In spite of the ease with which the word \u201cconservatism\u201d is thrown about these days, most people who associate with the \u201cconservative\u201d movement are not <\/i>really conservative at all.\u00a0 In reality, the so-called \u201cconservative\u201d movement is a predominantly <\/i>(though not exclusively) neo<\/i>conservative movement.<\/p>\n
Contrary to what some neoconservatives would have us think, \u201cneoconservatism\u201d is not an insult, much less an \u201canti-Semitic\u201d slur.\u00a0 The word, rather, refers to a distinct intellectual tradition\u2014a point for which some neoconservatives, like its famed \u201cgodfather,\u201d Irving Kristol, have argued at length.<\/p>\n
In The Neoconservative Persuasion, <\/i>Kristol argues for another claim: neoconservatism and traditional or classical conservatism are very different from one another. \u201cNeocons,\u201d he states, \u201cfeel at home in today\u2019s America to a degree that more traditional conservatives do not.\u201dUnlike conservatism, neoconservatism is \u201cin the American grain.\u201d And this is because it is \u201chopeful, not lugubrious; forward-looking, not nostalgic; and its general tone is cheerful, not grim or dyspeptic.\u201d Furthermore: \u201cIts twentieth-century heroes tend to be TR [Teddy Roosevelt], FDR [Franklin Delano Roosevelt], and Ronald Reagan,\u201d while \u201cRepublican and conservative worthies\u201d like \u201cCalvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, Dwight Eisenhower, and Barry Goldwater are politely overlooked.\u201d<\/p>\n
Neocons view the United States as \u201ca creedal nation\u201d with a \u201c\u2018civilizing mission\u2019\u201dto promote \u201cAmerican values\u201dthroughout the world, to see to it \u201cthat other governments respect our conception of individual rights as the foundation of a just regime and a good society.\u201d\u00a0 Kristol is unambiguous in his profession of the American faith: the United States, given its status as a \u201cgreat power\u201d and its \u201cideological\u201d nature, does indeed have a responsibility \u201cin those places and at those times where conditions permit\u201d it \u201cto flourish,\u201d to \u201c\u2018make the world safe for democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Here, Kristol articulates the foreign policy vision\u2014\u201cDemocratic Realism\u201d is what Charles Krauthammer calls it\u2014for which neoconservatism is known.\u00a0 Yet to Kristol\u2019s great credit, he readily concedes what most neoconservatives readily deny: Big Government abroad is, ultimately, inseparable from Big Government right here at home.<\/p>\n
Kristol is refreshingly, almost shockingly honest: Neoconservatism, he informs us, endorses<\/i> \u201cthe welfare state.\u201d Its adherents support \u201csocial security, unemployment insurance, some form of national health insurance<\/i>, some kind of family assistance plan, etc.\u201d and will not hesitate \u201cto interfere<\/i> with the market for overriding social purposes\u201d\u2014even if this requires \u201c\u2018rigging\u2019\u201d it instead of imposing upon it \u201cdirect bureaucratic controls\u201d (emphases added).<\/p>\n
As Kristol says, neoconservatives are \u201calways interested in proposing alternate reforms, alternate legislation, [to the Great Society] that would achieve the desired aims<\/i>\u201d\u2014the eradication of poverty\u2014\u201cmore securely, and without the downside effects.\u201dNeoconservatives don\u2019t want to \u201cdestroy the welfare state, but\u2026rather reconstruct it along more economical and humane lines.\u201d<\/p>\n
In vain will we search the air waves of \u201cconservative\u201d talk radio, Fox News, National Review, Commentary, The Weekly Standard, <\/i>or any other number of mainstream \u201cconservative\u201d publications for a negative syllable regarding Irving Kristol.\u00a0 Though Kristol, like his son, Bill, is commonly referred to as a \u201cconservative,\u201d he himself not only explicitly embraced neoconservatism as his \u201cpersuasion\u201d of choice; Kristol happily embraced the distinction of being \u201cthe godfather\u201d of this persuasion.<\/p>\n
In other words, if anyone can be said to be the intellectual <\/i>standard bearer of neoconservatism, it is Irving Kristol.<\/p>\n
And yet here he is unabashedly conceding what some of us have long noted and for which we\u2019ve been ridiculed: neoconservatism is every bit as wedded to Big Government as other species of leftism\u2014even if its proponents want to use it in other ways and for other purposes.<\/p>\n
Because Obamacare is woefully unpopular, neoconservative Republicans, both in politics and the \u201cconservative\u201d media, have nothing to lose and everything to gain from trashing it.\u00a0 But at this time leading up to the midterm elections, more traditional conservatives would be well served to bear in mind that, in principle, <\/i>neoconservatives do not <\/i>object to \u201csome form of national health insurance,\u201d as Kristol tells us.<\/p>\n
For all of their talk of \u201climited government,\u201d traditional conservative voters should remember that, as Kristol states, neoconservatives \u201cendorse the welfare state\u201d and only seek to \u201creconstruct it along more economical and humane lines.\u201d<\/p>\n
For all of their talk of \u201ccapitalism\u201d and the free enterprise system, conservative voters should also recall that, as Kristol remarks, neoconservatives will not hesitate to \u201cinterfere with the market for overriding social purposes.\u201d<\/p>\n
More recently, Douglas Murray, in his, Neoconservatism: Why We Need It, <\/i>seconds Kristol in admitting that, \u201csocially, economically, and philosophically,\u201d neoconservatism differs in kind from traditional conservatism.\u00a0 In fact, such is the vastness of their differences that he refers to neoconservatism as \u201crevolutionary conservatism.\u201d<\/p>\n
If \u201cthe conservative movement\u201d is to have a future, it must first be honest about its present identity. \u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In spite of the ease with which the word \u201cconservatism\u201d is thrown about these days, most people who associate with the \u201cconservative\u201d movement are not really conservative at all.\u00a0 In reality, the so-called \u201cconservative\u201d movement is a predominantly (though not exclusively) neoconservative movement. Contrary to what some neoconservatives would have us think, \u201cneoconservatism\u201d is not…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":399,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1045","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n