In the Independent‘s commentaries on U.S. politics, you and your writers have gradually given ground to the U.S. far right in your choice of terms in political discourse. This has caused a marked imbalance in your audiences’ understanding of important aspects of U.S. political debates and professed policies, and affected both perception and conception of political aims. It has also contributed to a crisis of identity in the Republican Party, and a further shift to the right.

Donald Trump is not a “conservative.” Neither are his most devoted supporters, cabinet members and admin staff “conservatives.” They are reactionaries, in the classic political use of the term. They do not favor a measured, or even restrained, pace toward progress; they favor a reversion to an outdated, corrupt ideology of past power and control. By mis-using the term “conservative” for these people, you are lumping true conservatives in the same camp as reactionaries, robbing true conservatives of their political identity, and misrepresenting genuine conservative values to the public that the media is supposed to serve.

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