Professor amazed: today's "conservatives" aren't actually conservative.

[DemocracyMouse]

6. So why do journalists/pundits keep calling them"conservatives"?

It gives them a kind of middling respect they don't actually deserve. Some good alternatives proposed in the dialogue above:

—Reactionaries
—Fascists

What, however, would the pundits be comfortable actually using? (Even though those terms are actually more accurate!)

Pundits are always seeking the "acceptable" term – we need to start calling folks out when the use "conservative". As in:

"Really? I didn't know Trump (etc) wanted to conserve our National Parks and our tradition of Social Security and Constitutionally mandated national welfare."