What does "Conservative" mean?

Some Republicans are arguing that voters rejected their candidates this week because they weren’t conservative enough.

NY Assembly Republican minority leader Jim Tedisco told our Albany correspondent, Karen DeWitt, that it’s time to return to core principles.

There is a tendency when there is that much pressure from the other side to suggest, well, maybe we have to move a little bit to that direction, moderate, move to the left. I think just the opposite is the case.

We’ve got to dig and show that our core values can be effective in taking us out of this economic situation we’re in.

Some Republicans are taking heart from surveys showing that more Americans describe themselves as “conservative” (34%) than “liberal” (22%).

The trouble, however, is that by far the biggest chunk of voters describe themselves as “moderates” (44%) and it seems that those folks favor Democratic policies by wide margins.

Here’s an observation from the conservative National Review, penned by columnist Andrew Stuttaford:

I think this begs the question as to what self-described ‘moderates’ mean when they label themselves that way.

My guess is that the very idea of what a ‘moderate’ is has shifted quite some way to the left of late.

In many respects, the right’s key job over the next four years will be to push it back again.

I think that’s a tough assignment, for a party and a movement that are increasingly in disarray.

Especially in the Northeast, there’s little evidence that Goldwater-Reagan-Gringrich axis of Republicanism has much traction.

So what can the “new” conservatism look like? Comments welcome.