Conservatism is DEAD...... or at least very, very SICK

But not according to NRO Cornerite Ponnuru. All is well:

The past few years have seen a heartening revival of popular interest in the Constitution and Declaration of Independence as documents that should guide our political life generally and not just the deliberations of judges.

But the conservative defense of the country's founding principles is incomplete so long as it fails to apply them to the pressing challenges of our day: to show, rather than just say, that those principles amount to timeless wisdom. Conservatives have barely begun to outline a plausible alternative to Obamacare. Our economic ideas too often seem like well-developed answers to the problems of 1981. We have failed, and in some ways have hardly tried, to persuade black, Hispanic and Asian citizens that our philosophy promotes the interests of the whole nation. And none of us is quite sure what to do about the intolerable fact that in our society, familial stability seems increasingly to be becoming a luxury good.

Not so fast Ponnuru, says Young Conor. How can all be well if Conservatism offers nothing towards addressing the problems faced by ordinary folks:

It is confusing when a man who diagnoses conservatism as having returned to health asserts that it has nothing practical to offer on health care, the economy, the governance of an increasingly diverse nation, or family breakup among the middle class? If an ideological movement can tout the right principles, but isn't capable of translating those principles into reality, wouldn't that be a time to declare it gravely ill, rather than signing off on its health?

Conservatism as it exists in its popular form is dead. All that is left is utopian radicalism or wingnutopianism, if you will. Take the Ryan health care plan to end Medicare as we know it and replace the program with coupons good for an unspecified discount on health insurance. Everyone knows that Ryancare will suck big time. The costs go up, care goes down and everyone other that the ultra-wealthy gets screwed. But that is the best conservatism has to offer these days other than Romneycare which was good in 2008 until it was nationalized into Obamacare in 2010. Then it became an outrage.

Seriously the best that Ponnuru and the wingers on the Corner can do is to oppose Obama at all turns and then throw their hands up in the air and say "none of us is quite sure what to do about" intolerable conditions in society - but all is well.