According to two politically-correct dictionaries:

• paleoconservative n. a holder of outdated or old-fashioned conservative beliefs; a long-standing conservative. Also adj.
• paleoconservative n. Extremely or stubbornly conservative in political matters. ¹

On a more serious note, paleoconservatism as a concept emerged in the 1980s in reaction to the rise of the neoconservative movement. The phrasing "Paleoconservative" was something of a tongue-in-cheek rejoinder to the emergence of so called neoconservative ideologues who were not really conservatives at all. Neocons as they are sardonically dubbed by the Old Right, were in the words of Pat Buchanan, "the boat people of the McGovern revolution," or as the neocon expositor Irving Kristol put it, "Liberals mugged by reality." Neocons were essentially New Deal liberals, sometimes ex-Trotskyites, who came to embrace anti-communism while rejecting the more radical Leftism of the 1960s. In the 1980s, they gained political strength, and by the twenty-first century they ascended to become the core intelligentsia of the present Bush administration.

The distinctive flavor of conservatism in the United States is very much unique from that of its European counterpart, and it is particularly contrasted to the continental varieties of European conservatism. As Wesley Allen Riddle notes, "Cross-nationally, Americans are still the most Whiggish or libertarian people among the democratic nations." Riddle adds, "Americans are less supportive of the welfare state than citizens of any other nation. This is because distrust of a strong state was at the core of [the American idea,] and this article of faith has continued to influence American political dialogue on all sides." ² Moreover, Americans are a meritocratic-minded people, and any acceptance of equality is qualified.