What is a Neo-Conservative?

[ForOurFuture]

I hear the term used more and more, but am not sure what exactly differentiates Neo-Cons from ordinary Conservatives. The one difference I've gleaned is in foreign policy: more agressive, warhawkish. Anybody?

[shadowman99]

It's one of those people who call Rush's show and says "I love your show and agree with you on everything BUT... "

[ned]

[rdb3]

What is a Neo-Conservative?

A "neo-conservative" is anyone identifying with conservatism who was formerly on the Left.

Also, a "neo-con" is a conservative that knuckle-dragging paleo-cons don't like.

[Nonstatist]

According to Justin Raimondo, any Jew who dares "pretend" he's a conservative, is merely a "neo-con".

[RightOnline]

"Neo-con" is not exactly a term of endearment. It is generally used to refer to someone who claims to adhere to Conservative ideaology yet moves leftward on various (usually social and/or foreign policy) issues. Paleo-cons, however (again, NOT a friendly term....) are considered to be stuck in the 1940's or '50's and would rather spit in your eye than compromise on their beliefs.

I, for example, consider myself to be a paleo-con. :)

[swarthyguy]

A group with a significant jewish compononent that used to be part of the ScoopJackson wing of the Democrats who left the dems. Anti-Soviet, Pro-Jewish emigration, pro-defense. Flexible enought to adapt republican views on domestic policy in exchange for a Strong US stand.

[Willie Green]

neocons = portfolio patriots

conservative values are jetisoned to improve the bottom line.

[freeeee]

A neo-con advocates big and ever growing government to implement their socially conservative political agenda.

Traditional conservatives advocate limited government. This is almost never the case with the neo-con. A neo-con just loves BIG government, so long as it is doing his bidding.

[=Intervention=]

Basically a neoconservative is used in two contexts. People like Norman Podpherez (sorry, can't spell his last name) have used it to indicate a conversion from leftism to conservativism. The other context I have seen it used in is to identify those people who favor an American emprire, the War party, shallow people who don't respect civil rights, nor law, nor liberty. In the second context, the neocons perspective is much like the leftist one -- the people are best beneath the feet of the ruling few.

[skeeter]

A Neo Con is a liberal who's decided (marginal)conservatism pays better.

[onedoug]

A dismissive sense of superority?

[grobdriver]

neo-
pref.

1.New; recent: Neolithic.
2. a.New and different: neoimpressionism.
b.New and abnormal: neoplasm.
3.New World: Neotropical.

[Greek, from neos, new. See newo- in Indo-European Roots.]

Source: The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

[=Intervention=]

That is slander. Horowitz is no bigot. Have you ever read his work? Is it bigoted to point out that the ghetto mentality produces the cultural trash of America's big cities and that most of the people who subscribe to those ethics are black? Compare the statements of the KKK to that of Horowitz and you'll find a huge difference. In fact, Horowitz was just on a campus speaking tour stating how reperations are bogus -- and what would cement blacks' position in American society as a permanent underclass more quickly than the narcotic of reparations?

[finnman69]

I have been wondering myslef what this really means. Is a Neo-Conservative the bizarro world counterpart to a New Democrat?

[KC Burke]

Russell Kirk discussed the term in a lecture wherein he said, in part:

In the book-review media and weeklies of opinion, at the beginning of the Fifties, it was the fad to refer to these writers as "New Conservatives" or "Neo-Conservatives"-the prefix "neo" usually implying the contempt of the commentator. Recently, at the end of the Seventies, the epithet "Neo-Conservative" has been clapped to yet another set of writers and scholars. Or are these new neo-conservatives really another set? Some of them, certainly, are recruits or converts to a conservative view of American society. But a chief among them, Irving Kristol, in London as editor of Encounter at the beginning of the Fifties, actually has not changed his views in any very important respect during the intervening three decades: he was quite as prudentially conservative then as he is now, and wrote as candidly and convincingly. Or Robert Nisbet, often mentioned in conjunction with these latter-day New Conservatives, was one of the more conspicuous of us original New Conservatives, with the publication of his principal book, The Quest for Community, in 1953.

Since Kirk wrote this lecture in the early '90s, the appelation has been taken on by those assigned it, somewhat as a badge of honor. You can read the Weekly Standard, editied by Kristol's son and get a collection of the things that differentiate them.

Likewise, many will lay David Horowitz and Frontpage.mag in with Kristol, mostly due to his past history as a liberal and lack of citation of an Enduring Moral Order as his first principle of conservatism.

Its always easy to come up with distinctions that divide us...I have more admiration for those like Meyer, that tried to unify various factions.

[alaskanfan]

I've been wondering for some time what a paleo-con was. I took a little test on the internet (geekswithguns.com) and was labeled a paleo-con. After reading your explaination, I feel much better.

[rdb3]

Any organization that features David Horowitz. . .

Here we go again!

[sheltonmac]

r.e. post #6....

Right on, RightOnline!