A year after the brilliant immaculation of the One, conservatism is not only alive but thriving.

This, after numerous tomes (think Carville’s 40 More Years) proclaimed the death of Reagan conservatism.  Countless op-ed columns and blog posts were devoted to conducting gleeful post-mortems on the conservative movement while heralding a massive “realignment” and the ushering-in of a great new golden era of progressivism.

President Obama was elected, in no small part, due to his soaring oratory and lofty “third way” rhetoric.  But a year into the great era of Hopenchange, dream has abutted reality.

In February of last year we were sold one of the greatest non-sequiturs ever foisted upon the American public.  The economic crisis was not the result of moral hazards created by onerous government regulation and Democratic vote buying schemes, it was, we were told, the confluence of three great unaddressed societal failings: failure of education, failure of energy policy, and the failure of our health care system.  Immediately, the president set about ambitiously forcing his legislative vision on America.

The Tea Party movement was a spontaneous reaction of Americans who recoiled in horror at the Democrat’s statist vision for America.  The virulent and hateful demagoguery suffered by ordinary Americans fed up with fiscal profligacy and government intrusion speaks to the nascent threat that tea parties pose to the Washington elite.  The discontent of summer town hall meetings further solidified opposition against the president and Democrats.  Now, a year after his inauguration was supposed to usher in a generation of Democratic rule, President Obama shows the lowest approval numbers of any first term president entering his second year.

Apologists have plenty of answers for the precipitous fall of presidential approval: Obama’s just too cool; he’s too detached; he’s too darned intellectual.  Some of these do contribute, but never does it seem to occur to most liberals that the simplest answer is the right answer: America is a center right country and Democrats misread dissatisfaction with the former administration for some sweeping mandate.

Looking at the Massachusetts special election this becomes crystal clear.  In bluest of blue Massachusetts, in a seat supposedly reserved for royalty and those enjoying the blessing of liberal nobility, people are rejecting the Obama agenda.  To be sure, should Brown win, we’ll get the standard litany of liberal defenses for Coakley’s loss: She was a poor candidate, she ran a lackluster campaign, Republican power players bla bla bla. It is true that Coakley has run an inept campaign and is not a brilliant candidate, but the issues couldn’t be more crystal clear.  Brown has stated unequivocally that he stands opposed to the president’s agenda and would be the decisive 41st cloture-busting vote.  To pretend that Massachusetts voters are unaware of the wide reaching implications of a Brown win is patently absurd.  The voters know well what is at stake, and yet and still, polls show Brown taking the lead.

Republicans emerged from the 2008 election worse for the wear, but conservatism certainly didn’t.  Voters over correct sometimes.  There was a lot for the average voter to find appealing about Obama’s decidedly Reagan-esque rhetoric.  Every election cycle from now until Armageddon, I’m afraid, will be a rehash version of “who can play the ‘hope and change’ game” better than the other guy.

As I said earlier, the simplest answer is very often the right one.  A plurality of Americans identify themselves as conservatives because they’re conservative.  Now, Republicans just need to give them something to vote for.