CONSERVATISM’S GREATEST ENEMY isn’t socialism – it’s radicalism. The impulse to uproot, upend, and overthrow all that is old, settled and esteemed is the essence of radicalism. Though most conservatives would be taken aback by the suggestion, a powerful case can be made that for the past 40 years the most dangerous radicals have not been the partisans of socialism, but the promoters of unfettered capitalism.

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Known principally for his political commentaries in The Dominion Post, The ODT, The Press and the late, lamented Independent, and for "No Left Turn", his 2007 history of the Left/Right struggle in New...