I'm not so sure the people who use the term this way now are thinking about it to that depth, though.
By the same token that they wouldn't answer the way I mentioned to __kat__, "I don't mean a real Federalist," I doubt they'd say, "Well, I mean a European-style Federalist." I'm aware that in different places "federalism" has completely different meanings, but when we're talking about people who are typically trying to be All-America, All The Way (which is why the French are unamerican despite being the source of many "American" ideals)... I can't help but feel like they're trying to borrow legitimacy from the American Federalists in a way that they wouldn't be borrowing from the Germans or Australians, even if in those cases the "foreign" federalism fits better with the approach they're pushing.
Again, if I honestly thought that most of these politicians and Conservatives were willing to call their ideals "European-style" anything, it'd annoy me less to have them use the term to mean something completely different. But I tend to hear it from folk who also believe that the Founding Fathers of our Glorious Nation had everything all figured out already back then, and that their intent is important above all things. So while they could be giving me the more informed explanation you just did... I can't help but feel like this is just another case of Conservatives invoking "founders' intent" without feeling a need to know (or care) what that actually means.
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Date: 2009-01-12 11:32 am (UTC)From:By the same token that they wouldn't answer the way I mentioned to
Again, if I honestly thought that most of these politicians and Conservatives were willing to call their ideals "European-style" anything, it'd annoy me less to have them use the term to mean something completely different. But I tend to hear it from folk who also believe that the Founding Fathers of our Glorious Nation had everything all figured out already back then, and that their intent is important above all things. So while they could be giving me the more informed explanation you just did... I can't help but feel like this is just another case of Conservatives invoking "founders' intent" without feeling a need to know (or care) what that actually means.