EDMUND BURKE AND TODAY'S CONSERVATIVES

I've been reading volume 1 of F.P. Lock's biography of Edmund Burke which covers the years 1730-1784.   I'm about 70% through it and I've already found several striking similarities between Burke and some modern day wingnuts:

- pseudo-paranoia:  Burke believed that there was a "hidden Cabinet" that actually controlled how the King and his "surface" ministers acted.

- belief in the Free Market Fairy: Burke was adamantly opposed to any government measures that tried to help the poorest in England because he thought that would interfere with the glorious Free Market.   In addition, Burke contradicted himself by asserting on the one hand that the government could not affect the market but on the other asserting that the export bounties provided in the Corn Laws did affect the market.

- Men or Laws?: Burke believed that the structural problems of English government, such as insufficient checks and balances, should be solved by having the "right people" in power, not by changing the system.   This is something Hayek criticized conservatives for in 1961.

- ideological purity :Burke was a member of Lord Rockingham's party and they refused to compromise on their "principles" and thus were an ineffective minority for years.

- corporations over people:  The East India Company was terribly corrupt and had done great harm to the people in India but Burke denied that Parliament could or should take any action because the rights granted by the company's charter were absolute.