[petitfour]

The first person I ever heard of being called a paleocon was my favorite professor, Forrest McDonald. I vividly recall him describing an encounter he had with Teddy Kennedy outside a judiciary committee hearing regarding Robert Bork. McDonald was there to testify on behalf of Judge Bork. Years later, my hubby called Dr. McDonald a paleocon as a joke because he is old, and he is VERY conservative. Dr. McDonald then repeated the term on Booknotes during an interview with Brian Lamb. Since that time, the term has been hijacked by folks who do not seem to share the same ideology. They are all over the page with their conservatism.

Meanwhile, I also recall Dr. McDonald speaking of his admiration for the only principled conservatives he knew in Congress. I think he limited it to two, but there may have been a few more. Dick Cheney was #1 and Dick Armey was #2. That was in 1989ish. (He was speaking of Cheney when he was a Congressman.) When Forrest McDonald praises a politician for anything, you know he must be like-minded. Therefore, I have always concluded that Dick Cheney is of the same conservative mindframe. He is a paleoconservative as defined by a master wordsmith, Forrest McDonald. Dick Cheney is not a neocon. Or he would NEVER have been picked to be the conservative to Bush's more moderate nature. btw, Dr. McDonald's definition of paleocon is "old conservative." Meaning, someone who has been a conservative for a very, very long time. That does not mean a conservative who is stuck in the 1920s or 1930s.

Anytime I read articles on the paleo/neo subject, I get the feeling that someone is trying to divide conservatives. And at times, they do a very good job. Not today.

[quidnunc]

The term "paleoconservative" has come to mean something very specific; those isolationist, nativist, crypto-populist radicals who call themselves conservatives in order to give themselves a fig leaf of legitimacy, but who really have more in common with the anti-globalist anarchists than they do with real conservatives.