“The way I understand Rush is that a person has to hold every single conservative position (in social, economic, patriotic, etc.) before he can be called ‘conservative’.”
Because that is conservatism, the rest of the people have to balance what compromises they will accept, that is why a lot of the liberal republicans are joining Obama, Palin is too conservative for them and they won’t support her just to maintain their “economic conservatism”
This is where I have problem with: the straight line model where 'real conservative' is on one corner, and the more distance a person from that corner, the less conservative he is. There is no place in this model for various kinds of conservatism. I don't think reality is like that. As I mentioned in my post, Reagan revolution is about his ability in putting them together in one umbrella.