The new liberal

I've posted another opinion piece on This is Reno. As before, you can read it in its entirety by clicking the title link below. Ir's about the changing meanings of our political identifiers. I have reason to suspect that conservative Democrat and liberal Republican are about to make a comeback.

The new liberal, or part 3,284,582 in an ongoing series on our nonsensical politics

Don’t worry, this isn’t about Weinergate. I ran across a blogger I used to read back during the 2008 election. I knew her to be a Democrat, and judging from her tweets, she still is. What seemed odd, is in her profile, she now describes herself as a “fiscal conservative.” How could that be? The more I thought about it, the more I could see her point. Our political labels are about to change again. The conservative Democrats are back, and they’re changing the meaning of fiscal conservative.

Just to confirm my hunch, I checked an online dictionary, and sure enough, my suspicions were correct. Fiscal has two meanings and conservative has three. We can pick one each to make the case for a fiscally conservative Democrat.

Fiscal: of or pertaining to the public treasury

Conservative: disposed to preserve existing conditions, institutions, etc., to limit change.