How about we hire Americans, at American companies, which make things for sale in America?
Just saying.
I pass water from a great height on the flat rock of “neo-conservatism”, which is neither of those things. It is as old as the Tower of Babel, and is as conservative as Brave New World.
As usual— another great post by Kaslin.
For myself, I must confess considerable fealty to neoconservatism.
I think the article paints the compromises in too dark of tones and I certainly do not think neoconservatism endorses big government.
I do think the unspecified conservative absolutists have no empirical record or standard. Even the Reagan pretenders concede a vast array of empirical shortfalls on contemporary demands for “true conservatism.”
I do think ethically minded capitalism can reduce poverty. It still shocks me how conservative absolutists refuse to acknowledge that the height of Republican congressional power in the late 1990s successfully bent the trajectory of government and Great Society programs toward the most successful empirical reductions in poverty and the deficit SIMULTANEOUSLY.
The dearth of defense for empirical Republican successes and the fawning over untried conservative absolutism is disheartening.
I have railed to no great end on FR about the golden conservative unicorns that supposedly ride in vast herds throughout the American electorate.
On a more practical note, I think Ted Cruz is America’s best option for 2016.
But frankly, I expect that even he will be torn down by Paulites and absolutists within locales such as FR.
I hope I am wrong about that .
But clearly Cruz’s dad and the heritage of escaping Cuba cannot allow the neo-isolationist demands of current faux conservatism. It will be an interesting dilemma going forward between Paul and Cruz.
Next old Bill will be trying to say the Tea Party are really neo=cons. :-)
What's that doing in there, Kerwick?
It has been reported, on fairly credible authority, that George W. Bush's Second Inaugural Address was actually scripted by a Neocon writer. In order to highlight the real foreign policy issues involved, I put the last former President's remarks, paragraph by paragraph in juxtaposition with the appropriate passages from George Washington's Farewell Address [George Washington vs. George W. Bush.]
Again the Neocon movement is neither new nor Conservative. It goes against some of the most basic principles of American Conservatism.
William Flax
In that definition what I am being told is that folks like W. Krystol and G. Will and a bunch of other DC Bozos want me to foot the bill for their guilt alleviation...... No thanks very much
Maybe it still is.
Who remembers back in the early 2000’s, the Weekly Standard was openly cheering big government and deficit spending?
They called it “national greatness conservatism.” They were cooing that the era of conservatives trying to shrink gov’t was over, so we could focus on more important things like starting unnecessary wars to democratize Muslims and throwing open the borders to anyone and everyone.
Neocons lately have been making more of a serious effort to pretend to be conservative on domestic issues, or at least shutting up about them. Don’t be fooled. If Jeb were to become President, the mask would slip and they would be up to the same old tricks.
Simple definition of what a neocon is...
A former moderate liberal who likes to use american power, especially the military to push american style democracy across the globe...
They joined the republican party because the democrats hate the military...
I can do without the socialist programs. Thanks.
Like “liberal” which has been robbed of its meaning, “conservatism” can have more than one meaning as its commonly used.
I think of myself as part of a classic liberal tradition, rooted in a Biblical worldview. In my opinion, that also describes the Founders and probably most of what we call constitutional conservatives.
Whether that is “conservative” or “paleo” or “neo-conservative” or “radical” as the terms are bandied about depends on the case at hand and the eye of the beholder.
“Classic liberal” constitutionalists don’t always agree with one another on foreign policy; when do you act and when do you take a step back is not always clear to everyone at the same time. But there is a kind of consistency that comes from clarity of principle.
Basically, the Neocons are authoritarian liberals who wrap themselves in the flag and spout platitudes about "American greatness" to trick the rubes into giving up their blood, treasure, and liberty to advance the Globalist Agenda - a police state at home and Empire abroad.
Not sure that neoconservatism really is "forward-looking."
A lot of it has to do with looking back to the America of the 1940s and 1950s.
But notice that Kristol explicitly claims Reagan as a forebearer, but not Eisenhower.
much less an “anti-Semitic” slur.
Ping for later.
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LET'S STROLL DOWN MEMORY LANE
Invading Iraq without provocation was a horrendous US foreign policy decision devised by the neocons for their own self-serving reasons.
Then-Pres Bush installed the neos in the WH---in their own Office of Special Ops where---the neos connived (using our tax dollars) to get the US to invade Iraq.
Bush actually believed the pukeneos when they said an INVASION would "bring peace" to the Mideast.
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THE BIGGEST WHOPPER OF THEM ALL---Bush estimated the Iraq strike would cost $50-60 billion........then Bush publicly fired his aide, Larry Lindsey, because Lindsey dared to say the war might cost more like $100 billion. That was in 2007 dollars.
Iraq and Afghanistan today total about $3 TRILLION, and we're still pouring money down these rat holes........thanks to the neocons.
Predictably, the war profiteering was huge---the WSJ reported neocon guru, Richard Perle, is setting up his own oil company in Iraq (your tax dollars at work). Richard Perle,
The US left Iraq with not a barrel of oil to our name.....and rivers of young blood spilled on its decrepit soil
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MOMENTS TO REMEMBER--- On the eve of the US invasion of Iraq, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee heard testimony from Marine Corps Gen Anthony Zinni---and other US military experts ---that the so-called architects (they dared not say "neocon") of the Iraq invasion were totally ill-prepared for a post-combat occupation.
US military experts ridiculed the Bush administration claims that rebuilding could be achieved within two years, that the weapons of mass destruction would be destroyed-------and that a vibrant new political and economic system would emerge.
Over a decade later, Iraq---and the rest of the Mideast----has yet to create a viable political and economic system....a system that is totally incompatible w/ their archaic Islamicist thinking macerated in the vengeful dicta of the Koran.
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LAUGH BREAK The pukeneos said the Mideast was "thirsting" for American-style democracy.
(waiting for hysterical laughter to die down)
Same place now known as a terrorist hellhole...
<><> Where trillions of US tax dollars were wasted and rivers of young blood were shed.
<><> Where the blood-thirsty Muslim Brotherhood has a stranglehold.
<><> Where neocon godfather and war profiteer, Richard Perle, is starting an oil company (your tax dollars at work).
It took the US over a decade to get out of Iraq....as the globe erupted into Mideast-centered terrorism.....and hate-filled Muslims set sail for America.
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These are the glory days of the neocons--now gearing up to relive those days w/ another gullible Bush.
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HERE WE GO ROUND THE MAY POLE Who could forget Obama's sap-happy "Arab Spring" when visions of terrorists as heart-filled humanitarians, weaving daisy chains, went frolicking around the May pole?
Obama's been prostrate---on his knees, all puckered up, apologizing for America, sucking up to America-hating countries. Obama, and his Chicago crime kingpins in the WH, have done everything possible to undermine US ntl security --- and they did it with our tax dollars.
Obama entertained the blood-thirsty Muslim Brotherhood in the WH; he gave the Muslim Brotherhood $2 billion tax dollars to finance its anti-American activities. It's certainly conceivable that the endless Mideast killings of Americans is being financed w/our tax dollars.
WHY WOULD A LIBERAL STAGE A MILITARY RAID? ANSWER COMIN' RIGHT UP Obama and HILLARY actually staged "military raids" in Libya. Did'ja ever? Who could image Smart Power types like Obama and Hill actually staging "military raids." But, heck, it was worth it----for Obama and Hill---they gained access to the National Bank of Libya. (No, there's no paper money there---just solid gold bars. Solid Gold. Not the fake Chinese tungsten filled bars flooding the gold market.)
Also, by whose definition was Ike a traditional conservative?
And Neoconservatives love wide open borders, mass immigration and amnesty.
They can be a bigger threat than our open enemies on the left. Because when the GOPe is in power they will try to ram through rotten policies that the Democrats can’t even manage to pass.