Is “staunch conservative” now a synonym for “extreme fundamentalist John Bircher fanatic?”

An interesting rhetorical question…

There was a time when conservative was supposed to mean small government, fiscal responsibility, and strong defense.

Even those halcyon days of yore, small government all too frequently meant don’t look too deeply into the shenanigans of large corporations, fiscal responsibility meant don’t fund social programs and strong defense was frequently confused with saber rattling and throwing our weight around.

However, there was an intellectual and well reasoned argument presented for those views as ideals. Those ideals were simply betrayed from the start. To think that McCarthy defended our liberties was Orwellian at best. We really shouldn’t want the government watching us like Big Brother (but exceptions were made for that in teh bedroom, or if one held the wrong political views or practiced the wrong religion in the name of security). We really shouldn’t want a giant deficit (unless it was due to military spending and corporate welfare). Freedom of religion became freedom to push Christianity. We really should want a strong and muscular foreign policy. We really do need a strong and capable military (just not to send them to corners of the world where we have no gain for their sacrifices).

After 40 years of this devolution, we are left with the Teabags. This is what you get.

The word conservative has no meaning anymore - not like it used to at least. These days it means ignorant, anti-science, anti-intellectual, religiously intolerant, hard hearted, callous, cruel, irresponsible, pig headed and vile troglodyte.