I don't think so, I seldom agree with many of their tenets, but like any political ideology, they offer an alternative, and in some cases, America has done well with conservative philosophy.
What we have now in the GOP isn't conservatism, personally I see it as the end product of thirty years of hate initiated with the popularity of talk radio, melodrama sells, the more evil the bad guys are the more the perpetrators make, what the GOP has done has rode the wave inorder to attain political success taking the party away from its conservative roots
I appreciate what you are saying, Archives, and there may be some truth and worth to it. But it is my opinion that American conservatism is a blight on the planet...
...and I was addressing American conservatism NOT the GOP. So your comments about the GOP really do not apply here.