There have been several articles of late talking about the death of conservatism in America with an almost giddy tone from the main stream media. EJ Dionne wrote a piece in the WaPo about the end of the ascendancy of the right. Now, granted, this year isn’t looking good for Republicans, but the mistake being made by the media is confusing conservatives with Republicans.

The media wants to believe the end is nigh for the conservative movement but that belies serious indicators that show otherwise. Some wise conservatives in the 50s, 60s, and 70s built institutions that did not rely on holding power in Washington. The Heritage Foundation, LI, YAF, ACU, etc all were built not only when the Republicans didn’t control every aspect of Washington, but moreover, when they controlled really no power in Washington. The conservative movement has built a base of power and support that is seperate from the electoral success of Republicans. Even if, and I don’t believe this will happen, but even if the GOP were to lose the House and the Senate this year, the future of the conservative movement is still bright.

Just take a look at the up and coming stars in both the House and the Senate. They are, with the exception of Barack Obama and maybe Harold Ford, all conservative Republicans (DeMint, Thune, Vitter, Pence, etc). The democrats certainly have some bench power in the governor’s mansions (Rendell, Schweitzer, Warner) but just a look at a blueish state like Pennsylvania belies the strength of the conservative movement.

In Pennsylvania, the rising stars are almost all Republicans and mostly conservative. The congressional delegation makes this abundantly clear as the Republicans in the delegation almost all having upwards mobility for future races: Hart, Dent, and Murphy specifically whereas the Democrat delegation lacks anyone with upballot appeal besides possibly Alyson Schwartz or Holden (though both have serious baggage that would make a statewide run hard). Moreover there are conservative institutions being built or already existing in PA (YCOP, PMA, Club for Growth, Right to Work, etc) that have no counterpart on the left save the unions.

All this is to say that things are not nearly so bleak for conservatives as the media would have you believe. Unlike liberals, conservatives have built their movement to survive outside of the halls of government, so even a worse case scenario doesn’t impinge on the future of the movement as heavily as the media wants to believe.

But we can certainly do better, and I want to open the comments thread to comments on how the conservative movement can better itself…