What is modern conservatism?

This question has been going through my mind all semester as each week I read some new conservative intellectual tract form my class on the subject. First, they are very broad and diverse in their ideas. Second, there is none of the business worship and hate for anything non-business that characterizes the idiots panting for power in next week's election. Third, there are many threads of what a dictionary definition of conservatism entails, such as respect for tradition, the land, religion, individual freedom, and the freedom of groups and institutions between the individual and the state. Maybe that is more of an encyclopedia definition, but the idea of maintaining connection with the past and caution about the future definitely holds, as do the idea of conserving the good of our society and being on guard against rapid change.

Many ideas sound ugly to our ears, being good Americans holding the ideas of democracy, equality and the inherent goodness of people, and in favor of aristocracy in many forms. But, when the frame is pierced aristocracy as they define it actually seems something good for society for the most part. Here is the example that inspired this post, from Conservatism Revisited: The Revolt Against Ideology by Peter Viereck writing in 1949:

"In one sense, the concept of civil liberties is aristocratic and against democratic rule. If you insist on civil liberties, and there are few things more worthy of insistence, then you must be prepared to say: 'Even if a fairly elected, democratic majority of 99% wants to lynch all Negroes, Jews, Catholics, labor leaders, or bankers, it is our moral and legal duty to resist the majority, though we die in the attempt.' Guarding the Bill of Rights even against majorities and even against the people's will, the American Constitution performs an aristocratic and conservative function." (p. 77)

So... are the conservatives today, trampling on the civil liberties of Muslims, GLBTs, educators, unions, and so forth, actually conservative? Aristocracy, in many guises seems more the guardian of civilization than the arbiter of privilege so often invoked by right-wing populists. Viereck in this book argues that conservatism defends against both radical and reactionary swings. Now, in the US of 2010, what is tradition? I would argue that our traditions of the day depend on an aristocracy to faithfully execute the promises made by the populace between generations. Not any crass foundering to "save the babies" or trust to the "magic of the marketplace" but to use the public sphere to give all Americans a decent education, safety both from foreign invasion and other ills of modern life (bridges that don't collapse, food and water that don't make you sick, etc.), the promise that if you work hard you can succeed and at least not have to eat cat food in your sunset years because wall st. ate your nest egg and the drug companies extort everything from you. Does this sound "conservative"? No, it sounds like the New Deal and its legacy.

Conservatives today, or the freaks using that label, are hell-bent on shredding these traditions and taking us in an entirely new direction. This utopia of free markets is free of those traditions that make America great, is this what all of you who call yourselves conservative want? Do you really believe that jobs are disappearing left and right, your home value is plummetting and your 401k is a shadow of it's former self because we haven't cut taxes enough for companies and the rich? Where were you when the great conservative george w bush ran up enormous deficits for war and doubled the national debt during his time in office? Is there some magic threshold we have to cross before companies will start building things here again in your minds?

So, just as Liberals abandoned that name for the new but equally trashed name of Progressives, all of you who liked America before wall street went wild with your money and mine have a choice to make, what do you really stand for? Or you can just knuckle under and do whatever the right-wing demogauges tell you and hope they don't hit you again or ship your job overseas.