I saw a political sign recently near where I live. It referred to the candidate as an "Actual Conservative Republican". I presume that means that she believes that many republicans call themselves conservative and are not actually so. I find that quite interesting. I guess that the real issue would be what one's definition of "conservative" is. There can be many ways to look at that. Considering that the word "conservative" means someone who wants to "conserve" something from the past that has the potential of being lost, it makes an enormous difference how far into the past one is thinking about.
So, if we realize that a little over a century ago it was considered wrong for a woman to hold a political office (yes, here in America, wow!), and that the person claiming to be an "actual conservative" happens to be a woman, we have to ask, "just how conservative are you?" Is she "actually" and "actual" conservative? She is certainly not conservative enough to want to conserve the position that a woman should not be a politician. Totally apart from whether that position is correct (and that is another conversation entirely), we have to laugh at what is being revealed by that political sign.
"Conservative" only means that the person wants to "conserve" something, but what that is and how far back is almost impossible to narrow down merely from the term. I tend to use the phrases "more conservative" or "less conservative" to help point out that things are on a spectrum. As Catholics we should be cautious about such terms as "conservative" or "liberal", not because they are necessarily bad, but because they do not mean the same thing to everyone. Let us avoid being labeled as "conservative" (or "actual conservative") and merely make it clear that we stand for the Catholic faith as it has always been.