Are True Conservatives Extinct?

Perhaps we need to add one more species to the endangered species list: conservatives. I mean the traditional sort who believed in small government, balanced budgets, keeping Big Brother at bay and out of our homes, and were dedicated to a strong national defense. Are there any left? As the GOP is increasingly taken over by neo-conservatives who have eroded our civil rights, have borrowed and spended the country into oblivion, and weakened our military by sending the armed forces on fools errands.

The absolute silence by conservatives in regard to the NSA spying especially amazes me. Big government is documenting their financial transactions, their telephone calls, and even wiretapping millions of telephone calls. Who knows what else they may be doing? We only know about these major transgressions because of the press. The cherished conservative ideals of checks and balances have disappeared as Congress has abdicated its oversight obligations.

Why are traditional conservatives so silent about all this news? Does this mean they're all gone? If so what happened to them? Did the emasculation of the EPA result in so much mercury poisoning and too much arsenic in the water that these people are endangered? The real irony here is that these very same endangered species have been ranting against the endangered species act for years. Now it may be their only salvation. Where is Christie Todd Whitman for example? Did she lose her voice?

Here's another theory. The neo-cons have taken the country so far right the Democrats are now the Party of fiscal responsibility, the Party against big government, the Party protecting the sanctity of the home, and the Party of responsible national security policy. Welcome home conservatives, you're now Democrats.