See, I don't necessarily agree. In America, yes, I think that this is generally the case, but I think it is possible to be a conservative person without holding a whole lot of cognitive dissonance as to the past (or the future). A conservative person, for example could be all for public health care, and just be concerned with how to pay for it. In America, this is exacerbated by the fact that just talking about taxation is political suicide. Yeah, Brett from art of manliness often takes himself a little too seriously sometimes.I think it's also a factor that Conservatism, by definition, believes the past was better, and we need to stick to it, and return to it.
The Genteel Patriarch may be identified by his use of phrases such as "in modern parlance."