The political right in the US has done a lot of "message control" in the past few decades. They take something that most people wouldn't have a problem with, give it a different and highly unflattering name, lie about what it is and declare victory when people pan what they're panning. This is how they killed actual universal health care in the early 1990s, aka HillaryCare. End of life planning became "death panels," the inheritance tax became "the death tax", and French fries became "really deep fried, stick to your arteries American Freedom." OK, OK, but that's really what Freedom Fries were.
It's past time for us to take our language back from them, and one way is talking about who they really are. Because let's face it: they aren't actually conservative and these past several years they've done their level best to keep anything from getting done.
I studied polisci when I went back to college several years ago (I did graduate, thanks for asking), and one thing that struck me was that the definition of "conservative" applies a lot better to President Obama than it does most anybody in GOP leadership. After all, a conservative supposedly wants incremental change to improve things, not to toss out everything and hope. Tossing out everything is a radical move.
The ACA is such an incremental change. It takes the old insurance system, layers on subsidies and mandates, and tells us to go to town. The Republicans want to just toss out the law and tell us that the sky will rain healthcare on us all, which is not how it works. As my cousin the doctor will tell you, you'll get faster healthcare than the GOP plan by having, and I am not making this up, "unicorn horn syringes stabbing your butt while you breathe in dragon farts administered by Nikolai Tesla." Which will never happen, as everyone knows Tesla's dead.
So, they are not conservative. They are radical right-wingers, and we should not let them wrap themselves in the mantle of conservatism.
On a slightly different note (I think it's "Me Flat"), when it comes to taking care of American citizens, the Republicans say we can't afford it.
We can't afford $10b for universal pre-k, which would save working families thousands of dollars a year. And even though they say we should spend another few trillion on war.
We can't afford the ACA, even though it's at worst net zero spending.
We can't afford seniors getting $1k a month that they've already paid for.
Considering how little legislation they can pass, let alone actually help American citizens and residents, maybe we should call them "Republicants."
If you have a better name for the former Party of Lincoln, please leave a comment!
(And, all apologies to my cousin the doctor, who is much too polite to say "butt" or "fart")
7:10 PM PT: Thank you for the Community Spotlight!