Conservative Classifications

I really do think the term "neoconservative" is used by many to mean "holder of all sorts of wrong-headed right-wing ideas." Or, at least, the term is commonly affixed to one's ideological enemies, often with little regard for the aptness of the word. Let me give a little example. A former professor of mine, an idealistic, internationalist, Kofi-Annan-loving Leftist, called Pat Buchanan a neocon. Pat Buchanan.

Lesson: names often say less about the class of objects named and more about the human doing the naming.