Excellent questions, mr. Dunlop.

In the USA, the two main parties are the Republican Party and the 
Democratic Party.  There are also many political philosophies that 
sometimes transcend party affiliation.  Then you can also throw in the 
Right-Wing, Left-Wing thing and you can really get confused.

The whole thing gets further complicated when you political opponent 
tries to define you and this is exacerbated by the fact most of the 
MSM or Legacy Media belongs to one party and/or leans heavily in one 
political philosophy or direction.

The Republican Party is home to anyone who wants to belong there and 
is usually the party that wants to limit government, lower taxes, give 
more freedom to the citizens (or perhaps take less rights away,) and 
is usually pro-family and pro-religion.  However, in the GOP, you have 
a broad spectrum of political views that range from liberal to 
conservative or libertarian in various aspects.  This is why prominent 
Republicans can be pro-life or pro-abortion, can be for more gun 
control or less gun control, for bigger government or smaller 
government, and so on.  The press usually has a field day with this 
and will refer to a prominent liberal Republican as a moderate 
Republican.

However, one thing Republicans all seem to agree on is the protection 
of the homeland.

As you can see, a Republican is not the same as a conservative.  
Conservatives have very well-known an often-cited beliefs:  Smaller 
government, less taxes, everybody gets treated equally, family and 
work are good things, and so on.  You get the drift.  Conservatives do 
not hide their agenda, and do not hide behind word games to describe 
themselves.  I have absolutely no problems telling you that I am a 
conservative.  Immediately, that tells you that I am for a smaller 
government and you now remember the various posts I wrote over the 
years bemoaning government excess such as the new prescription drug 
coverage that GWB signed into law a few years ago.  You also 
immediately know that I am for preserving the rights under the 
Constitution, which explains why I wrote posts chastising McCain (a 
supposed conservative) pushing for his law that attacks the first 
amendment, and GWB signing it into law.

I truly believe there is far too much money in government, which is 
what is creating all the problems.  I also support term limits, there 
should not be career senators and congressmen; we should have a 
constant stream of people going in and out of Washington.

One very important thing for conservatives is the security of the 
United States.  This is an extremely important issue.

Now, when you have a group that has beliefs and that is proud of 
advocating them, you have a problem if your group opposes them and has 
no beliefs that you dare to run on.  Somehow, advocating bigger 
government, higher taxes, less freedom, abortions on demand at any 
time up to 6 weeks after birth, dissolution of the family, open 
borders, and unilateral disarmament along with a policy and history of 
cutting and running just doesn't seem to garner the required number of 
votes to win.

So, if you can't run on your beliefs, you attack the beliefs of your 
opponents and one of the ways to do that is to make fun of their 
beliefs and redefine them.

After 9/11, a number of Liberal Democrats suddenly realized that the 
world was a bad place and there were people out there who wanted 
Americans dead.  They became instant conservatives, but only in the 
area of defense of the country, at first.  These people were dubbed 
Neo-Cons by the Legacy Media and the liberal/socialist groups.  Actors 
like Ron Silver and comedians like Dennis Miller, who on 9/10 were big 
time liberal Democrats making jokes about GWB and Republicans, were 
now supporting GWB in his efforts to secure the homeland and take down 
the enemy.  In time, the Legacy Media dubbed any Jewish person in the 
Bush administration a Neo-con, because the Jewish vote is 
overwhelmingly Democratic.

So for the cognoscenti, when the label neo-con is inflicted on 
someone, the target is usually Jewish and it is meant to hurt that 
person.

Now, for your second question.  The KKK is not conservative, it is a 
fringe group of subnormal morons.  However, you should know the only 
person in the US Congress who has ever been in the KKK is Senator 
Robert Bird, the Democratic senator of West Virginia.  He was a 
kleagle in the KKK, whatever that is.

Here are a few more current observations.

Maryland is a heavily democratic state, one to which I refer as the 
Peoples Republic of Maryland (PRM.)  The current lieutenant Governor 
of the state is a gentleman by the name of Michael S. Steele.  He is a 
Republican and he also happens to be Black.  He is now running for the 
US Senate in Maryland and he has come under attack by the Democrats in 
Maryland because he is black AND a Republican.  The things they say 
about him would curl your toes.  I watched an interview with Lt-Gov. 
Steele recently where he recounted being pelted by Oreo cookies by his 
opponents in the audience at some of his speeches.  While deplorable, 
this situation is not unique; Blacks who run as Republicans or are 
known as conservatives are treated very badly by the liberal 
democrats.  I find such things repulsive in the extreme.  Liberal 
Democrats can get away with that, because the Legacy Media doesn't 
make a big deal about it.  Imagine if a Republican did that.

I hope that clears it up for you.

Denys

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