ABSTRACT

The line between right-wing extremists and "the conservative movement" has been increasingly blurred in the past 10 years, so blurred, in fact, that at times the two are nearly indistinguishable. The George H. W. Bush campaign made unmistakable appeals to neo-Confederates in the South Carolina primary, underscored by his speaking appearance at the ultra-conservative Bob Jones University, a school that had long resisted desegregation. During the 1990s, these voters gave Ross Perot's Reform Party nearly half its total base. This was critical in the 1992 election, when Bush saw much of his conservative base go to Perot. Conservatism, in its original state, is not a dogmatic philosophy but rather a style of thought, an approach to politics and life in general. Liberals are not the only ones who have observed this transformation of conservativism into a dogmatic movement; many longtime conservatives who remain true to their principles have as well.