Yes, WE are the patriotic Americans.

Is it bad form to call conservatives the patriotic Americans? Sarah Palin was mauled in the media and blogosphere for this insinuation during the general election:

"We believe that the best of America is in these small towns that we get to visit, and in these wonderful little pockets of what I call the real America, being here with all of you hard working very patriotic, pro-America areas of this great nation. This is where we find the kindness and the goodness and the courage of everyday Americans. Those who are running our factories and teaching our kids and growing our food and are fighting our wars for us. Those who are protecting us in uniform. Those who are protecting the virtues of freedom."

Politically, this was probably not the best choice of words; candidates running for office during a general election need to make the broadest appeal manageable for support.

Taken outside of that context, however, the change in rhetoric among conservatives is probably warranted, and a long time in coming. The left have generally given themselves all license to redefine terms and shift the language of a debate when facts alone couldn't produce a decisive political victory. Granted, it's not a practice that's unique to the left; nor is it unique to our time: "Anti-federalist" was coined by Alexander Hamilton and James Madison in their effort to discredit opponents of constitutional federalism.

But much of what passes for "acceptably-neutral" language in the press and professional culture has decidedly been shaped more by left wing politics than any genuine concern for maintaining ideological neutrality. Why, for example, are pro-life activists consistently named "anti-abortion rights" protesters in the Associated Press? Perhaps it's done for the same reason why editors of Time magazine dubbed California's Proposition 8 supporters "anti-equal rights" activists (Proposition 8, as you may know, was California's ballot initiative which preserved the state's definition of marriage as a union between one man and one woman).

A much-older, but ongoing example of the left's hijacking of language is the use of "progressive" to describe their political philosophy; implying, of course, that all contrary viewpoints must be ipso facto "regressive," or at least a stagnant hindrance in their crusade against inequality in all its forms. Does anyone honestly believe this effect was accidental?

Given the way the "progressive" label continues to exclude conservative views, and the brazen language shifts that have occurred over the years, no conservative should ever feel embarrassed to claim ownership of an adjective the Left have refused to wear proudly when their country needed it most: that of a proud, and Patriotic American.