that is your business, not mine.

Yea, I am gonna have to call this an NPR slam piece too.

Sorry, but that's what it is.

These aren't real conservatives, these are Gingrich era Neo Cons. Nothing like what a true conservative is. I don't agree with everything that true Conservatism stands for, but a lot of it makes sense.