Neoconservative = Not Conservative

Written By: Nick Pardini

When one thinks of a conservative, he or she usually assume that a conservative believes in the idea of small limited government, the maximization of economic and civil liberties, and a non-interventionist foreign policy. However, during the Bush Administration, the neoconservatives have overtaken the leadership of the Republican party and perverted the meaning of conservatism and government based on the constitution. There is nothing conservative about the Neoconservatives, and they consist of old line Democrats frustrated with the hippy movement have hijacked the Republican party to serve a very idealistic, authoritarian, and Trotsky-like agenda of fighting moral relativism. The Neocons believe in

a large intrusive government, have no problem with the welfare state, and preach the idea that preemptive war is necessary for the grander goal to spread democracy to the entire world by means of force. By taking these stances, those who support this movement contradict the goals of true conservatism and as a result taken the Republicans away from their principles and ruined the reputation of conservatism in the eyes of the American people.

The Neoconservative movement began from the academic philosophies University of Chicago professor of Leo Strauss and New York University professor Irving Kristol. They claimed that the government and society’s of social liberalism (more social freedoms/civil liberies) caused moral relativism that will lead to the eventual decline of America. Kristol along with many former Roosevelt Democrats who were disgusted by the New Left and the 1960’s counterculture belived that government force is the only mechanism that they can use to restore morality into society. According to Neocons, the way government can combat moral relaitivism is by restricting civil liberties and by putting America on a crusade as the world’s hero to bring democracy across the globe by any means.

Another tenet of Neoconservative thought lies in the supposed fact that America is on the decline and needs to the use the last of its remaining time as the world’s superpower when it can to protect American interest. Since they do not think about the long term in any of their policies, (and their former affiliation with the left), neocons have no problems (and sometimes advocate) both deficit spending and the welfare state. Sound money is an irrelevant to them because their agenda solely relies on short-term positioning and the in the long run, the United States would be second-rate country anyway. Unlike paleoconservatives and libertarians, neoconservatives base the rationale for their action on idealism and not historical facts or common sense, which only leads to trouble and unforeseen problems. Zionism has often been connected to the Neocons as well due to avid support for Isreal that sometime supersedes American patriotism.

Neocons are willing to anything to achieve their ends. The way that Neoconservatives attempt their means are through preemptive war and the stripping of civil liberties. Actions such as the War in Iraq and the Patriot Act exemplify how desperate these people are willing to go to accomplish their agenda, even at the expense of America. Iraq is not the only occupation on the mind of the neocons, they want to continue the surge on the Middle East starting with Iran to redraw the map to benefit American and Israeli interests and bring democracy to the region.

Spreading democracy across the world by force is not only impractical, but too costly to last. Doing this by force only cause fundamentalist resentment, and by letting the people experience authoritarianism on their own will motivate the people sufficiently to fight their way to a more free government. America cannot afford to practice twenty-first century imperialism, as the government already faces a nine trillion dollar debt and an overextended military. A much more effective and reasonable way to conduct foreign policy is to simply keep a strong armed forces within our borders and to quit bullying the rest of the world into universal American resentment.

Neoconservatism would only be an afterthought if were just another radical ideology with no following. The problem is that the right-wing establishment and leadership of the Republican party have fully bought into their agenda. Prominent Neocons include Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, David Horowitz, John McCain, Paul Wolfowitz (former Chief of World Bank), Bill Kristol, Rupert Murdoch, and several other prominent leaders in right-wing politics. They control the Republican party and continue to select the GOP’s candidates. They have perverted the party to the point that the average person believes neocon ideas such as preemptive war and legislating morality are standards of conservatism.

Also their ideology hurts both them and paleoconservatives at the polls as voters think, if the election is a big government liberal versus a big government neocon, at least the liberal stands for big government and plus people want a change from the war mongering and financial irresponsibility of the neocons. Overall, Neoconservatism is a dangerous and idealistic ideology that is speeding up the demise of both the Republican Party and the United States America with an unsustainable hawkish foreign policy, supression of individual’s civil liberites, and deficit spending that cripples the economy and value of the dollar- all of which do nothing to help either the political, economic, or moral health of the country as Neocons have tried (and failed) to restore.