[n-tres-ted]

The true neocon, I think, is typified by Norman Podhoretz and David Horowitz. They were not just previously on the left in their thinking - they were leftist radicals. But in Vietnam and its aftermath, they saw that their leftist comrades were lying about major things (such as the bloodbath following our bailing out on South Vietnam after the Dems cut off funds) to keep their ideology together. Once they committed themselves to recognizing the truth, they had to abandon the left. But they brought with them a very vigorous thought process that has reinvigorated conservatism and made us stronger and more thoughtful. As Norman P. says, ideas matter.

[Torie]

No, the "true" neocon is someone like myself, at least in the sense that the perspective is more co-extensive with mine, than most other specific labels withing "conservatism." It is a philosophy, an attitude, albeit a pluralistic one, which desires to grapple seriously, and with perseverance and patience, with evil and dysfunctionality, both at home and abroad, and takes American security seriously, all empirically driven based on the facts, and experience, rather than some over-arching grand unified theory. I am a secular WASP moderate conservative, who was move conservative in my youth.