The phrase "a respectable conservative" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used to describe someone who holds conservative views but is also seen as having integrity or being worthy of respect.
Example: "Despite our differing opinions, I have always considered him a respectable conservative who values honest debate."
Alternatives: "a dignified conservative" or "an honorable conservative."
It is far more troubling for AEI to be using Hitler to tar a perfectly respectable conservative, classical liberal, constitutionally sound, albeit unfashionable, economic doctrine.
QUESTION FROM JOHN KOKORIS: Somewhat related to the last paragraph of your excellent article: There's a "West Wing" episode in which President Bartlett nominates a staunch liberal to the Supreme Court; to get her through Congress, he talks an old conservative justice into retiring by promising to nominate a staunch and respectable conservative replacement.
No respectable conservative wants to work with Mr. Le Pen, but a conservative majority has proved difficult to achieve without him.
What was funny and ultimately telling was the minor uproar the petition set off in respectable conservative circles.
The respectable conservative journals of opinion sprinkle the phrase around their Web sites but go light on it in their print editions.
So much so that it once again raised the question of where the border between conspiracy theories and respectable conservative media lies.
Lemann does write astutely about the white supremacists and their coordinated multi-track political strategy, whereby respectable conservative Democrats like Lamar kept to the high road (and attacked the Republicans as profligate tax-and-spenders) while leaving the dirty work to the White Line.
National Review has played the role of gatekeeper on the right over the years, attempting to drive fringe voices, like the John Birch Society, from what the magazine's editors have deemed to be respectable conservative opinion.
The terror and destruction that followed soon went out of hand, making even the respectable conservative newspaper Politiki Epitheorisis (, Political Review) that at the beginning urged Greek "justice" to "smite mercifully the atrocious conspiracy" and to purge all followers of the "archconspirator of Salonika [Venizelos]", in the end to urge "prudence".
By Adam Gopnik March 3, 2016 When Jean-Marie Le Pen reached the final round of the French Presidential election, in 2002, against the right-centrist Jacques Chirac, Socialists joined respectable conservatives in a "republican front" to insure Le Pen's defeat.
