The Neoconservative Persuasion

Weekly Standard ^ | 2003 | Irving Kristol

[rrrod]

your# 420.....correct. All this talk over neocon this or that is nonsense. conservative values, as you say are the key.

[Ohioan]

When Washington was president,the Atlantic Ocean was seen as a pretty good barrier,though not a perfect one.We fought the English,to get our independence,were helped by the French,though they were also viewed as our enemies,and the Hessians(Germans) fought on the side of the Brits,as did Irish.As a new nation,composed of colonists from all of those nations,it really was in our best interests to stay out of centuries old fights between European nations.

What a bunch of rationalizations, to get around the clear intent and explained logic of Washington's position:

Observe good faith and justice towards all nations; cultivate peace and harmony with all. Religion and morality enjoin this conduct, and can it be that good policy does not equally enjoin it? It will be worthy of a free, enlightened, and, at no distant period, a great nation, to give to mankind the magnanimous and too novel example of a people always guided by an exalted justice and benevolence. Who can doubt but, in the course of time and things, the fruits of such a plan would richly repay any temporary advantages which might be lost by a steady adherence to it; can it be that Providence has not connected the permanent felicity of a nation with its virtue? The experiment, at least, is recommended by every sentiment which ennobles human nature. Alas! is it rendered impossible by its vices?

In the execution of such a plan, nothing is more essential than that permanent, inveterate antipathies against particular nations and passionate attachments for others, should be excluded; and that in place of them, just and amicable feelings towards all should be cultivated. The nation which indulges towards another an habitual hatred, or an habitual fondness, is in some degree a slave. It is a slave to its animosity or to its affection, either of which is sufficient to lead it astray from its duty and its interest. Antipathy in one nation against another disposes each more readily to offer insult and injury, to lay hold of slight causes of umbrage, and to be haughty and intractable when accidental or trifling occasions of dispute occur. Hence, frequent collisions, obstinate, envenomed, and bloody contests. The nation, prompted by ill will and resentment, sometimes impels to war the government, contrary to the best calculations of policy. The government sometimes participates in the national propensity, and adopts through passion what reason would reject; at other times, it makes the animosity of the nation subservient to projects of hostility, instigated by pride, ambition, and other sinister and pernicious motives. The peace often, sometimes perhaps the liberty of nations, has been the victim.

So likewise, a passionate attachment of one nation for another produces a variety of evils. Sympathy for the favorite nation, facilitating the illusion of an imaginary common interest in cases where no real common interest exists, and infusing into one the enmities of the other, betrays the former into a participation in the quarrels and wars of the latter, without adequate inducements or justifications. It leads also to concessions, to the favorite nation, of privileges denied to others, which is apt doubly to injure the nation making the concessions, by unnecessary parting with what ought to have been retained, and by exciting jealousy, ill will, and a disposition to retaliate in the parties from whom equal privileges are withheld; and it gives to ambitious, corrupted or deluded citizens who devote themselves to the favorite nation, facility to betray or sacrifice the interests of their own country, without odium, sometimes even with popularity; gilding with the appearances of a virtuous sense of obligation, a commendable deference for public opinion, or a laudable zeal for public good, the base or foolish compliances of ambition, corruption, or infatuation.

As avenues to foreign influence in innumerable ways, such attachments are particularly alarming to the truly enlightened and independent patriot. How many opportunities do they afford to tamper with domestic factions, to practice the arts of seduction, to mislead public opinion, to influence or awe the public councils! Such an attachment of a small or weak, towards a great and powerful nation, dooms the former to be the satellite of the latter.

Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence (I conjure you to beleive me fellow citizens) the jealousy of a free people ought to be constantly awake; since history and experience prove that foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of republican government. But that jealousy, to be useful, must be impartial, else it becomes the instrument of the very influence to be avoided, instead of a defense against it. Excessive partiality for one foreign nation and excessive dislike for another, cause those whom they actuate to see danger only on one side, and serve to veil and even second the arts of influence on the other. Real patriots, who may resist the intrigues of the favorite, are liable to become suspected and odious; while its tools and dupes usurp the applause and confidence of the people, to surrender their interst.

The great rule of conduct for us, in regard to foreign nations, is, in extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little political connection as posssible. So far as we have already formed engagements, let them be fulfilled with perfect good faith:--Here let us stop.

Washington offered wisdom for the ages. We do not have his like in high office today. That is unfortunate, but no reason to mislead as to his message. There is absolutely nothing dated about his understanding of human nature and the wiles of men and nations. Open your eyes and you will see evidence of everything that Washington addressed.

William Flax Return Of The Gods Web Site

[Ohioan]

Here's a bump to my comments on this thread yesterday.

[Ohioan]

And a bump for George Washington.

[Ohioan]

And another bump for George Washington.

[Ohioan]

And another bump for George Washington.

[21st Century Man]

Washington would have been eschewed as an isolationist by these phony conservatives.

Don't ya know FDR was a better president than Washington?

The dogs-of-war never have been content with just maintaining and protecting our sovereignty...that's why our borders are wide open and our rights eroded into privileges to be dangled by the elite.

[Ohioan]

I think that anyone willing to take a couple of minutes to read the passages from Washington, that I posted, will realize that he was right on the mark--and as current as tomorrow--on all points. We need to try to get people to read this. It is the most effective answer to academic fluff airheads on the Left and phony "neo" right.

Frankly, I wish some Conservative group would start posting it in response to every internationalist post on usenet, for a few weeks and see what sort of reaction it would stir.

William Flax Return Of The Gods Web Site

[21st Century Man]

The godless have always despised Washington, that's why we're in this current mess to begin with.

Washington left very specific instructions for his successors, but just like the Bible it has been discarded as an anachronism.

I suspect deep-down the NeoCons realize how much they've betrayed the Founding Fathers, but shrug it off as a prostitute departs from her conscience.

That's why many of their drones here resort to smear campaigns than debate the issue straight on. Deep-down they know they're NeoCon demigods are DEAD wrong.

What's really amusing is when they bring out the anti-semite card..."IT'S THE JOOOS". They don't even know history well enough to realize that most Muslims in the ME are more semitic than the European Jews running Israel.

Moreover, most conservatives realize that 9-11 was a direct result of foreign meddling for decades in the ME and elsewhere and it appears we're pursuing the very same ideology now.

God help us if a hostile islamic state REALLY gets its hand on WMD...nuclear weapons.

The people the NeoCons ar messing with have VERY long memories and have pursued their enemies for decades...

[CWOJackson]

"The people the NeoCons ar messing with have VERY long memories...."

LOL...and inspire the terror of a gerbil.

[tpaine]

Great retort to those who scorn much of our FF wisdom. And no pardon yet for the lack of a reply?

How typical.

[Veracious Poet]

Great post and absolutely correct.

Too bad No-pardon-me is too busy on his daily dis-information campaign to find the time to even show up.

[Veracious Poet]

Anyone that looks to FDR as a role model has serious problems with the Founding Fathers vision for the Republic.

Of course, FDR's hero was Lincoln, the father of BIG government and the man that killed the legacy of Washington.

[AlbionGirl]

Not to mention his attempted Stalin-like stacking of the Supreme Court. Talk about a tyrannical move! I'm not much of a fan of FDR myself. (Hey Poet, liked the E A Robinson stuff you posted very much!)

[tpaine]

You misspelled Marx.

Perhaps a Lincoln man veraciously ate your lunch at some point?

[hosepipe]

Irv my how you go on.. Cut it short next time. You could have said this all in two paragraphs. Many will begin to think you write just to hear the keyboard click.. I on the other hand already know it. Irv, be brief. You're getting boring.. Talk, Talk, Talk and you never say anything meaningful, back to the shallow end of the pool. The deep water is for deep thinkers here at Free Republic.

[AlbionGirl]

Moving stuff. Boy, I'll tell you what though, minds like those come around once every 5 to 10 thousand years. Compare that writing, those thoughts to any modern President's stuff, and the only thing you sense is absence.

[Veracious Poet]

To me the groaning of world-worshippers

Rings like a lonely music played in hell

By one with art enough to cleave the walls

Of heaven with his cadence, but without

The wisdom or the will to comprehend

The strangeness of his own perversity,

And all without the courage to deny

The profit and the pride of his defeat.

While we are drilled in error, we are lost

Alike to truth and usefulness. We think

We are great warriors now, and we can brag

Like Titans; but the world is growing young,

And we, the fools of time, are growing with it:

We do not fight to-day, we only die;

We are too proud of death, and too ashamed

Of God, to know enough to be alive. - E A Robinson

Wow, the more I read his words, the more I realize how fitting they are today.

VP Out

[Veracious Poet]

"You misspelled Marx."

I didn't even mention that dummkopf's name in the post, wishful thinking on your part perhaps?

"Perhaps a Lincoln man veraciously ate your lunch at some point?"

That my friend would be a fatal mistake for any fascist, especially one that seeks to maintain the lie about the greatest charlatan POTUS of the 19th Century.

[tpaine]

FDR's hero was Lincoln, the father of BIG government and the man that killed the legacy of Washington.

You misspelled Marx.

I didn't even mention that dummkopf's name in the post, wishful thinking on your part perhaps?

Marx was FDR's hero, as a Lincoln basher would well know.

Perhaps a Lincoln man veraciously ate your lunch at some point? Would this account for your hate?

That my friend
-- I'm not your friend. --
would be a fatal mistake for any fascist,

Fat chance you would have the nerve to face a fascist down, even if he stole your lunch. Gratuitous bashers are petty men, not contenders.

especially one that seeks to maintain the lie about the greatest charlatan POTUS of the 19th Century.

Rant on of 'charlatans'. Lincoln faced down the biggest group of real charlatans ever assembled in this country, the southern frauds who owned slaves, but spouted hypocrisies about being free.
-- And he won.