While the four remaining candidates for the Republican presidential nomination all pitch themselves as the real “conservative” in the race, each one represents a different take on what it means to be conservative. It’s not surprising that they would concentrate on this word since about 40% of Americans self-identify as conservatives, but only 27% consider themselves Republicans.

 

Rick Santorum considers himself the “true conservative,” by which he means the religious conservative who values faith more than the other challengers. A devout Catholic, Santorum has been outspoken about traditional marriage and made opposition to homosexuality an issue that others have not.

 

Newt Gingrich, on the other hand, says he’s the “Reagan conservative” who wants to lower taxes and reduce the size of government, two issues that were a huge part of Reagan’s platform, although, strange as it may seem, the number of civilian federal employees actually increased under Reagan.

 

Ron Paul has been called the “constitutional conservative” and is often viewed as the most libertarian of the GOP choices. Paul believes the U.S. Constitution should serve as a guide for what the government can and should do for the people and he generally promotes the concept that government should have less involvement in people’s lives.

 

Finally, Mitt Romney has described himself as the “severely conservative” choice of GOP voters. Paul Krugman in The New York Times quotes linguistics professor Mark Liberman of the University of Pennsylvania as saying that the words that most commonly follow the word “severely” are disabled, depressed, ill, limited and injured. The problem with Romney’s choice of the label “severely conservative,” writes Richard Lorenc at The Daily Caller, is that it “brings to mind images of a strict parent who employs corporal punishment. Perhaps he thinks that’s what he needs to win over the Republican base.”

-Noel Brinkerhoff, David Wallechinsky

 

The Political Labels That Really Matter (by Richard Lorenc, Daily Caller)

Severe Conservative Syndrome (by Paul Krugman, New York Times)

Rebranding Needed—Rename the Republican Party the Conservative Party: Myra Adams (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)