Indeed...

The problem with most political labels is, as Inigo would say, "you keep using that word... I doona think it means what you think it means..."

Laurence Vance takes a look at the label "conservative," and how its current usage does not comport well with defending actual liberty:

The problem with American conservatism is that it hates the left more than the state, loves the past more than liberty, feels a greater attachment to nationalism than to the idea of self-determination, believes brute force is the answer to all social problems, and thinks it is better to impose truth rather than [sic] risk losing one soul to heresy. It has never understood the idea of freedom as a self-ordering principle of society. It has never seen the state as the enemy of what conservatives purport to favor. It has always looked to presidential power as the saving grace of what is right and true about America.

Look past the distorted labels. Ask this about those seeking office: is their central agenda to maximize freedom of action for the State or the individual?