Surveying the literature, Conservatives remind me of Christians in the sense that all of you run around saying the other branches aren't pure enough. The Southern Baptists hate the Mormons who are intolerate of the Jehovah's Witnesses who don't like the Roman Catholics who don't accept the Greek Orthodox who dislike all Protestants.

For some Conservatives William F. Buckley, Jr., was the Pope. He defined Conservatism, and included Ayn Rand out. Ayn Rand excluded Buckley, and the other sects. Rand wasn't willing to subscribe to Christianity as Buckley deemed necessary, arguing that a political movement didn't need to depend upon a religion for validity. Buckley came to terms with what he regarded as "welfare", Rand didn't. Other people come in and out of view, each with their own denial of the purity of essence of the other sects. Said purity is in the eyes of the beholder.

The reality is that they are all Conservative, just as many denominations fly the banner of Christianity.
They all place individual greed as the pinnacle of morality, way ahead of the common good. They all advocate for their individual right to ignore the needs of others and for their private property as the basic value of society. It is a dog-eat-dog world, with the function of police to ensure their right to exploit other people, societies and cultures.

Government should be large enough to control the masses, to protect the empire, transfer money from society to the wealthy and have no other function. Ayn Rand was Conservative, as were Buckley, et al. Just as Lutheran, Presbyterians, Congregationalists, etc. ad nauseum, call themselves Christians.

As the Conservative political and economic policies collapse we see some folks claiming others aren't Republican or Conservative as a way to avoid admitting their own tragic errors. This infighting amongst the purists is irrelevant to the larger matter, simply demonstrates the intellectual dishonesty which is characteristic of species. All breeds of the species.

Arf