Beware the Neocons

Front Page Magazine ^ | August 13, 2K2 | David Harsanyi

[Classicaliberalconservative]

Oh come on. Why do you give dinosaurs so little credit? Velociraptors were very smart animals. :)

[Classicaliberalconservative]

Great post, could not agree more. It was Norman Podhoretz who made the statement about how neoconservatism was so dominant that we can now drop the prefix, but we have not defeated our enemies yet. I would love for the conservative movement to drop our internal divisions but how can we do this when one part of the movement accuses the other part of being closet liberals and Trotksyists or Zionist and foreign dupes? It is not neoconservatives who are causing this internal bickering you know.

[Phillip Augustus]

Just remember, though, it was the neo-cons swine who were right with the liberals calling for the illegal NATO assault on Serbia. I will NEVER EVER EVER trust them after that.

[Clemenza]

Neocons have turned the Republican Party into the Party of Woodrow Wilson when it comes to foreign policy. That's what makes me sick about Ledeen, Kristol, Podhoretz and the rest of the West End Avenue Mafia.

(Then again, I have always admired Gertrude Himmelfarb's literary criticism).

[Paradox]

I consider myself a neo-con because I am a new (Hey, I voted for Mondale...) Con(servative), so I use that label on myself. Truth be told, I am something of a libertarian, and I have conservative social beliefs which I do NOT think the government has any business mandating. On the other hand, I dont like Kristol either..

So where does that leave me? Do we need a thread in which the different flavors of "conservative" are defined? Because at this point, I dont know where I rate..

[Clemenza]

You sound more like a "conservative libertarian" like me. Neocons, on the other hand, were Scoop Jackson moderate Democrats who left the party because they were "hawkish" on "spreading Democracy around the world" and McGovern was not. They have turned the conservative movement from one where foreign policy was determined by national interest and not excessively meddling in certain regions of the globe to one where we must "crusade" to bring "justice" to the world and support certain "allies," even if their interests don't coincide with our own.

[Paradox]

Ah, I see, so the term "neocon", while correct, lacks precision, and leaves out many of us "New Conservatives" who have entered the movement from other angles. Thanks for helping me make the distinction.