If it is only an existing set of institutional arrangements, the truly principled conservative can never oppose any law once it has been passed. But relaxing the time frame back behind the immediacy of Now is no solution either. The dilemma is serious, the answer far from obvious. Given an understanding of conservatism as simple adherence to tradition or the values of days gone by, the Nazis were in a very real sense conservative. Specifying periods that bracket the relevant tradition or values might be a solution, except that ultimately any historical boundary is as arbitrary as any other.
Tradition is a fluid category, congealing continuously over time.
Even historical periods we take for granted, such as the classical era, the Middle Ages, or the Renaissance, are to a large extent artificial constructs, fruitless efforts to make concrete what is inherently slippery. But the way in which they framed their ideology is what gives it a conservative flavor. Aristotle hints at in The Politics . A paradigm shift is needed in conservatism, after which reason is seen not as inhering exclusively in tradition but also as existing independently of and above it. The prudent legislator, on this view, is the one who picks and culls what is wise from a broad spectrum of tradition.