Who is a Neo-conservative?
A NEW LABEL IS FILTERING INTO CANADA’S political vocabulary. The word is “neo-conservative,” and it has an American etymology that dates back to the late 1970s. It was originally coined to describe ex-liberals who switched over to conservatism in response to the radicalism of the Left. This radicalism, according to David Frum, author of Dead Right, was embodied in the “Left’s unwillingness to stand up to the Soviets abroad and to anti-democratic radicals at home.” American purists distinguish neo-conservatives from paleo-conservatives. Neo-conservatives are Liberals at heart, who try to achieve socialist ends through conservative means. Paleo-conservatives, on the other hand, are socially and economically conservative. Although the word neo-conservative is not uncommon in American political circles its usage by talking heads in Canada is relatively recent. There were 12 mentions of it in our CBC transcripts during 1993, and we found it was not employed with a great degree of precision.
