I think the problem is the term “Conservative” has become so abused by the DC Political machine it has lost all meaning.
Today you can be Pro Big Govt or anti Big Govt and call yourself a “Conservative, you can be Pro Interventionist Foreign Policy or against it and call yourself “Conservative”, Pro or anti Amnesty and be called a “Conservative”, pro or anti activist Judiciary and be called a “Conservative”
I so agree with you on that point. Labels are tools now, not definitions, and language is fluid.
I will say though that without first establishing “strong and bold”, we can kiss “conservative” outcomes good bye.
I was just thinking yesterday that our version of conservative is more about patriotism and American tradition and restoring both. That is why we are despised and why the composition of our population has been deliberately diluted, from traditional immigrants with Western values who assimilated, to now socialist-Marxist foreigners who do not. They pervert assimilation by narrowing it to cultish Eastern values, and use our Constitution to get it done.