It is not difficult to see that conservatives in the United States see themselves as besieged. Read any conservative blog and what jumps out other than the sheer amount of unbelievable ignorance that pervades and a deep, irrational adherence to failed socio-economic policies that have accrued an eleven trillion national debt and brought about an ever-widening chasm between rich and poor is a notion that their America is disappearing. I am not really sure that their America ever really existed, but that aside, the conservative mindset is a frightened, paranoid one.

Democracy Corps' James Carville, Stan Greenberg and Karl Agne have a new report out that finds that "self-identifying conservative Republicans who make up the base of the Republican Party stand a world apart from the rest of America." They go on to say that "these voters identify themselves as part of a `mocked' minority with a set of shared beliefs and knowledge." Knowledge? Knowledge is based on empirical observation. These have a deep-seeded faith but knowledge they wholly lack. I could spend the rest of my days demonstrating to these people how Ronald Reagan's crew set in motion a process that redistributed income from the middle class towards the top one-tenth of one percent of Americans and these people would still worship Ronald Reagan. They are beyond reason and to engage in a rational debate with them is fruitless. Facts don't matter to these people. To them a cool day in July disproves global warming while an early season snow storm signals the advent of an ice age.

The key findings:

First and foremost, these conservative Republican voters believe Obama is deliberately and ruthlessly advancing a `secret agenda' to bankrupt our country and dramatically expand government control over all aspects of our daily lives. They view this effort in sweeping terms, and cast a successful Obama presidency as the destruction of the United States as it was conceived by our founders and developed over the past 200 years. This concern combines with a profound sense of collective identity. They readily identify themselves as a minority in this country - a minority whose values are mocked and attacked by a liberal media and class of elites. They also believe they possess a level of knowledge and understanding when it comes to politics and current events, one gained from a rejection of the mainstream media and an embrace of conservative media and pundits such as Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh, which sets them apart even more.

Looking at the current political debate, it was evident in our focus group discussions that the divide between conservative Republicans and even the most conservative-leaning independents remains very, very wide. Independents harbor doubts about Obama's health care reform but are desperate to see some version of health care reform pass this year; the conservative Republicans view any health care reform as a victory for Obama and are militantly opposed. The language they use further reflects this divide. Conservative Republicans fully embrace the `socialism' attacks on Obama and believe it is the best, most accurate way to describe him and his agenda. Independents largely dismiss these attacks as partisan rhetoric detracting from a legitimate debate about what many of them do see as excessive government control and spending.

Conservatives now use the term "socialist" to refer to any increase in government power because the word "liberalism" has lost its potency as an epithet. So they have upped the ante throwing around terms such as "socialism", "fascism" and "communism". In doing so, they only prove that they don't even fully understand these terms. Moreover, they preach "limited government" and fail to even recognize how the party they support intrudes on the lives of Americans with warrantless wiretapping to take but one example. At least, libertarians are consistent on this. The only consistency about conservatives is their inconsistency. They preach the sanctity of life for the unborn but capital punishment bothers them not one iota.

One can understand why a Mitt Romney, a Dick Cheney, a Pierre DuPont, a Steve Forbes, a Patricia Woertz, a Steve Wynn or a Rupert Murdoch are conservatives. They benefit financially from the unfettered free market policies and low tax schemes espoused by conservatives. It's harder to understand why an Erick Erickson is conservative.

Furthermore, conservatives are nothing more than hypocritical when it comes to bemoaning government intervention in the economy. Take the Farm Bill. Look at corn subsidies in United States. They totaled $56.2 billion from 1995-2006 and the primary beneficiary was Archer Daniels Midland, the company run by Patricia Woertz. According to the Cato Institute, 43 percent of ADM's profit over this period was directly attributable to government subsidies received by the company. Between 2002 and 2007, Halliburton received $21 billion in government contracts, often without competitive bidding. For a man who has spent all but five of the last 37 years as a public servant, Dick Cheney has an estimated net worth of over $90 million thanks largely to that cozy relationship between corporations and public officials. And yet Steve Wynn, the CEO of the Las Vegas based Wynn Resorts, claimed just last week that "government has never increased the standard of living of one single human being in civilization's history."Freepers, meanwhile, swallow that lie hook, line and sinker.

In a related story by Jackie Calmes of the New York Times, the GOP sees more pros than cons in being the party of no.

The numbers are striking: Of the 217 Republicans in the House and the Senate, only one, Senator Olympia J. Snowe of Maine, has publicly supported a health care overhaul along the lines President Obama seeks.

The Republicans’ opposition is a remarkable display of the unity emerging against the broader Obama agenda as a dangerous expansion of government. That stance is popular with, even demanded by, the party’s narrowed conservative base.

But it also exposes Republicans to criticism that they have become political obstructionists with no policy agenda of their own. And that could keep them from extending their appeal to the centrist voters who are essential to rebuilding the party’s strength nationally.

Republicans’ naysaying on health care, after their nearly unanimous opposition to Mr. Obama’s economic stimulus package, has already drawn rare rebukes from an array of prominent party figures outside Capitol Hill, who say the party should be for something, not just against. Among the critics have been three former Senate Republican leaders: Bob Dole, Bill Frist and Howard H. Baker Jr.

Congressional Republicans, however, are certain that the politics are on their side. Dismissing Democrats’ attacks on them as “the party of no,” they point to polls and other signs indicating that high unemployment and deficits have created vast unease with Mr. Obama’s agenda as the 2010 midterm elections approach.

“We’re the party of know: k-n-o-w,” said Representative Pete Sessions of Texas, chairman of House Republicans’ campaign committee.

“We know a lot about the Democrats’ plans, and we think it’s a bad way to go,” Mr. Sessions added. “Theirs is about taxing and spending and destroying jobs.”

Some other party strategists are optimistic about the prospect of Republican gains next year, perhaps enough gains to reclaim a House majority.

“I just don’t think that there’s a downside to voting no — I really don’t,” said Vin Weber, a former Republican congressman from Minnesota. “That’s quite aside from whether you should or shouldn’t, or whether the country needs it or doesn’t need it. The basic rule is you rarely pay a price at the polls for being against something.”

Republican incumbents “have far more to lose,” he said, “by having the Republican base conclude that they’re just throwing in the towel and compromising on a big-government agenda.”

After recent defeats, Republicans are down to 40 members in the Senate and 177 in the House, or 40 percent in each chamber. They are largely reduced to the party’s base of mostly Southern and rural states and beholden both to the conservative activists there and to the cable television celebrities those activists follow.

As Lehman Brothers collapsed and the nation's financial markets roiled late last year, Secretary Paulson and a bevy of officials rushed to the White House to brief then President Bush. The President was shell shocked and heard to mutter, "How did this happen?"

That's a question that the conservative GOP has yet to answer. You would think the colossal failure of their policies would bring reflection and introspection. Instead the GOP wants to prescribe more of the same.