What’s conservative?

• Believing the only necessary qualification for office is to claim to be a Republican?
• Holding that Supreme Court Justices should have a secret right-wing agenda?
• Backing a presidential candidate with no relevant experience or track record?
• Calling for tax cuts that add to the deficit?
• Promoting a balanced budget without regard for the known consequences?
• Preferring war to negotiation?
• No problem with money in politics–oligarch?
• Racist?
• Nativist?
• Xenophobe?
• Misogynist?
• Concerned only for the welfare of the rich?

These aren’t conservative ideas, but they are associated with faux-conservatives prominent today. These are like teens using a naughty word–conservative–while hoping someone tells them what it means–careful, cautious, slow to embrace change.