Hilzoy piles on:
...it's worth asking whether this is a remotely plausible description even of ideal conservatism. Conservatism has not had much to do with the patient preservation of anything for several decades. Writing as though it has -- as though such acts of monumental hubris as the Iraq war never happened -- is like writing about Catholicism as though its record stopped with the early church fathers, and did not include the Inquisition.
I responded to John Cole's dissent here.
This article available online at:
http://www.theatlantic.com/daily-dish/archive/2009/03/conservatism-is-like/204038/
