Stop calling today’s Republicans ‘conservatives’

Words matter. I grew up in Gladwyne, in a conservative Republican household. My father was a regular reader of the National Review, and his hero was William F. Buckley. And while I disagreed with him on many things, he consistently remained true to what he considered conservative values. What were those values?

They were concepts such as individual freedom, limited government, the rule of law, fiscal responsibility, and free markets. Try applying those values to what everyone currently refers to as “conservative” Republicans.

Today, we have Republicans who refuse to support the peaceful transfer of power. Or the so-called “conservative” Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe v. Wade, arguably a complete dismissal of the individual freedom of American citizens. As for “limited government”? The decision reveals that these sham justices want to have the government intrude into the most private parts of citizens’ lives.

Can anyone who witnessed the terrorism that took place at our Capitol on Jan. 6 say that it was in line with the “rule of law”? Any reasonable person would look at that event and call it what it is: criminal. Yet newspaper reporters and network anchors continued to refer to the people who continue to dodge any reckoning over Jan. 6 as “conservative.”

» READ MORE: For Republicans, ‘law and order’ must be more than a slogan | Opinion

Former Chief Justice Warren Burger, an actual conservative, said in 1991 that the Second Amendment “has been the subject of one of the greatest pieces of fraud, I repeat the word fraud, on the American public by special-interest groups that I have ever seen in my lifetime.” And if he were writing the Bill of Rights, he wouldn’t include the Second Amendment. There are few, if any, Republicans that share that view today, yet the media still refer to them as “conservative.”

The Republicans who witness the murder of children — such as the 19 gunned down at a school in Uvalde, Texas — not only do nothing to stop it, but they also say and do whatever the gun manufacturers and the NRA pay them to say and do. How is this “conservative”?

“The last Republican president to balance the federal budget was Dwight Eisenhower.”

There is also nothing “conservative” about nominating and then voting for Brett Kavanaugh, a man credibly accused by multiple women of sexual assault. True conservatives would have avoided controversy; they would agree that while it might not be fair to the individual, for the sake of the integrity of the Supreme Court, they should not appoint someone with so much suspect behavior in their past (and maybe talk about “family values”). But the Republican senators who voted for his appointment knew that he would be an activist judge, rendering decisions based on radical right-wing ideology. This was not conservative.

Another principle held by my father and other true conservatives in the past was “peace through strength.” Did anyone think “strength” as they watched Donald Trump kowtow before a murderous Russian dictator, whose avowed purpose is to demean and destroy our democracy? For years, a man who molested women and bragged about it was referred to by the media as “conservative.” It is an affront to language.

Well, some say, at least Republicans are fiscal conservatives. This could not be further from the truth. While Ronald Reagan pledged to balance the budget by the end of his first term, the federal deficit tripled in his eight years in office. The last Republican president to balance the federal budget was Dwight Eisenhower, and that was more than 60 years ago. He could reasonably be termed a “fiscal conservative.” No Republican president since then could truthfully be called that, and no senator or representative who has been in office while these deficits have exploded can be considered a fiscal conservative either.

But, certainly, you’re thinking, Republicans are conservative in that they support free markets. Again, you’re wrong. The International Monetary Fund reported that in 2020, the coal, oil, and natural gas industries received $5.9 trillion — yes, trillion — in government subsidies. The government also gave massive payouts to automakers like GM, aviation companies like Boeing, and big agribusinesses. By comparison, innovative smaller companies received pittances from the federal government, if anything at all. If Republicans were conservative, they would be in favor of completely eliminating these subsidies and creating a truly free market. But they are compromised by the huge amount of contributions they received from these companies. Supporting free markets is a conservative principle they abandoned long ago.

Accuracy demands the end to the use of the word conservative for the current GOP. Call them what they are: “extremists” or “right-wing radicals.” If you need something milder, you could refer to them as “right wing,” or mirror the word used by them for Democrats, and call them “rightists.” The word rightist is almost never heard. Maybe now is its time.

Kevin Dowling is a director (”The Americans,” “Bosch,” “The Walking Dead”) and executive producer (”The Son,” “Mayans MC,” “Necessary Roughness”). He grew up in Gladwyne.