Kathryn, Rush was on fire today over this death-of-Reaganism thing. My problem with the “redefining” guys is they concede way too much turf, and the net result would be a one-and-a-half-party system that would leave voters with the same kind of reductive choice offered in some European countries, where you can vote for the left-of-center party or the marginally-right-of-left-of-center party.

Besides, I don’t see which bit of the Reagan philosophy is so outdated. Winning the long-term ideological struggle abroad (as opposed to “containing” it for decades, and losing incrementally)? Small government as the biggest idea of all? This Reagan line sounds more relevant than ever: “We are a nation that has a government, not the other way around.”

And even if you disagree, some words of Mrs Thatcher’s seem pertinent at this point: “The facts of life are conservative.” You can abandon them but they have a way of reasserting themselves.