‘The word conservative today has been bastardized’

November 27, 2006

The Republican Party, which used to dominate the region’s politics, has now officially lost New England. The transformation evolved fairly slowly, but this year, it became complete — of the 22 U.S. House seats spanning New England’s six states, Dems lead the GOP, 21 to 1.

There are a variety of explanations for this, but former New Hampshire Gov. Walter Peterson, a lifelong Republican, offered a pretty compelling account to the New York Times.

“What the people want is basically to feel like the candidates of a political party are working for the people, not just following some niche issues,” Mr. Peterson said. “The old traditional Republican Party was conservative on small government, efficient government; believed in supporting people to give them a chance at life but not having people on the dole; wanted a balanced budget; and on social issues they were moderate, tolerant, live and let live. They didn’t dislike somebody from other religious viewpoints.”

He continued, “That was the old-fashioned conservative, but the word conservative today has been bastardized.”

See? Was that so hard? Someone send that guy a DNC membership brochure.

Indeed, it’s worth noting that Peterson was the co-chairman this year of Republicans for John Lynch, a GOP group committed to helping re-elect the incumbent Democratic governor of New Hampshire.

As the DCCC noted, “On the surge of new residents moving into New Hampshire for both tech industry jobs and an appealing retirement locale, Peterson says that these voters are ‘trying to figure out which party is more welcoming, and that’s clearly the Democratic Party right now.'”

The 2006 elections are obviously still fresh in everyone’s minds, but I suspect the quote that will forever be associated with the year came from former NBA star Charles Barkley, of all people, who told reporters in July, “I was a Republican — until they lost their minds.”

I think New England just happened to notice this trend sooner than the rest of the country.

Today’s republican party… it isn’t your father’s republican party anymore.

  • As the English language evolves, I expect the definition of the verb, Conserve to become: to lavishly exploit, extort or expend valuable resources for personal gain.

  • I’d feel a lot sorrier for the Republican’ts if they had really needed to create their Unholy Alliance to achieve electorial success. But the fact is they have conspired with the extremists of THE BASE to create issues just to achieve temporary victories at the polling booth. And even then they’ve had to cheat more often than not (Florida 2000, Ohio 2004) to win.

    The Republican Party of Abraham Lincoln has gone to bed with the Texas Oil Mafia and the Theocratic Reactionaries and now discovers they’ve contracted a veneral desease? Maybe they should have listened to their own rhetoric and practiced abstinance 😉

  • And the same bunch of bastards that bastardized the tag conservative are also the same bastards that bastardized the tag liberal. Thanks Gov. Peterson for applying the appropriate language.

  • The term “conservative” was a ruse. Hopefully someday the conservatives will see what the real deal was. But we have known this for some time…

    “Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people. To destroy this invisible government, to befoul the unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics is the first task of the statesmanship of today.”

    — President Theodore Roosevelt, 1906

  • Nice to see. Just like Hitler claimed he wasn’t a far right wing radical but rather a “conservative,” so the far right wing radicals of America took over the term here over the past 42 years.

    I actually prefer “Progressive” over “Liberal” anyway, since “Liberal” can be confused with the libertarianism of the “classical liberals”. “Progressive” has within it the term “progress” which is what we’re about.

  • Don’t forget the Senate in New England is 8-4 with the two Republicans from Maine being two of the most popular people in the state.

    Amazing that there are 4 times as many Senators as Representatives.

  • I actually prefer “Progressive” over “Liberal” anyway, since “Liberal” can be confused with the libertarianism of the “classical liberals”. “Progressive” has within it the term “progress” which is what we’re about.

    Agreed. Even if the right hadn’t been so successful in denigrating the term “liberal, “progressive” is a far better term.

  • It’s the *party* that’s been bastardized — with full compliance of it’s members — not the *word*. The word still means what it’s always meant, which is why we have to call them “neo-cons”, not “conservatives”.

    Talking of words and their eternal meanings… An old Russian joke:
    Two men meet in the street on March 8 (International Women’s Day).
    Man 1: Happy holiday!
    Man 2: But… But… I’m not a woman!
    Man 1: But a whore all the same.

  • In spite of the bashing we’ve taken over the years, I doubt any liberals are be empathetic. We may even start calling you the Republic party.

  • Patrician conservatives would be a welcome relief from the reich-wing radicals that have co-opted the mantle of conservatism. Here in RI we had a tradition of sending old school conservatives to Congress for generations but this year that all ended thanks largely to the “Club for Growth”, whoever the fuck they are, but mostly due to the destruction current Republicans have done to the Congress, particularly the Senate. The toxins released by the shmuck, Gingrich, and his fellow travellers in 1994 has had the net effect of ruining real conservatism and put into place the current confrontational and simplistic ‘right vs left’ dynamic.

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