“Where and why did the Right lose touch with traditionalism”? Maybe when Trads joined the “Fusionist” alliance — the united front of Defense Hawks, Libertarians, and Traditionalists who came together to oppose Communism in the 1950s. Trads should have looked upon Fusionism as they did the Allied front of WWII — a temporary alliance against a common enemy. When the Berlin wall came down in 1989, it was analogous to the defeat of the Axis powers. That was the time to re-think political alliances, and re-orient the Republican party towards a more culture and family-friendly economics. But by then Russell Kirk conservatism was weak, and traditionalism had taken on a coarse, populist cast (Rush Limbaugh). Add in the individualism and nationalism of Evangelical Christians, and you end up with social conservatism that bears little resemblance to what Russell Kirk had in mind.
