is it possible to be truly "conservative" in america?

in "buried alive," walter karp observes that while strong movements in america have always called themselves "conservative," virtually none of those movements has ever actually been conservative - that is, devoted to keeping things the way they are.

instead, he writes, they've been steadfastly opposed to the way things are. "we have had conservatives who wanted voters disenfranchised and 'mass democracy' curbed; conservatives who pined for a parliamentary system of government; conservatives who wanted america ruled by a council of corporate magnates; conservatives who yearned for established churches and fixed social classes. today we have conservatives who would dismantle the federal government in order to restore 'the free-market economy' and conservatives who would have us wage holy war against russia [karp is writing in 1979] though the very heavens might fall. so far from cherishing things as they are, the conservative in america is almost invariably a malcontent."

he notes that there has never been a single significant conservative thinker or politician in the united states: "britain has its burke, coleridge, and dr johnson, its pitt, disraeli, and churchill. american conservatives cannot lay firm claim to a single american hero. alexander hamilton is often regarded as the archetypal american conservative, and in a certain sense he was. at one point in his career hamilton talked of overthrowing the republic and making himself first consul."

he attributes this strange absence to the nature of a popular republic, where since nothing is valued simply because it's traditional and anything can be overturned if enough of the people desire it, every "conservative" winds up pitting himself against the very radicalness of america itself and trying to curb popular rule in some way. in other words, it's IMPOSSIBLE to be truly conservative in america. did ronald reagan fit the definition of a conservative? no. there's a reason they called it the "reagan revolution."