[BplusK]

In this article Irvin Kristol, sometimes called "the Father of Neoconservatism" in America (and the actual father of Bill Kristol who is the well known editor of the Weekly Standard) explains what is neoconservatism. According to his explantations, NEOCONSERVATISM is an ideology that...

- is a persuasion.
- is typically American.
- is healthy for American Conservatism.
- is hopeful, looking forward and cheerful.
- has helped make conservatism more acceptable to a majority of American voters.
- wants to see economical growth in a free market.
- believes that there are alternative ways to the Welfare State.
- supports strong government.
- shares common views with the religious conservatives (and NOT with the Libertarians) concerning moral values.
- wants to encourage patriotism.
- is suspicious about "one world government".
- wants to clearly distinguish enemies from friends.
- believes that it is the "National Interest" of America to have a strong involvement in the international affairs to promote American values (freedom, democracy, etc.).
- is pro-Israel.
- believes that America must use (wisely) its military power.
- is very attractive to the Bush Administration.

ANYONE RECOGNIZES HIMSELF/HERSELF HERE ?

[ChadGore]

IT IS CALLED THE CONSERVATIVE MOVEMENT

[ChadGore]

The term is used by anti-semites because it sounds better than "jew bastard".

[Pubbie]

Shut up Irving - Most Republicans were very content to call themselves Conservatives, until you came along and confused the hell out of everybody by creating a vague, nebulous, term "neoConservative" which nobody knows for sure what it stands for except that they believe it is our duty to spread democracy around the world through armed force (Something that is definetely NOT Conservative, It's more like Liberal Interventionism).

[Servant of the Nine]

Thanks, but no thanks.
I will remain a Goldwater Republican.
Fiscally Prudent, Socially Libertarian and Totalitarian/Colonialist in Foreign Policy.

So9

[Orangedog]

Here's the readers digest version of definitions of the two dominant political ideologies:

Progressive - If they had the votes, would scrap the Bill of Rights, effective immediately....for the children.

Neo-conservative - Would view the "progressive" proposal to immediately repeal the Bill of Rights as "extreme" and would instead offer their own plan to phase it out over a 5 year period...for the children.

[Quick1]

- supports strong government. - shares common views with the religious conservatives (and NOT with the Libertarians) concerning moral values.

Nope. Smaller government, and Libertarian values for me.

- is very attractive to the Bush Administration.

Well, I'm not sure how attractive I am to the Bush administration. If GWB would give me a call, and let me know...

[MayDay72]

BplusK asks: "ANYONE RECOGNIZES HIMSELF/HERSELF HERE ?"

...No...And these are some of the specific areas that I disagree with...

"...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..." [emphasis added]

...Many of the 'Neo-Cons' started out on the extreme 'left' of the political spectrum [Marxism, Trotskyism, etc.]...I fear that they may have simply traded one form of collectivism/statism for another...

[tahiti]

"ANYONE RECOGNIZES HIMSELF/HERSELF HERE ?"

I would hope not.

Mr. Kristol refers to "democracy" 10 times in his rumination.

The U.S. is not a "democracy." The U.S. is a "republic."

This forum is "FreeRepublic.com.

The U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights is about "liberty."

His only reference to liberty is disparaging remarks about Libertarians.

Mr. Kristol sums up it a best when he defines a neoconservative appropriately with his own words:

"...ever since its origin among disillusioned liberal intellectuals in the 1970s,..."

Let remind members of this forum who might be lured into Mr. Kritol's socialist based philosophy, that the term "liberal intellectuals" is an oxymoron and incongruent.

[chance33_98]

shares common views with the religious conservatives (and NOT with the Libertarians) concerning moral values.

Makes one wonder what a neo-liberal is. They believe in pushing their morals upon others through legislation, labeling anyone who does not bow to their 'priests' as haters, and use concerted efforts to spread their 'gospel'.

Most conservative christians I know take a view that the way to make changes is not through government, but through changing a man's heart. Laws are mainly to punish (or chastise if you wish). Abortion can be legal, but if people see it as wrong they won't do it (same with other things as well).

The left has made out the conservative christians to be control freaks who want to force people to do something, all the while they are passing (or trying to) more and more legislation telling others how to live. If being a religious conservative means living strictly within a religious philosophy (whichever one you choose) and working to pass laws to make others do the same than the real conservatives are the liberals themselves - they just do it without using a bible, making things up as they go along.

The term 'religious conservative' has come to mean something bad to many people, as the leftists try to scare people into thinking there is a group of christians trying to control their lives and tell them what to do - and while there may be some who fit this mold (and I am not one of them, Christ told his disciples to go and tell the good news, not make laws to make people obey it) most the people who fall into this category are liberals who use fractured groups and philosophies to force their beliefs onto others.

< /end rant>

[chance33_98]

shares common views with the religious conservatives (and NOT with the Libertarians) concerning moral values.

Makes one wonder what a neo-liberal is. They believe in pushing their morals upon others through legislation, labeling anyone who does not bow to their 'priests' as haters, and use concerted efforts to spread their 'gospel'.

Most conservative christians I know take a view that the way to make changes is not through government, but through changing a man's heart. Laws are mainly to punish (or chastise if you wish). Abortion can be legal, but if people see it as wrong they won't do it (same with other things as well).

The left has made out the conservative christians to be control freaks who want to force people to do something, all the while they are passing (or trying to) more and more legislation telling others how to live. If being a religious conservative means living strictly within a religious philosophy (whichever one you choose) and working to pass laws to make others do the same than the real conservatives are the liberals themselves - they just do it without using a bible, making things up as they go along.

The term 'religious conservative' has come to mean something bad to many people, as the leftists try to scare people into thinking there is a group of christians trying to control their lives and tell them what to do - and while there may be some who fit this mold (and I am not one of them, Christ told his disciples to go and tell the good news, not make laws to make people obey it) most the people who fall into this category are liberals who use fractured groups and philosophies to force their beliefs onto others.

< /end rant>

[chance33_98]

apologies for the double post - admin can you removes on of my replies please?

[MayDay72]

...Bump...

[eleni121]

shares common views with the religious conservatives (and NOT with the Libertarians) concerning moral values.

Not only shares but actively promotes Judaeo Christian values in Government and the public sphere of life in America and the world.

So I guess I am NEOCON.

[x]

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.

Looks a little childish, and more than a little superficial. What do you do with George Washington in such a simplistic "happy face" vs. "Mr. Grumpy" scenario? Sounds like Irving is responding to the surfaces of politics and not what lies beneath. A true statesman would be sanguine and cautious by turns as the situation demands. One can't be fundamentally pessimistic about one's country, but cheerleading isn't enough.

Some of what Kristol argues for is just conservative commonsense. But priorities are what's important. Most of those who've been identified as "neocons" in recent years have put foreign policy and foreign intervention first. An interventionist foreign policy looks to be the defining feature of today's neo-conservatives. The alliance with religious conservatives on moral issues, by contrast, is in the background, and may just be for show. How far the neocons would actually go to maintain the alliance is unclear. Finally, to outsiders it looks like neocons want to stay in the driver's seat more than to compromise and share real power with other conservatives from outside their faction.

[hosepipe]

Neo-conservative = republican in name only still possesed with democrat demons...

[witnesstothefall]

Far as I can see, neoconservatism is a codeword for subversion of traditional conservatism by so-called "former liberals".

Read or listen to William Kristol, the neocon par excellence. I don't trust that man one little bit.

[goldstategop]

Yes I do count myself in this school of thought. We must have an American, optimistic, politically appealing, patriotic, and national security minded conservatism. One that accepts the need for economic growth and the existence of the welfare state, though not in its liberal incarnation. This is the essence of conservatism in the Republican Party today. It used to be called "neo" and due to the way things have become, the prefix no longer matters, justifiably so since conservatives stand opposed to liberals in the view of America, its prospects, love of country, and on national security. Our enemies and opponents inside the conservative movement express alarm at the triumph of "neoconservatism." All conservatives should in fact rejoice since its made this country stronger and healthier. Europe has nothing like it. And its in no small part thanks to conservatives that as Martin Seymour Lipset has noted, America is "the exceptional nation."

[GOPcapitalist]

"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." - Irving Kristol

Pardon my asking but does anybody else see something seriously wrong with who Mr. Kristol defines as a conservative hero?

[Eva]

What is a neo-con? That's pretty simple, a neo-con is a traditional liberal who has become disenchanted with the Democrat Party since the take-over by the socialists and had moved to the Republican party because they realize that they have more in common with the social conservatives than they do the socialists.

[StriperSniper]

- supports strong (central) government.

Sounds unConstitutional to me.