One of the most annoying comments I hear these days is "I'm Republican and conservative."

Such utterings give you a pretty good idea of the shallow depth of understanding current day politics.

There was a time around the early sixties when the Republican party did indeed take a turn toward the conservatism originally articulated by The Founders of these United States. Today the philosophies are widely separated. They are not close to being synonymous.

Exploding another myth brings to mind that conservatism is not exclusively a Southern thing. Or a white thing, either. That's a bum rap some current day demagogues would like to lead you to believe.

There are and have been many outstanding conservatives from all sections of the country.

I remember the days in Georgia when the real conservative Republicans were black. They supported people like Robert Taft of Ohio. In 1960, they were unseated at the Republican national convention by a new group of moderate white Eisenhower Republicans.

Republican is not the same as conservative. Here are some examples:

Many of Georgia's new Republicans are nothing more than recent converts from the Democratic party. They didn't undergo a sudden change of ideology. They merely realized they could no longer win as Democrats.

It is true the Democratic party went to great lengths separating itself from the mainstream by moving further to the left.

It is also true this makes many Democrat candidates in most of the state quite vulnerable to the rejection of extreme liberal and politically correct positions making many districts difficult to win.

The basic roots of the Democrats are still there, even when these opportunists change parties. They still cling to concepts immersed in non-conservative ideals. Look at how some of the recent converts voted on key legislation. Look particularly at how Georgia Congressmen and Senators broke all records in pork-barrel spending. They made the Democrats undeservedly look good.

The Reagan revolution had much to do with the undoing of the leftward leaning Democrats. There was a huge migration to the Republican party where the chances of winning on all levels seemed greater. This is where the term 'neo-conservative' arrives on the scene.

The neocons for the most part were a mixture of socialists and liberal Democrats who found some commonality with changing Republicans who supported less federal taxes, while local and state taxes increase, a larger more intrusive federal government, less state and local influence and power, a strong military industrial complex designed to establish U. S. presence throughout the world, including strengthened alliances with Zionists and multi-national treaties with regions encompassing everything from changed trade, including outsourcing of jobs to other countries, to the atmosphere.

Budget deficits and record trade imbalances are of little or no concern for new Republicans. Fiscal responsibility just isn't high in their agenda and priorities.

Anyone who witnesses what has taken place in the federal and state government cannot in any honestly equate what is taking place as any resemblance of 'conservatism' or respect for the Constitution as it is plainly written.

Here in Georgia we have all the markings of the new Republicans. Secret meetings and backroom deals in defiance to the law. Land grab legislation that if passed could deprive citizens of their property. A governor whose leading spokesman stated that "extreme circumstances require extreme measures" when asked about confiscation of defensive weapons. When criticism developed the govenor tried to appease gunowners and only muddled the situation worse. We got the message from the start.

Then there is Perdue's lockstep support for the Bush immigration policies which, when finally unravelled and fully understood, appear very much like amnesty. Yet, the Republican leadership tells us the legislation they propose is for total reform and removal of benefits from illegal aliens when in fact it leads to legalizing them with blue cards. This has a strong Orwellian ring to it.

"...Political language ... is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind." ---George Orwell, [from "Politics and the English Language, Shooting an Elephant," 1950]