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We continually "lump and divide", as Cobe would say, because that is how we make the world make sense. From that standpoint, everyone is something, even if only politically apathetic....Whatever comes into general use is pretty much the relevant category. As I said, neoconservatives had the label thrust on them, originally, and paleoconservatives adopted that label to distinguish themselves, so it can work both ways....Sure, people of differing beliefs sometimes adopt the same label, in which case one either comes up with a tag similar to "neo" and "paleo" to distinguish them, or one is forced into qualifying locutions, such as "classical liberal, i.e., someone who believes in limited democratic government"....People of similar beliefs sometimes adopt different labels, yes. In the early '80s, for example, there was little to distinguish neoconservatives and neoliberals. However, there was one important distinction: neoconservatives had mostly gone ahead and voted for Ronald Reagan. The distinction, at that point, was practical, not ideological, but it was significant, and therefore the different labels indicated something. In other instances, the terms become practically synonymous, or are subsumed under a third term, for purposes of analysis..... |
