David Von Drehle: Democrats Try on the Conservative Mantle Shed by the GOP – TIME

Nominating Trump opened a wide lane for the Democrats, and while their own surging left wing would never allow them to fill it all, they occupied parts of it. President Obama’s Wednesday night speech rang notes of human fallibility and incremental change that would strike chords with any philosophical conservative. Hillary Clinton, in her acceptance speech, hinted at the essence of conservative order—the careful layering of generations of prudent action—when she spoke, quoting the musical Hamilton, of “planting seeds in a garden that you will never get to see.”Or, less poetically, when she described the sort of leadership conservatives admire: “smarts, judgment, cool resolve and the precise and strategic application of power.

”Conservatism is about balance. Burke’s description of human rights is a model of the form. “Whatever each man can separately do, without trespassing upon others, he has a right to do for himself,” the great conservative wrote—words that will touch the hearts of American libertarians and free marketeers. But he adds, “and he has right to a fair portion of all which society, with its combinations of skill and force, can do in his favour.” Which covers at least part of the Democratic platform.

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