The Neoconservative Persuasion

WHAT EXACTLY IS NEOCONSERVATISM? Journalists, and now even presidential candidates, speak with an enviable confidence on who or what is "neoconservative," and seem to assume the meaning is fully revealed in the name. Those of us who are designated as "neocons" are amused, flattered, or dismissive, depending on the context. It is reasonable to wonder: Is there any "there" there?

Even I, frequently referred to as the "godfather" of all those neocons, have had my moments of wonderment. A few years ago I said (and, alas, wrote) that neoconservatism had had its own distinctive qualities in its early years, but by now had been absorbed into the mainstream of American conservatism. I was wrong, and the reason I was wrong is that, ever since its origin among disillusioned liberal intellectuals in the 1970s, what we call neoconservatism has been one of those intellectual undercurrents that surface only intermittently. It is not a "movement," as the conspiratorial critics would have it. Neoconservatism is what the late historian of Jacksonian America, Marvin Meyers, called a "persuasion," one that manifests itself over time, but erratically, and one whose meaning we clearly glimpse only in retrospect.

Viewed in this way, one can say that the historical task and political purpose of neoconservatism would seem to be this: to convert the Republican party, and American conservatism in general, against their respective wills, into a new kind of conservative politics suitable to governing a modern democracy. That this new conservative politics is distinctly American is beyond doubt. There is nothing like neoconservatism in Europe, and most European conservatives are highly skeptical of its legitimacy. The fact that conservatism in the United States is so much healthier than in Europe, so much more politically effective, surely has something to do with the existence of neoconservatism. But Europeans, who think it absurd to look to the United States for lessons in political innovation, resolutely refuse to consider this possibility.

Neoconservatism is the first variant of American conservatism in the past century that is in the "American grain." It is hopeful, not lugubrious; forward-looking, not nostalgic; and its general tone is cheerful, not grim or dyspeptic. Its 20th-century heroes tend to be TR, FDR, and Ronald Reagan. Such Republican and conservative worthies as Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, Dwight Eisenhower, and Barry Goldwater are politely overlooked. Of course, those worthies are in no way overlooked by a large, probably the largest, segment of the Republican party, with the result that most Republican politicians know nothing and could not care less about neoconservatism. Nevertheless, they cannot be blind to the fact that neoconservative policies, reaching out beyond the traditional political and financial base, have helped make the very idea of political conservatism more acceptable to a majority of American voters. Nor has it passed official notice that it is the neoconservative public policies, not the traditional Republican ones, that result in popular Republican presidencies One of these policies, most visible and controversial, is cutting tax rates in order to stimulate steady economic growth. This policy was not invented by neocons, and it was not the particularities of tax cuts that interested them, but rather the steady focus on economic growth. Neocons are familiar with intellectual history and aware that it is only in the last two centuries that democracy has become a respectable option among political thinkers. In earlier times, democracy meant an inherently turbulent political regime, with the "have-nots" and the "haves" engaged in a perpetual and utterly destructive class struggle. It was only the prospect of economic growth in which everyone prospered, if not equally or simultaneously, that gave modern democracies their legitimacy and durability. The cost of this emphasis on economic growth has been an attitude toward public finance that is far less risk averse than is the case among more traditional conservatives. Neocons would prefer not to have large budget deficits, but it is in the nature of democracy--because it seems to be in the nature of human nature--that political demagogy will frequently result in economic recklessness, so that one sometimes must shoulder budgetary deficits as the cost (temporary, one hopes) of pursuing economic growth. It is a basic assumption of neoconservatism that, as a consequence of the spread of affluence among all classes, a property-owning and tax-paying population will, in time, become less vulnerable to egalitarian illusions and demagogic appeals and more sensible about the fundamentals of economic reckoning.

This leads to the issue of the role of the state. Neocons do not like the concentration of services in the welfare state and are happy to study alternative ways of delivering these services. 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, although they certainly have no liking for anything that smacks of overly intrusive government. Neocons feel at home in today's America to a degree that more traditional conservatives do not. Though they find much to be critical about, they tend to seek intellectual guidance in the democratic wisdom of Tocqueville, rather than in the Tory nostalgia of, say, Russell Kirk.

But it is only to a degree that neocons are comfortable in modern America. The steady decline in our democratic culture, sinking to new levels of vulgarity, does unite neocons with traditional conservatives--though not with those libertarian conservatives who are conservative in economics but unmindful of the culture. The upshot is a quite unexpected alliance between neocons, who include a fair proportion of secular intellectuals, and religious traditionalists. They are united on issues concerning the quality of education, the relations of church and state, the regulation of pornography, and the like, all of which they regard as proper candidates for the government's attention. And since the Republican party now has a substantial base among the religious, this gives neocons a certain influence and even power. Because religious conservatism is so feeble in Europe, the neoconservative potential there is correspondingly weak.

AND THEN, of course, there is foreign policy, the area of American politics where neoconservatism has recently been the focus of media attention. This is surprising since there is no set of neoconservative beliefs concerning foreign policy, only a set of attitudes derived from historical experience. (The favorite neoconservative text on foreign affairs, thanks to professors Leo Strauss of Chicago and Donald Kagan of Yale, is Thucydides on the Peloponnesian War.) These attitudes can be summarized in the following "theses" (as a Marxist would say): First, patriotism is a natural and healthy sentiment and should be encouraged by both private and public institutions. Precisely because we are a nation of immigrants, this is a powerful American sentiment. Second, world government is a terrible idea since it can lead to world tyranny. International institutions that point to an ultimate world government should be regarded with the deepest suspicion. Third, statesmen should, above all, have the ability to distinguish friends from enemies. This is not as easy as it sounds, as the history of the Cold War revealed. The number of intelligent men who could not count the Soviet Union as an enemy, even though this was its own self-definition, was absolutely astonishing.

Finally, for a great power, the "national interest" is not a geographical term, except for fairly prosaic matters like trade and environmental regulation. A smaller nation might appropriately feel that its national interest begins and ends at its borders, so that its foreign policy is almost always in a defensive mode. A larger nation has more extensive interests. And large nations, whose identity is ideological, like the Soviet Union of yesteryear and the United States of today, inevitably have ideological interests in addition to more material concerns. Barring extraordinary events, the United States will always feel obliged to defend, if possible, a democratic nation under attack from nondemocratic forces, external or internal. That is why it was in our national interest to come to the defense of France and Britain in World War II. That is why we feel it necessary to defend Israel today, when its survival is threatened. No complicated geopolitical calculations of national interest are necessary.

Behind all this is a fact: the incredible military superiority of the United States vis-à-vis the nations of the rest of the world, in any imaginable combination. This superiority was planned by no one, and even today there are many Americans who are in denial. To a large extent, it all happened as a result of our bad luck. During the 50 years after World War II, while Europe was at peace and the Soviet Union largely relied on surrogates to do its fighting, the United States was involved in a whole series of wars: the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Gulf War, the Kosovo conflict, the Afghan War, and the Iraq War. The result was that our military spending expanded more or less in line with our economic growth, while Europe's democracies cut back their military spending in favor of social welfare programs. The Soviet Union spent profusely but wastefully, so that its military collapsed along with its economy.

Suddenly, after two decades during which "imperial decline" and "imperial overstretch" were the academic and journalistic watchwords, the United States emerged as uniquely powerful. The "magic" of compound interest over half a century had its effect on our military budget, as did the cumulative scientific and technological research of our armed forces. With power come responsibilities, whether sought or not, whether welcome or not. And it is a fact that if you have the kind of power we now have, either you will find opportunities to use it, or the world will discover them for you.

The older, traditional elements in the Republican party have difficulty coming to terms with this new reality in foreign affairs, just as they cannot reconcile economic conservatism with social and cultural conservatism. But by one of those accidents historians ponder, our current president and his administration turn out to be quite at home in this new political environment, although it is clear they did not anticipate this role any more than their party as a whole did. As a result, neoconservatism began enjoying a second life, at a time when its obituaries were still being published.

Your choice is Republican or Democrat. Which one is MORE likely to listen to your concerns about that?

And if the Left, with all its PC nonsense, were utterly defeated, as we COULD do if we all stood as one against them, wouldn't it be MORE likely to happen?

I am just as sick of the likes of you as I am of the media.

I'd say the same about you - except it wouldn't be true. Unlike you, I'm not "sick" of other conservatives who don't agree with me 100 percent on every issue. I believe in free thought and the freedom to engage in independent analysis, not lockstep agreement.

They get a lot of help from those nominally on our own side who persist in attacking THEIR OWN. How many articles have the media shat out about it lately? That's called GLOATING, not wishful thinking.

Why in the WORLD would someone on the Right wish to help them do their dirty work?

Unlike you, I'm not "sick" of other conservatives who don't agree with me 100 percent on every issue.

I am not sick of conservatives who don't agree with me on every issue.

I am sick of people like you who are doing every single thing you can 24/7 to make sure John Kerry wins in November.

Don't deny it; everybody here knows it's true.

The problem here is pat buchanan and his little flying monkey here DO want to try and fracture the Conservative vote. Fortunately, I don't think many people pay much attention to them these days...just the "true conservatives" who channel directly with the founding fathers.

Chamberlainbuff here is nothing but a Quisling.

"I believe in free thought and the freedom to engage in independent analysis, not lockstep agreement."

FINE, Buff. But just remember who the REAL enemy is on election day.

And don't do their dirty work for them, even in good conscience.

When 9-11 happened, ALL Americans, regardless of politics, became Brothers against a common foe. Defeating that foe, and doing so politically to the Left, requires similar unity on our part.

Just let us WIN, and we can fix what ails you later, and without the Left mucking up the process.

You're telling me that the open borders, give every illegal amnesty wing of the party is not more interested in pleasing business owners than than the Americans whose wages are depressed by illegal immigrants? Or the public schools being forced to educate the children of illegals and thus harming their ability to educate the children of citizens? Or emergency rooms closing because they cannot afford to treat the illegals who flood them?

One should remember that conservatism does not simply mean a reflexive desire to please business interests. As Samuel Huntington points out in his new book, when the top 100 companies in America were asked by Ralph Nader to open their stockholders meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance, only one company (Federated Stores) responded favorably. Companies like Aetna, Ford, Motorolla and Price Costco derided the idea that they should have some special loyalty to America.

Ford and IBM once supplied Nazi Germany with materiel before we had to go to war with them. Loral sold missile technology to China. Is it class warfare or common sense to point out that business interests are not always in the national interest?

Are the "conservatives" who voted for the prescription drug benefit more like the Right than the Left? What about those who support open borders and amnesty? Or those who forced the Solicitor General to file a brief accepting "diversity" as sufficient cause to allow for racial preferences in college? Yeah, I feel real safe with those folks at my back.

I wrote above that Buchanan wants to do exactly that, for his own aggrandizement. It's in one of the paragraphs in that rant.

But I' willing to put my money where my mouth is, and be polite to CB. That's what I'll do on my side to promote the unity we need to WIN. It goes both ways, after all.

The sniping and the fracturing has gone WAY TOO FAR at this point.

Tell you all what...let's win the freakin' election, get Republicans controlling the Senate and House, and we can deal with all the disagreements then.

Oh, and need I say that the constant infighting among US does ZERO to win the war, which very directly concerns me?

Look, I know there's bad blood all over, hell, I've even taken a chunk of flesh or two myself. But seeing the way the campaign is going lately, and understanding the implications thereof, wouldn't it be best for all America if we could take care of the main problem first, and settle the family squabbles later, at our lesiure?

I know I'm probably dreaming, but wouldn't it still be great if it WORKED?

I'd so like to see Hillary mopping floors.

If we didn't try to dictate to business owners how much they should pay their employees, then they wouldn't have to resort to employing illegals to get around the system.

The conservative wing of the party has always been opposed to placing regulations and restrictions on business.

fracture the Conservative vote

I'm not at all persuaded that you're a conservative. Obviously you're for the invasion of Iraq, but that doesn't necessarily mean you're a conservative, because many Democrats - including Kerry - voted for the invasion.

As for traditional conservative issues, such as tax cuts, pro-life, confirmation of conservative judges, immigration control, fighting racial quotas, reducing spending, I've never seen you comment. Guess you don't car about these issues.

Translation: you're not a "conservative" by any traditional defitintion, you're just some guy who favors war in Iraq.

Have a great day!

Everything you cite happened in large part due to the pernicious influence of Leftist Democrats who would block or destroy anything else. Defeat them, and the rest works itself out.

As long as the Republicans are forced to deal with the Left's daily bombardments, they have to compromise to get anything at all done.

If they were no longer a factor in politics, do you really think those things would have even been proposed?

Okay, some might, but they would have been defeated soundly. And there are very few on the Right who don't have to run for office who supported them...that includes neocons, libertarians, and conservatives.

Here's the facts...The President is a conservative leaning Republican. Is he perfect? No. However, he IS the best we can hope for in the current American political landscape.

And I will work and vote for Bush. Kerry as President would be even more amoral and scary than Clinton. His foreign policies would be disastrous. We lived through 4 years of Carter and 8 years of Clinton but in these times even 4 years of Kerry could do irreparable damage.

Unless my understanding of the US political system is seriously flawed, President Bush is the leader of the GOP and has proposed what amounts to rewarding people who have broken our laws.

Whats the answer? Well, we could force those that swear an oath to support/defend the USCON to do what they swore to do.

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