Up For a Good Long Read?

If you haven't already gotten this recommendation, allow me to pass it along. Go read George Packer's piece in the The New Yorker, "The Fall of Conservatism."

Here's one sentence from it which captures the essence and scope:

The fact that the least conservative, least divisive Republican in the 2008 race is the last one standing—despite being despised by significant voices on the right—shows how little life is left in the movement that Goldwater began, Nixon brought into power, Ronald Reagan gave mass appeal, Newt Gingrich radicalized, Tom DeLay criminalized, and Bush allowed to break into pieces.

It's not at all a partisan hatchet job. Instead, it reads like a chapter from a good book of history.