lexical hacking

[gfish]

I think that the left should consciously adopt paleoconservative as the standard description of pre neoconservative thinking. Neoconservatism is obviously critically wounded. There is a rapidly closing window of opportunity here to get paleoconservative, with all the baggage that it implies, into standard usage. Once it is in, it could be an albatross around the right's neck long after neocons are just a scary bedtime story.

Comments

[randomdreams.livejournal.com]

You make the assumption that neoconservative is indeed dead. I'm not sure. The people whose agenda are being advanced by the neocon crowd -- to wit, the teeming millions, the compassionate christians, the nascar rednecks, the safety-before-freedom soccer moms -- will probably be looking back at this as their golden hour for the next 40 years, and trying their best to make it happen again, even if it doesn't have the ideological and philosophical underpinnings that are trying to hold up what's going on right now.