Surely there are some better thinkers than that?
I guess from the values/traditionalist side, Theodore Dalrymple. I used to respect Victor Davis Hanson but he lost his mind. Mark Helprin is responsible for the great quote: "Modern literature is all cool and detached, even though a lot of modern writers are passionate about their politics. To me, passion should be for literature, and reason and detachment for politics." John McWhorter is good when he talks about language. (Popular linguist Mario Pei was also an arch-conservative on the side.)
The problem with those guys I think is that they have devoted their life to defeating a bogey-man: their invented notion that the left is dedicated to burning and destroying all that's good about western civilization. But I like their pessimism and misanthropy.
Richard Posner is brilliant, but he's so politically weird. He's really, really not a conservative in the least. He's more like Richard Rorty's evil twin.
Defenders of unfettered capitalism are more likely to be found among the libertarians. I like reading Reason magazine. But I'd have to note that most of them have turned on the Republicans (for instance, "Why the Republicans Must Lose"--
http://reason.com/news/show/129599.html). Their thinking on stuff like health care is pretty awful but they're to be commended for opposing the Iraq war.
I try not to read too many "pundits" even though it is hard in this election. So I tend to be out of date. Richard Weaver? Uhhhh.... T.S. Eliot? David Mamet (
http://www.villagevoice.com/content/printVersion/374064)?To be fair, I wouldn't put Markos Moulitsas or even Paul Krugman up against John Rawls or John Kenneth Galbraith.
