Is it just me, or is "treason" one of those words that conservatives keep using that doesn't mean what they think it means?
It's not just conservatives, pretty much everyone uses treason incorrectly. The current low level of political discourse has only increased it's improper usage.
Technically, if the masses use a word one way consistently, doesn't that essentially add a definition to the word?
Or does that only apply to pronunciations of words, such as the case with often?
Legal definitions are not subject to that sort of evolution. The legal definition for a crime requires the law defining that crime to changed to have any effect.
What constitutes treason does vary from state to state and from time period to time period. What some people call treason may in all truth qualify as treason under other jurisdictions. But unless that act consists “in levying War against [the United States], or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort,†it is not treason against the United States. No matter how many people say otherwise, this definition can only change with an amendment to the U.S. Constitution, for without that, the above is the full legal weight of the term.