Maybe conservatives don't want civil war after all...

For a while, it had seemed to me that the American conservative movement would rather rupture the country - violently, if need be - to prevent its own downfall. They had a downfall coming, thanks to their irresponsible bungling of basically every responsibility of government. Faced with the possibility of the "permanent victory" they were expecting in the 80s and 90s being snatched away, the Republicans might, I feared, choose to shred the Constitution instead, and keep the Democrats out of power by force. The election of 2000, and Bush's subsequent assumption of absolute executive power - just this week he has declared that he intends to refuse Congressional subpoenas - did not look promising. Presumably, conservative leaders believe(d) that their "base" would support them in an anti-Constitutional putch, disgusted as they are with the lifestyle and attitudes of liberals and "secularists.

That was the fear. But I'm thinking it might not happen after all. This week, several prominent conservatives have launched their own effort to stop Bush's destruction of civil liberties. That this effort includes Bob Barr, an arch-conservative stalwart, is incredibly encouraging.

We've also now got Donald Trump on our side.

It may be that the tide is turning against anti-constitutional fascism.But the menace will only be truly defeated when conservatives decide that saving America's constitutional system is more important than defeating their hated liberal foes. I pray for more and more of them to make this decision, and soon.