Golem/Faustian Bargain/Sorcerer’s Apprentice (Your choice)

Since conservatism is the defense of privilege, it depends upon political arrangements that give minorities leverage over majorities. The risk with this strategy is that it’s hard to ensure that the same mechanisms you create to game the system won’t be used later by the wrong minorities to defend the wrong privileges. That’s what’s happening now as the ideological right uses techniques like political blackmail to promote causes irrelevant or harmful to monied interests. The old guard of the Republican party is horrified by the government shutdown, but they have no one to blame for themselves. Having created and armed the monster that is the right-wing base, they find that they do not control it.