Redstate

By kyle8 Posted in Archived — Comments (6) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

NOTE to moderators, let this be a primer to anyone who is ignorat and does not understand recent history.

Just what and who exactly are the Neoconservatives?

The intellectual underpinnings of neoconservatism came from three primary sources. The Trotskyite philosopher Max Shachtman,
The political scientist Leo Strauss, and the literary critic Lionel Trilling.

These men influenced two young intellectuals in the postwar period, Irving Kristol who founded "The Public Interest" magazine, and Norman Podhoretz who founded "Commentary".

Both of these men were characteristic as being men of the far left. They were essentially Troskyites. However they broke with the political left over inconsistencies in domestic policy, anti-americanism, support for third world dictators, and the rise of the counter culture in the 1960's.

They soon had followers such as Ben Wattenberg, Richard Perle, and Jeanne Kirkpatrick. The domestic views of the Neoconservatives tended to be pro-growth, and pro-entrepreneur, but differed from other conservatives by offering government programs to replace those of the left, rather than just being against those programs.

In foreign policy they developed a Wilsonian view of promoting democratic projects and global trade as a response to the totalitarian left. It was a reverse of the old communist idea that to protect communism, it had to spread until there were no more threats.

Here is neoconservatism from its founder, (from Wikipedia)According to Irving Kristol, the founder and "god-father" of Neoconservatism, there are three basic pillars of Neoconservatism: a low tax, pro-growth and less risk-averse approach to economics; a less libertarian approach to domestic affairs than some other conservatives; and an idealist, expansive foreign policy.[15] Kristol also claims three distinctive aspects of neoconservatism from previous forms of conservatism: a forward-looking approach drawn from their liberal heritage, rather than the reactionary and dour approach of previous conservatives; a meliorative outlook, proposing alternate reforms rather than simply attacking social liberal reforms; taking philosophical or ideological ideas very seriously.

So you see, it is correct to say that the Bush Administration was influenced by neoconservatism, it is incorrect to actually call them that. There have never been more than about twelve Neoconservatives ever, and you have to actually have been a leftist first.

Now the word neocon has taken a pejorative connotation from the left. But because its founders were also New York Jews, it has taken on a thinly veiled anti-semitism.

It has also falsely been used to lump in everyone who is in favor of an aggressive stance in the Global War on Terror.