Please stop using "conservative" to reference the Republican Party

[DFW]

13. Conservative, not conservatism

As far as I am concerned, "conservatism" is like "corporatist:" vague, synthetic words conveniently used to define philosophies (usually someone else's) or people with a negative overtone.

Conservative to me means a tendency toward caution, conserving of resources instead of taking risks by stretching them thin, a reluctance (not refusal) to take risks in general, and a reluctance (not refusal) to go into debt. For example, a true conservative would advocate disbanding the NRA with its promotion of liberally distributing firearms to as many people as can afford them, irregardless of quantity or destructive power. Doing so would fit in nicely within the definition of a tendency toward caution. Republicans don't want to hear that, of course, but then, they have been speaking a different language from the rest of us for some time now. I prefer Webster to Lee Atwater.