The (Living) End of the Right

While his Washington Post op-ed, "The End of the Right," is not ultimately any more coherent than he claims conservatism is, centrist-ish political pundit E.J. Dionne (author of a helpful book, Why Americans Hate Politics, in the early '90s) thinks that we are seeing a looming death of the Right, offering as evidence such things selling out on the minimum wage while holding fast to estate tax cuts--in addition to some intra-movement squabbling over the Iraq War, immigration, stem-cells, and spending.

Ultimately, his complaint seems to read more like "conservatives aren't the sort of centrists I'd prefer them to be." Far from it being the death of them, the Right has pretty much had its life defined by what Dionne is spelling out, this sort of weak-kneed semi-serious rhetorical devotion to small government combined with war mongering, sops to the religious right, and occasionally pissing off their more serious intellectuals while never causing them to bolt the coalition. Still, expect this meme of a right-wing collapse to have long legs (until the November election, when a GOP victory would probably kneecap it until the 2008 presidential race).