A Conservative Dilemma

Interesting point from Fareed Zakaria in 'The Assassins' Gate': Occupational Hazards in today's NYTimes:

Packer describes in microcosm something that has infected conservatism in recent years. Conservatives live in fear of being betrayed ideologically. They particularly distrust nonpartisan technocrats - experts - who they suspect will be seduced by the "liberal establishment." The result, in government, journalism and think tanks alike, is a profusion of second-raters whose chief virtue is that they are undeniably "sound."

Another thing from which many conservatives seem to suffer is that it must be very hard to take a serious approach to the responsibilities of governing when you feel government is, at its core, evil and incompetent and "the problem."