"I'm a Hyphenated-Conservative"

I find it irritating when politicians, or people in general, attempt to qualify their conservatism. If you need to qualify your conservatism then you aren't a conservative. You are a moderate. Call yourself that and let labels retain their meaning.

During the Bush years it was "compassionate conservative" and also "big-government conservative." The two terms were related as the former was just an excuse for the latter. Unfortunately it implies that compassion and conservatism are incompatible.  An insulting suggestion.  As for "big-government conservative" the implied incompatibility is far more justified.  However, it would have been more honest, though much less politically viable, to just say, "Sorry, we aren't going to cut spending or reduce the size and scope of government.  Would you like two interminable wars instead?"

Now we have Trump calling himself a "common sense conservative." Setting aside the issue of how recently he might have acquired common sense or conservatism, if at all, one might wonder why he feels the two concepts are at odds.  Edmund Burke and Russell Kirk both declare that the first virtue of the statesman is prudence.  Common sense is simply inherent in conservatism.  Prudence may not be the first virtue that pops into your head when you consider Donald Trump. 

In both examples, the tacked-on qualifiers are really an attempt to justify deviations from conservative principles while continuing to solicit support from conservative folk.  It is as if to say, "I cherish the conservative label, I merely wish to abandon the principles."  Such qualifiers also demonstrate a muddled understanding of conservatism.  While part of the problem has been the neoconservative mutation of conservatism from a particular tradition into a universal ideology the unfortunate practice of hyphenating conservatism has done nothing to return conservatism to its original meaning.  Generally it has been a thin veneer to cover a leftward impulse.  Perhaps we are a few elections away from our first declared Moderate Liberal Conservative.