There is no doubt that the strongest facets of the conservative movement in this country are polemical, combative, and often loud. Buckley was the best they had, and his Eminence Grise of the Conservative movement role has been taken up as much by Rush Limbaugh as anyone -- a brilliant man, but one full of bile and anger, and one who thinks with more heat than light. Hannity is a wannabe, but as far as I can see he is just a mob-lasher whose highest qualifications are (1)sound and (2)fury.

But behind the clouds generated by the loud polemical arm-wavers, it cannot be doubted that there are many more quiet, perhaps even thoughtful souls, whose commitment is genuinely based on a dislike of government, a powerful belief in individual responsibility, a strong dislike of progressive taxation, and a conviction that America is the best nation in the world despite its flaws. A belief that I once shared, actually, prior to the neocon invasion. Oddly enough, Rush Limbaugh does not consider either Bush OR MCCain as a true conservative, which immediately tells you he has a more refined meaning in mind for the word.

Here at the Cat, of course, we tend to gravitate strongly toward democratic ideals of a liberal stamp, being attuned to the long history of labor, low-rent livin', desperate high-jinks, hard traveling and heartbreak that our musical tradition centers around. But individually, many of us are not pure pinko tree-hugging commie hippie beatnik bastards (a phrase that was taught to me by a Philadelphia police gentleman). We have some kind and reasonable folks who are distinctly right of center, and are much dismayed by some of the Republican Party's highjinks of the last few years.

ANd on specific philosophical issues, many of us also believe, for example, in the rock-bottom resource of individual responsibility, initiative, the entrepreneurial spirit, the incomparable importance of the American Experiment begun in 1776, and the value of preserving some aspects of the American Heritage.

I was particularly interested in a recent article in the TImes Magazine, a closeup of Rush Limbaugh himself.

SO I thought it might be worthwhile to ask what you see or know about the Conservative philosophy as she is spoke and as she is practiced , what it means to those who ally themselves with its banner. What is the belief system that informs a "conservative"?

My suspicion, FWIW, is that under the sturm und drang of the polarized beliefs of some, there is a core set of almost axiomatic agreements that form a more important common ground.

What do you know about the actual thoughts and practices of Conservatism?

A