American conservatism is in disarray. Save for judicial appointments and tax cuts, George W. Bush?s compassionate conservatism has been a disaster for the Republican Party and the conservative movement. The Bush era fractured the old Reagan coalition of traditionalists and libertarians.

There is a way forward. However, it requires going back to first principles. No new synthesis for a governing coalition is required. The coalition is broken but still exists. To repair it, we need to return to the fusionist principles formulated by Frank Meyer and William F. Buckley Jr. in the pages of National Review.