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a group of conservative intellectuals, associated either with think tanks or journals, who work out philosophical and political stances, translate them into policy proposals, followed by attempts to put them into effect by the GOP, with the support of the mass of conservatives across the country.

This isn't conservatism, it's GOPe. Conservatism is not putting policies into affect (through mass movements and legislation). It's tearing apart the admiminstrative state, cutting regulations and the agencies that impose them, focusing on national security and what is best for America.

And not that is not racist or xenophobic. It's believing that the best organizations to look out for the welfare of the British or the French is not the UN or the EU or the US, but the government AND people of the UK or France. We can be friends, we can trade, but we have to steer clear of each others internal affairs.

Conservatism is not about bringing conservative principles to the criminalization of petty regulatory violations. It's getting rid of all of it so that a free people can be free.

The problem is that "establishment" conservatives are not conservative, they are establishment, driven by the same K-street guys who drive the liberals. The difference is that the leftists want subsidies for the poor out of the crony capitalist state; establishment "conservatives" want a compassionate corny capitalist state.