I don’t know what a “perfect conservative” is supposed to be. Since the intellectual recrudescence of the postwar era, there have been three interlocking but independent tendancies fighting for turf in the conservative mind (in no particular order):
1). Libertarianism, best exemplified by books like “The Road to Serfdom”
2). Traditionalism, best exemplified by books like “The Conservative Mind” and “Natural Right and History”
3). Anticommunism, best exemplified by books like “Witness”
Birchers were way, way over on the anticommunist side. Buckley was more on the libertarian side when he was younger, and to my mind grew more traditionalist as time went by. Anticommunism is tricky, given that communism no longer dominates foreign policy. Some former anticommunists today think like neocons, others shrunk back into isolationism.
Free trade has always been a wedge issue. Obviously libertarians are all-in. We follow them when it’s the two of us contra socialism. However, some of us fear communist China most of all, and therefore anticomminism dictates protectionism.
Russell Kirk thought libertarians might as well be socialists for being utilitarians, and as such drummed them out of the movement in his head. Libertarians notice the fellow feeling of traditionalists and socialists in personalities like Henry Adams and Hillaire Belloc, or contemporary progressive Pubs like Juan, Mitt, and Newt. So the two can act like they are mutually exclusive.
Goldwater today sounds like a lib on a lot of issues. Reagan was both too far to the right and left, simultaneously, to win Pub nomination today.
It’s all very confusing.
Anticommunism is tricky, given that communism no longer dominates foreign policy.
You’re right. Now communism is a domestic enemy.