Republican presidential hopefuls took to the stage in Milwaukee on Tuesday night to duke it out for the fourth time and to try and win the hearts and minds of Republican voters.
One candidate after another took their turn trying to convince Republican viewers that their policies are more conservative than any of their opponents'.
They disagreed on immigration policy, they disagreed on the role of the US military in world affairs, and they disagreed about how best to gut Obamacare and what agencies to gut in order to balance their budget.
But they could all agree on a few things.
For example, they all attacked Dodd-Frank with claims that it's killing community banks and making it easier for big banks to get bigger.
And they all had their own ideas for how to reform the tax code to even further line the coffers of corporations and the superrich.
But those ideas aren't really "conservative", and the Republican party isn't really a conservative party anymore.
This Republican party isn't the party of Barry Goldwater and Dwight D. Eisenhower conservatives anymore, it's not even the party of conservative Federalist John Adams.
It hasn't been "conservative", ever since the "Reagan Revolution".
Oh sure, they all call themselves conservatives, Donald Trump even evoked Dwight Eisenhower's conservativism during Tuesday's debate.
But if you look at the history of American conservatism, it's clear that this Republican party isn't my father's conservative Republican party.
