I'm having a real laugh these days about who is being called "conservative". Consider Glenn Reynolds, for example. Glenn is in favor of gay marriage. Glenn views abortion as a "right". Glenn favors drug legalization.

Consider Berkeley linguistic professor John McWhorter. McWhorter is often derisive of Christianity, a Nader voter, supports drug legalization, is critical of Guantanamo Bay, and not fundamentally opposed to race-based affirmative action. But because he is often critical of contemporary black culture, he is, despite all evidence to the contrary, a "conservative". I've never seen any discussion of his stance on the Iraq war used as part of the application of this label.

Reynolds and McWhorter are not alone. They're just the tip of an iceberg of people who refuse to toe the line on every single liberal stance. Conversely, there are many conservatives like, Pat Buchannan who are opposed to the war against Iraq -- apparently, that's not enough to make them lose the "conservative" label.

No, instead a person is a "liberal" only when they stick to all the main stances of liberalism; failure to toe the line means, in any public debate framed by the mainstream media, that you will be branded a "conservative".

It's almost as if liberals are intolerant of dissenting views.