Labels labels labels.
Conservative. Nothing else said what do you think it means?
After that please define what you see as the different flavors of conservative in the currrent clime. A field guide if you please.
Thank you.
Well since no one else seems to want to play I’ll offer this tongue in cheek field guide as a start. To take the serious points out of the humor I’ll use it as a starting off point and request comments:
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Old School Conservative. “small government, traditional values, low taxes, and minimal interference in foreign affairs.”
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Fundamentalist. “faith in God and the Bible automatically translates to good government.”
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NeoCons. Aggressive in foreign policy. Pretty neutral on other issues.
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The Libertarian. Similar to the Old School without the traditional values. Their desire to legalize many drugs and antiwar stances put them at odds with several of the other groups.
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The moderate conservative. “Frequently indistinguishable from Moderate Liberals.”
That Field Guide has a few others that I dismiss as not being significant groups.
Other labels I’ve heard include “Contitutionalists” which in reality seems a moving hybrid of several of the above, and “Progressive Republican” usually placed on as an insult on someone who believes in “traditional values” and in a significant role for government as well. Beck labels Huckabee this, for example.
I believe Nunes characterization of ‘lemmings in suicide vests’ fits a broader audience than he intended.
Crane
I tried hereto find out what a Real Conservative/Republican was. I think poor phrasing in the title got me a lot of obvious answers as to how ‘RINO’ was used, but very little about what a conservative was. Hopefully this thread will do better.
My hope, if anyone actually participates, is less to define what is “real” but to map out the groups that are all claiming the label. There are some mutually exclusive concepts that all being included within that label and using the label as if it means one thing confuses discussions I think.
Even in those polls that say that 1/3 of Republicans want a less conservative stance and 1/3 want a more conservative stance suffer from the fact that more or less conservative means different things to different people. And is not as simple as religious vs fiscal conservatism.
One of the less-discussed but surprisingly common varieties is:
The Insecure Immigrant: Someone from an immigrant (or otherwise non-mainstream) family who has a pathological fear of not being considered a real American, and therefore gleefully embraces the wackiest right-wing stuff out there because they think it proves they are patriotic.
I don’t think my dad’s psychological motivation comes from such resaons, but otherwise he fits this profile quite well.