[petitfour]

I must confess that I haven't read this entire thread. Is there some history of the term paleo-conservative? The first time I heard the term enter public discourse was on Booknotes in 1994 when Forrest McDonald was on discussing his book on the American presidency. He defined the term as being an "old conservative." Maybe the term was hijacked or something, but Prof. McDonald could hardly be called a pessimistic, racist, bigot. I don't think VP Cheney would fall into that category nor would Mrs. Cheney. I also don't believe that Prof. McDonald could be called an anti-capitalist. Quite the contrary. And he's quite the wordsmith. I daresay that Mr. Frum has taken a word and defined it in a way to divide conservatives.

[Wavyhill]

The term paleoconservative arose as the opposite of "neoconservative," which referred to former liberals and leftists who had turned right. By all rights, "paleoconservative" should have referred to the broad group of conservatives who had never been liberals, Rush Limbaugh being the most obvious example. However, the term was co-opted by a right-wing fringe centered around commentator Pat Buchanan, and these paleocons proceeded to label almost anyone who disagreed with them on racial or Israel-related issues, or who even placed their political emphasis differently.