"Precisely. Traitors, in other words."

You mean British patriots. Or perhaps a different type of American patriot?

But in the circumstances of the 1770s, the same thing.

In the circumstances of 2004 and the USA, the "British patriots" definition ceases to be a relevant one. That leaves the other one floating in the air, and available for political discourse and invective.

Earlier it was suggesting that it would be appropriate to use the term "Fascist" in the USA context, as a kind of balance for the way the term "liberal" has been used.

I think that line of reasoning works better when applied to the suggestion that people consider using the term "Tory" to refer to Conservatives over there, as it always has been used back here - but with the added sting in its tail that in the USA it implies a kind of treachery. (Though quite a lot of us see it as having that implication here as well, though for different reasons.)