I like the post, though I think you have mischaracterized at least one classical conservative’s position. I believe a society without restraint on those who would arrogate power, especially economic or social power, since those are often the least transparent, unto themselves, will be ruled by the most vicious… and the most selfish. But I, and I think many other classical conservatives, don’t think that a dynamic like that is natural, because we’re conscious beings. We can formulate ethics. We can engage in mutually beneficial arrangements. We needn’t live lives that are nasty, brutish, or short, to quote Hobbes, and the whole of human societal progress has been the implementation of a series of constraints on viciousness and its effects.

One can be a classical conservative (as opposed to a Manchester liberal with a blue ribbon) and distrust factions of the elite that have forgotten their responsibilities, as opposed to using conservatism as a pretext to deny the general public their inherent rights of self-government.