"..However -- it was initially a term used to apply to certain Jewish members of the conservative movement "

That's news to me, so I had to look it up, and it seems to be pretty much a minority opinion (note: opinion).  Also the earliest use of the term `neo-conservative' dates to 1921, according to wiki at any rate, and has been used on other occasions well before recent Republican governments existed.

I've always considered the term to be synonymous with neo-Liberal', a term occasionally used to describe what was also called Thatcherism in Britain (Liberal' again taking the 19th century political meaning) -- Whiggish revival in other words.

I've never considered in my wildest imaginings that racist associations were there in that word. Must be a conspiracy on the part of the Humptydumptian Transverbalists.