"You're not a conservative. You're a vandal."

[Jamaal510]

7. This is exactly what I've been saying all along!

Most of these people from the modern GOP and the modern right-wing are not true conservatives. They don't care about "conserving" anything. In fact, most of them not only want to eliminate public schools, but also Affirmative Action, the Big 3, Obamacare, Roe v. Wade, and the EPA. And they run up the deficit and unemployment when they are in power. Robert Reich nailed it when he called them the "Regressive Party".
I would argue that in an ironic sense, the average self-described liberal/Democrat follows the dictionary definition of being "conservative" more closely than the average self-described conservative/Republican. When you take a look at the presidencies of, say, Clinton or Obama, the deficit and unemployment have actually lowered, unlike what happened with Reagan or either of the Bushes.