Those who believe all forms of conservative thought are the same never have read George Nash’s classic The Conservative Intellectual Movement in America Since 1945.
I just finished the 30th anniversary edition, which includes about 30 pages of new material. Within the new writing is an interesting description of the growing number of “conservatisms”:
As the conservative universe expanded, there arose a tendency within it to classify its adherents in ever smaller groupings and factions. Conservatives had long lived with tensions between libertarians and traditionalists. By 2006 these categories had been joined by neocons, paleocons, “theocons” (theological or religious conservatives), and “Leocons” (disciples of Leo Strauss). Traditionalist conservatives with “green” sensibilities and countercultural tastes were known as “crunchy cons.” Conservatives under the age of 25 had been labeled minicons. All this was rather playful and amusing, but it suggested the fissiparous impulses at work.
