Reply #87: Those are not "modern" republicans.

[Occulus]

They are conservatives. Yes, there is a difference.

I'm tending more and more to agree with the original post: you can indeed be an honorable conservative, and in fact there are plenty of times when conservatism is laudable and even necessary.

However, republicans have more and more been behaving in a neo-liberal, which is to almost say neo-Nazi, fashion. Republicanism and conservatism have come to mean very different, and even diametrically opposed, points of view.

It is something of an irony that "neo-liberal" and "neo-conservative" have come to mean exactly the same thing, isn't it?

We really must get over the idea that conservative = republican. That simply is no longer true. In fact, on many issues- from the national debt to the environment to helping families to health care- Democrats, REAL Democrats, are behaving more and more in a truly conservative fashion (by protecting, or conserving, the environment, by protecting, or conserving, the well-being of the family- however we each define our families- and by placing restraints upon, or conserving, money through sensible budetary policies).

WE are becoming the true "conservatives". Republicans are behaving, more and more, in a neo-liberally destructive manner.