Why DON'T we call The United States "The Compassionate United States Of America" or "The Common Sense United States Of America"?
Why doesn't The NFL call itself "The Rough National Football League"?
Why don't hunters call deer meat "gamey flavor deer meat"?
Why doesn't FreeRepublic.com call itself "One Of The Foremost Conservative Websites.com"?
To think Palin was renaming conservatism is to misunderstand the entire discussion.
Let’s go back.
“Compassionate conservatism,” when coined a decade ago, meant replacing the genuine compassion inherent to conservatism with the artificial, self-centered compassion of liberalism.
For Palin to use the term common sense conservatism is merely to remind conservatives that they have left one of the most authentic components of conservatism—common sense—out of the picture. She merely used common sense in a descriptive way, not in an attempt to rename conservatism.
The distinction is critical, yet it appears subtle and maybe obscure only if viewed hastily or superficially.