WHAT EXACTLY IS NEOCONSERVATISM ?

The Neoconservative Persuasion - The Weekly Standard - From the August 25, 2003 issue. ^ | Explained by Irvin Kristol

[BplusK]

In this article Irvin Kristol, sometimes called "the Father of Neoconservatism" in America (and the actual father of Bill Kristol who is the well known editor of the Weekly Standard) explains what is neoconservatism. According to his explantations, NEOCONSERVATISM is an ideology that...

- is a persuasion.
- is typically American.
- is healthy for American Conservatism.
- is hopeful, looking forward and cheerful.
- has helped make conservatism more acceptable to a majority of American voters.
- wants to see economical growth in a free market.
- believes that there are alternative ways to the Welfare State.
- supports strong government.
- shares common views with the religious conservatives (and NOT with the Libertarians) concerning moral values.
- wants to encourage patriotism.
- is suspicious about "one world government".
- wants to clearly distinguish enemies from friends.
- believes that it is the "National Interest" of America to have a strong involvement in the international affairs to promote American values (freedom, democracy, etc.).
- is pro-Israel.
- believes that America must use (wisely) its military power.
- is very attractive to the Bush Administration.

ANYONE RECOGNIZES HIMSELF/HERSELF HERE ?

[ChadGore]

IT IS CALLED THE CONSERVATIVE MOVEMENT

[ChadGore]

The term is used by anti-semites because it sounds better than "jew bastard".

[ChadGore]

The term is used by anti-semites because it sounds better than "jew bastard". AND THAT'S WRONG.

[Pubbie]

Shut up Irving - Most Republicans were very content to call themselves Conservatives, until you came along and confused the hell out of everybody by creating a vague, nebulous, term "neoConservative" which nobody knows for sure what it stands for except that they believe it is our duty to spread democracy around the world through armed force (Something that is definetely NOT Conservative, It's more like Liberal Interventionism).

[Dog Gone]

Can a "gentile bastard" be a neoconservative, or is that reserved for "jew bastards"?

[Servant of the Nine]

Thanks, but no thanks.
I will remain a Goldwater Republican.
Fiscally Prudent, Socially Libertarian and Totalitarian/Colonialist in Foreign Policy.

So9

[Orangedog]

Here's the readers digest version of definitions of the two dominant political ideologies:

Progressive - If they had the votes, would scrap the Bill of Rights, effective immediately....for the children.

Neo-conservative - Would view the "progressive" proposal to immediately repeal the Bill of Rights as "extreme" and would instead offer their own plan to phase it out over a 5 year period...for the children.

[Dog Gone]

I imagine Rat must be a neoconservative.

[Quick1]

- supports strong government. - shares common views with the religious conservatives (and NOT with the Libertarians) concerning moral values.

Nope. Smaller government, and Libertarian values for me.

- is very attractive to the Bush Administration.

Well, I'm not sure how attractive I am to the Bush administration. If GWB would give me a call, and let me know...

[BplusK]

People who believe that it is NOT our duty to spread democracy around the world (through force or otherwise) are called "Libertarians" and "Isolationists".

[Pubbie]

The Rat is right about Mexico and France though!

[Mr. Blond]

Notice the inconsistency, this guy admires Reagan, but not Goldwater? And he dares to place Reagan and FDR in the same pantheon, let alone mention their names in the same sentence? Neocons may share similarities to Reaganites, except the crucial difference, and that is the disdain for large government.

[Pubbie]

"People who believe that it is NOT our duty to spread democracy around the world (through force or otherwise) are called "Libertarians" and "Isolationists".

The isolationist movement in the 20th century originated with the Republican party, but it died out after WWII.

The Republican's are no longer isolationists - they just want to use armed force ONLY to defend our national interests.

The NeoConservatives, as far as I can tell, want to intervene anywhere there is a dictatorship - again that is NOT conservative.

[MayDay72]

BplusK asks: "ANYONE RECOGNIZES HIMSELF/HERSELF HERE ?"

...No...And these are some of the specific areas that I disagree with...

"...But they are impatient with the Hayekian notion that we are on "the road to serfdom." Neocons do not feel that kind of alarm or anxiety about the growth of the state in the past century, seeing it as natural, indeed inevitable. Because they tend to be more interested in history than economics or sociology, they know that the 19th-century idea, so neatly propounded by Herbert Spencer in his "The Man Versus the State," was a historical eccentricity. People have always preferred strong government to weak government..." [emphasis added]

...Many of the 'Neo-Cons' started out on the extreme 'left' of the political spectrum [Marxism, Trotskyism, etc.]...I fear that they may have simply traded one form of collectivism/statism for another...

[tahiti]

"ANYONE RECOGNIZES HIMSELF/HERSELF HERE ?"

I would hope not.

Mr. Kristol refers to "democracy" 10 times in his rumination.

The U.S. is not a "democracy." The U.S. is a "republic."

This forum is "FreeRepublic.com.

The U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights is about "liberty."

His only reference to liberty is disparaging remarks about Libertarians.

Mr. Kristol sums up it a best when he defines a neoconservative appropriately with his own words:

"...ever since its origin among disillusioned liberal intellectuals in the 1970s,..."

Let remind members of this forum who might be lured into Mr. Kritol's socialist based philosophy, that the term "liberal intellectuals" is an oxymoron and incongruent.

[the gillman@blacklagoon.com]

So Neocons are Empirists, and Conservatives support the Republic?

I am not a Republican, but I am a die-hard republican.

However, it seems foolish to deny that the Republic has ended.

We are at a crossroad.
We will either dissolve, be overrun and fade away or be the next great empire, encompassing and controlling the entire world.

There's no middle path.
Given that, it's better to lead the empire than be subjected to it.

We have to decide soon.

[MEG33]

bttt

[MayDay72]

Mr. Kristol refers to "democracy" 10 times in his rumination...The U.S. is not a "democracy." The U.S. is a "republic." -tahiti

...Good points...I'm glad that someone else caught the typical [and false] 'democracy' = 'freedom' and 'liberty' propaganda...'Democracy' is a means to an end [achieving and preserving freedom and liberty]...

[chance33_98]

shares common views with the religious conservatives (and NOT with the Libertarians) concerning moral values.

Makes one wonder what a neo-liberal is. They believe in pushing their morals upon others through legislation, labeling anyone who does not bow to their 'priests' as haters, and use concerted efforts to spread their 'gospel'.

Most conservative christians I know take a view that the way to make changes is not through government, but through changing a man's heart. Laws are mainly to punish (or chastise if you wish). Abortion can be legal, but if people see it as wrong they won't do it (same with other things as well).

The left has made out the conservative christians to be control freaks who want to force people to do something, all the while they are passing (or trying to) more and more legislation telling others how to live. If being a religious conservative means living strictly within a religious philosophy (whichever one you choose) and working to pass laws to make others do the same than the real conservatives are the liberals themselves - they just do it without using a bible, making things up as they go along.

The term 'religious conservative' has come to mean something bad to many people, as the leftists try to scare people into thinking there is a group of christians trying to control their lives and tell them what to do - and while there may be some who fit this mold (and I am not one of them, Christ told his disciples to go and tell the good news, not make laws to make people obey it) most the people who fall into this category are liberals who use fractured groups and philosophies to force their beliefs onto others.

< /end rant>