Gary Kamiya, in this evening's post on Salon, states

"The colossal failure of the Bush administration has destroyed the right wing's appeal to most Americans. In effect, conservatism has returned to being what it was in the days of Goldwater -- a fringe movement."

I think it might be more accurate to call conservatism, in its modern guise, a regional movement, and the GOP a regional party. These will remain the default affiliation for whites in much of the South and West--specifically, those parts where whites self-identify by distinguishing themselves from the non-whites among whom they live.

Edmund Burke would no more recognize what's done today in America in the name of "conservatism" than Adam Smith would recognize what's done here in the name of the "free market," or Abraham Lincoln would recognize the organization that goes by the name of the "Republican Party." Race and American exceptionalism are the only forces holding the party, and the movement that swallowed it, together. As for the "free market," the past few weeks have educated many Americans in just how much of a twisted socialist dystopia we really live in (socialism for the few, that is). Does anybody remember Dick Armey saying, in the glory days of the Gingrich Revolution, "The Market is smart, government is stupid?" The right wing has seen to the last part, but they couldn't quite rig the first part.