When Rush spoke at CPAC, he said virtually nothing about foreign policy. It gave me false hope. Needless to say, Fox News is worse (with the exception of “the freedom hour”!).

But even domestic policy comments are half delusional these days. This blog post summed up part of the problem, but it goes deeper. Every time I hear someone lauding the Bush tax cuts, I want to know if their data excludes the fact of tremendously low interest rates of the Bush regime–rates that caused a bubble that could only pop. Even if my hunch can be proven wrong, that work needs to be done. There are people far more skeptical of conservative claims than I am.

And then today I heard people singing the praises of Cheney. The same people who sneer at big-government conservatism laud the big-governor-in-chief. Bush destroys the GOP and we’re supposed to defend that legacy? How is nation-building and sending drone bombs into civilian-populated homes remotely conservative?

It is not. There simply is no conservative presence anywhere significant. Obama in the White House should be the beginning of great things for the GOP, but they are going to blow it.

Here is what I want to see as a real conservative movement:

Love of peace, hatred of offensive war, jealousy of the state governments toward the general government; a dread of standing armies; a loathing of public debt, taxes, and excises; tenderness for the liberty of the citizen; jealousy, Argus-eyed jealousy, of the patronage of the president.

Just dreaming.