Words Mean things

"NEOCON", SHORTHAND for the term "new conservative", sounds more like a state of high nuclear alert, or a software manufacturing corporation, than a word which means a type of political ideology, which, apparently, it is. But exactly what is a "neo con? According to our trusty online people's encyclopedia, the term originated sometime in the 1970s (everything originated in that remote, foggy decade), as a way of describing former leftists, or liberals, who evolved into conservatives, at least on some issues, like opposition to soviet communist expansion. Maybe Reagan Democrat and neocon mean the same thing. The term's vagueness is indicated by the fact that although it has been around awhile, it has never taken on either positive or negative cannotations, but simply lies there, blandly. The word "liberal" has been berated so effectively that even liberals no longer call themselves "liberals". Now, they are "progressives". The day may come when conservatives start calling themselves "traditionalists". The enduring power of language! Anti-American: a person who believes that it is a bad idea to enslave an entire race, then free it, segregate it and ignore it, that it is a bad idea to drop tons of bombs on foreign countries, or a person who believes that an entire nation should never have been named after an Italian map maker- seller and all about town scam artist. Pro-American: a person who believes that the United states is a good place, or that Amerigo Vespucci was generous in lending his name, a distorted version thereof, to an entire pair of continents. Liberals liberate by changing everything, conservatives conserve the status quo.That much we understand. Communists are either people who believe in communities, or believe that people should be forced to be part of a community, at gunpoint if necessary. Socialists are people who believe that everyone should work for society, for everyone else, but not exclusively for themselves. To borrow a quote from America's most popular radio entertainer: words mean things.