No, the OTHER Other Conservatism!

Well, my friends, I've made a discovery: no one has any idea what "liberal" and "conservative" mean any more. Then again, I can't really blame them on liberalism: no one could possibly know what that means because it doesn't really mean anything at all. Allow me to clarify with a short description from a paper I wrote for no particular reason (which I may include in some later post or publication):

"One of the most difficult political ideologies to capture accurately is American liberalism. While most Americans simply call it liberalism, the word “liberal” was originally used to describe libertarianism (hence the term “classic liberalism”), neoliberalism is used to describe paleoconservative, free-market economic policies (called Thatcherism in the UK), and the Liberal Party of Australia is a neoconservative group in the mode of the modern Republican Party. Therefore, I choose to use another term often rejected by conservatives as a euphemism, but which I believe is the best way to sum up the beliefs of the Democratic Party base. That term is progressivism."

Needless to say, there is quite a problem getting exactly what "liberal" is, and modern American left-wingers aren't helping. In the much-hyped YouTube debates, Hillary Clinton shunned the liberal label in favor of the new phrase, "Modern American Progressive." However, Nancy Pelosi, who fits quite comfortably into the neoprogressive label, chooses to continue to use liberal. That helps ensure that this War of the Words will continue for a long time on the left. But what about the Right?

That question is a bit easier to answer. There is a relatively clear divide between the neoconservatives and the the paleoconservatives. It boils down to this: Isolationism vs. Interventionalism, Spending, and Amnesty. The neocons like spending more, granting amnesty, and intervening everywhere, while the paleos don't. This simple divide places me cleanly in the paleo side, along with many conservatives in the Boomerang Generation, Generation Y, and my own iGeneration.

However, there is a problem, one that places me outside of mainstream Gen X paleo/neoconservatism. I'm a libertarian. I want to shrink government to a managable size. I want to legalize marijuana. I like the motives behind Iraq, but wouldn't have wanted to go there to begin with. I like Ron Paul (although, I must say, I like Rudy more). However, I'm not quite the loyal libertarian, either. I support the death penalty. I'm pro-life. I think Reagan was a better president than Jefferson (but not by much). Amazingly, I've found that most young conservatives agree with me on these points. Therefore, we have a legitimate faction here. So where's our name.

I've been toying with a few options. The first is the most obvious: neopaleoconservatism. However, it doesn't quite roll off the tongue, and it's a bit long. I've also thought about using neolibertarianism, but that's also long. Paleoliberalism seems to be a good name, but the association with FDR/LBJ liberals will be strong. Right now, my favorite is one I came up with not too long ago: neofederalism. It seems to me to be the best option for the name of the best option for the future of America.