Shouldn modern conservatives at least favor things that are as well-established as the welfare state and steady expansion of the scope of the civil rights laws?
Yes, to the extent they are consistent with the older and more fundamental parts of our social arrangements, such as family, community, and traditional moral standards, and contribute to the over-all functioning of the whole. Unfortunately, the things mentioned fail on both points. Existing welfare and civil rights measures make sense only as part of a comprehensive centrally managed system that is adverse to the connections among men that make community possible, and is designed to reorder society as a whole through bureaucratic decree. It is very difficult for conservatives to accept anything like such a system.
