[LaBelleDameSansMerci]

"...This is an example of the kind of feverish writing that turns people off "paleoconservatism." The habit of calling everyone who disagrees with oneself "Marxist" is a sign that one doesn't have very strong arguments. As with leftists calling people fascist, the effect is to wear out the meaning of the word. When people indulge in this "everybody is a Marxist but us" it's a sign that they've stopped thinking and making distinctions in favor of just emoting....

This is a less-than-cheap critique. I wonder why you chose to distill a long, melancholy, well-written article into a tiny feverish red cape to wave before the inevitable charging bulls on this forum?

Are you contending that the root of the neo-conservatism is NOT marxism?

And then--even cheaper than the cheapest bargain-basement shot--you ream the source of the article. Aren't you the least bit concerned that a fine, entirely admissable argument like this finds no other outlet in they-hate-us-because-we-are-so-free America than The Chronicles?

[goldstategop]

The Leftists hate us because we accept reality for what it is and while we accept government has a role to play in taking care of society's needy, we don't accept that it has to be a cradle to grave one. As we've found a government's that too big is inefficient and a government that's overly intrusive is lacking in compassion. That's why we want the welfare state limited and have private charities and individuals do what government should refrain from doing so people that really need help are truly helped. The difference between liberals and neo-cons is liberals have faith in government whereas we have faith in people.

[x]

I think the author might get a better response if he just confined himself to the facts of the present case, rather than indulge in the black and white contrast of evil neo-cons and loyal paleos. I don't think much of the neo-cons and their promotion of war, but if they are Marxists, then pretty much everyone is a Marxist or "Marxism" has no meaning. To be sure, Irving Kristol was a Marxist once, but whatever's wrong with the younger ones, it's not true that they have a Communist past and I don't see any specific intellectual descent of neo-con ideology from Marxism. If you start throwing words around like that, it's hard to see how the paleos with their dislike of contemporary capitalism and the present US role in the world could escape being labeled Marxist either.

The paleos may have some good ideas and maybe they're right about the war, but until they stop ritually trashing and distorting our history they deserved to get slammed hard every time they do. I notice that Trfkovic didn't bother to say how wonderful the Confederacy was, so maybe he's capable of learning.