[Rembrandt_fan]

You wrote, "Conservatives as a whole did not lose here. Republicans did."

I suppose had the Republican Party held its own in the recent election, you would've been celebrating a conservative victory.

The Republican Party is the party of conservatism--or, better defined, the only means by which conservative thought may be implemented into national policy. Whatever else they might be, Libertarians are not conservatives, Pat Buchanan 'paleocons' are not conservatives, and those right-leaning third parties who garner maybe 2000 votes nationwide? Who knows, they may be conservatives, but are too inconsequential to matter.

[billbears]

The Republican Party is the party of conservatism--or, better defined, the only means by which conservative thought may be implemented into national policy.

If by 'implemented into national policy' you mean interfering into the affairs of the states and their respective citizens to forward views that were never meant to be the business of the national government, then yes I suppose they are.

Libertarians are not conservatives

Don't accept the blame, blame others. I lean towards the Libertarian Party as it's the closest to what I believe and I'm conservative. And I wouldn't support 5% of what the Republicans have foisted upon the citizens of the respective states in the past 6 years.

[perfect_rovian_storm]

No, if they had held their own, which I hoped to all hell that they would, I would have breathed a hefty sigh of relief. But they didn't hold their own. They lost.

The reason they lost is the same reason that Kerry lost in 04. They were running with nothing to offer but fear of the other guy.

They didn't have anything positive to offer because they had totally lost their way. They had paralyzed themselves. They did NOTHING since 2004. To get them to advance anything was like pulling teeth and then you only got the tooth loose without actually pulling it.

Before you jump all over people for being 'off the reservation', maybe you should take a look at the reservation and realize that many of us would gladly be back on it if our leaders would run the place properly.

What we are going through now is a wakeup call. Sounds like you are sleeping through it. I'm fearful that Bush and some other important people are too.