I just came back from the annual meeting of the Philadelphia Society, one of the few old-school conservative organizations (it was founded in 1964) not fully integrated into the “movement.”  In other words, it is sort of an anti-CPAC. The Society is basically dedicated to conversation, and this year’s theme was devoted to Europe, America, and the future of the West. The quality of the speakers, who included Michael Burleigh, Daniel Pipes, and the Estonian political leader Mort Laar, was impressive. The members are generally paleo in sentiment, to varying degrees, and many have been around long enough to see the movement around them change beyond recognition. It remains an intellectually rigorous place to discuss conservative ideas, where the American Conservative is as welcome as the Heritage Foundation.