It is hardly surprising, then, that in a country where political labels tend to take on brand-new meanings, conservative — which is how nearly four in 10 Americans identify themselves today — has come to represent politicians and voters who are anything but conservative. Though long considered America’s conservative party, the GOP hasn’t been conservative in principle or practice for some time. Now that it has officially become the party of Donald Trump, the veneer of conservatism that it has sustained over the years is simply laughable.

Calling today’s Republican Party conservative is about as accurate as calling today’s Democratic Party socialist. Of course, like many other terms, socialism has lost its original meaning as well, and today is synonymous with Keynesian economics in American political discourse. And when the Republican president-elect replaces the current Democratic president in a little over a month, a conservative will not be moving into the White House, but out of the White House.

I argued back in August that Hillary Clinton was the conservative option for 2016, but not — as New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd had insisted — the “Perfect G.O.P. Nominee.” (For one thing, the GOP is no longer a conservative party.) Briefly comparing how the Clinton and Trump campaigns operated proves this point. One campaign ensured predictability and stability and ran on the concept of gradual reform, while vowing to protect the social and economic gains that had been made throughout the 20th century. The other campaign ran on the idea of smashing the status quo and the establishment, and regularly displayed indifference and even hostility toward the United States Constitution and the country’s rule of law. The former — the Clinton campaign — was politically moderate and temperamentally conservative (as National Review’s Kevin Williamson has agreed), while the Trump campaign was politically reactionary and temperamentally populist.

Thus Clinton, not Trump, was the conservative candidate in 2016, while Trump was the far-right reactionary. And if the cabinet that president-elect Trump has put together so far is any indication, the policies of the Trump administration will be just as extreme and reactionary as many of us feared. Likewise, if his recent behavior is any guide, he will be just as unpredictable and demagogic in office as he was on the campaign trail.

When Obama vacates the White House in January, he leaves behind a legacy of political moderation — perhaps best illustrated by the fact that his most comprehensive and “radical” policy, the Affordable Care Act, was based on a plan first introduced by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think thank, and was supported by many Republicans, at least until the president adopted it. Obama will also be remembered as a leader who frequently let his hopes for bipartisan cooperation get in the way of progress, especially during his first term. When the history books are written and he is inevitably compared to his successor, Obama will most likely be regarded as a moderate with a conservative disposition, who rejected some of the more populist impulses from within his own party and constantly sought out a middle ground that no longer existed in Washington.

As Republicans take over all three branches of government in 2017, the Democratic Party will essentially become, by default, America’s new conservative party. While Trump and House Speaker Paul Ryan conspire to slash taxes for the rich and deregulate Wall Street, Democrats will be fighting simply to protect the basic rights and gains that were attained long before most of us were born — from Medicare and Social Security to voting rights and workers’ rights to a decent education and minimum wage. The GOP agenda is thoroughly reactionary, and if it is successfully implemented, it will eliminate or limit many rights that most Americans currently taken for granted, while destroying social programs that are firmly entrenched in our society and overwhelmingly supported by a large majority of the public.