The movie "Civil War" has stirred the point on these issues too.

The question of what authentic conservatism amounts to is an interesting one. I tried to discover that identity for myself by reading an array of conservative ideologues. I came to view conservatism as an anachronism in the context of "modernity," the period we're in now which is inherently humanistic, progressive, and thus liberal in the classic sense. Real conservatism is just anti-humanism, as in social Darwinism. That's the systematic effect of conservative policies, regardless of the obfuscating rhetoric that paints conservatives as "Christians," "traditionalists," or "libertarians."