E.J. Dionne has a great piece in today’s Washington Post raising the question of “is conservatism dead“?

What might have seemed an absurd question less than two years ago is now one of the most important issues in American politics. The question is being asked — mostly quietly but occasionally publicly — by conservatives themselves as they survey the wreckage of their hopes, and as their champions in the Republican Party use any means necessary to survive this fall’s elections.

Conservatism is an honorable disposition that, in its modern form, is inspired by the philosophy developed by Edmund Burke in the 18th century. But as a contemporary American movement, conservatism is rooted intellectually in the 1950s and the circles around William F. Buckley Jr. and National Review magazine. It rose politically with Barry Goldwater’s campaign in 1964.

[SNIP]

President Bush, his defenders say, has pioneered a new philosophical approach, sometimes known as “big-government conservatism.” The most articulate defender of this position, the journalist Fred Barnes, argues that Bush’s view is “Hamiltonian” as in Alexander, Thomas Jefferson’s rival in the early republic. Bush’s strategy, Barnes says, “is to use government as a means to achieve conservative ends.”

Kudos to Barnes for trying bravely to make sense of what to so many others — including some in conservative ranks — seems an incoherent enterprise. But I would argue that this is the week in which conservatism, Hamiltonian or not, reached the point of collapse.

The most obvious, outrageous and unprincipled spasm occurred last night when the Senate voted on a bill that would have simultaneously raised the minimum wage and slashed taxes on inherited wealth.

The problem with conservatism is that greed eventually overpowers common sense. I do believe in being conservative, but on a liberal front. Our government’s number one priority is to be able to take care of it’s citizens. This is something we have seen greatly forgotten with the Bush administration. You don’t have to think back far to realize this, just think of a year ago and the Katrina debacle.