Unfortunately, I think the label "conservative" has become meaningless in the last 20-40 years. At one point it represented small government, pro business, laissez faire economics. At some point the term was hyjacked by folks who had various popularist agendas. This included the traditional "Dixiecrats" who were opposed to social programs, various religious groups who adopted the term "social conservative," and an assortment of "single issue" voters who care about things like guns and military funding. Today it means nothing more than "anti-liberal."

The current conservative moverment is little more than catch-all for opposing anything that is percieved as liberal or progressive. At this point, they simply keep increasing the volume to attract as many disenfrachized people as possible. The current republican party does not know what to do with these folks, they don't want to lose the votes to some third party nut-ball, but they also don't want to lose their traditional base (affluent moderates) by being associated with crazies. The republicans need to figure out how to take control of their message and push these folks back to the margins.