American conservatism Overdoing it Aug 20th 2009 From The Economist print edition The Death of Conservatism. By Sam Tanenhaus. Random House; 144 pages; $17. Buy from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk THE recent implosion of the conservative movement is one of the great puzzles of American political history. Four years ago the Republican Party was in charge of the White House and both chambers of Congress. Today the party is locked out of power in Washington entirely, confused about its future and dominated by its know-nothing fringe. Is Bill O’Reilly conservatism’s mortician? Sam Tanenhaus, the editor of the New York Times Book Review,...