Dreher on Neocons and Paleocons
If you are conservative, what brand of conservative are you? Have we all become postmodern political mongrels that defy any of the classical labels? In this recent editorial, Rod Dreher examines the neocon thinking that may have been responsible for ’06 Republican losses. It’s all worth mulling over. Dreher says in part….
You will search the conservative canon in vain looking for the principles that justify the corruption and incompetence that helped deliver the well-deserved thrashing to the GOP. The incorrigible spending that destroyed the GOP’s reputation for being trustworthy stewards of fiscal sanity was actually a violation of conservative principles. And as for the disastrous Iraq war, Jonah Goldberg writes, “it is not the conservative position to botch wars.”
Now wait a minute. If a liberal offered a defense of failed Great Society policies by saying, “It is not the liberal position to create a vast helpless underclass wholly dependent on the government,” conservatives wouldn’t let them get away with that. The obvious reply is that failed welfare-state policies grew out of flawed liberal ideas about human nature and society, not just bureaucrats who applied those policies ineptly. Ideas, as conservatives never tire of saying, have consequences.
Before I read the whole article, let me comment on the above. If I am reading Mr. Dreher correctly, he is saying the GOP failure IS linked to conservativism. That’s the same as saying Clinton IS linked to welfare reform. He is not. The GOP is NOT linked to conservatives. They lost the link sometime before 2003. The Prescription Drug Giveaway was the hard evidence we needed.
Dreher is conflating parties with principles, and being in power with governing liberally or conservatively.
The larger debate about what IS conservatism is very important. The term is used to loosely. If one turns to the intro of Kirk’s “The Conservative Mind” it is easy to see many (most I believe) who are called “conservatives” are actually libertarian. What truly distinguishes the conservative from the rest of modernism (whether liberal or libertarian) is anthropology – how one answers the question “what is man”. When libertarians fell right in line with the liberals on Terry Schindler case (her real name – Schiavo no longer applied when her husband adulterated). In fact, the actions of the GOP was a symbolic gasp of conservativism emanating from an corpse increasingly stinking with the rot of libertarianism (which is just another form of liberalism)…
Hope everyone had a Blessed Thanksgiving!!!
“Neocon” is considered a dirty word in my Poli Sci faculty.
What kind of conservative am I?
I’m a knuckle-dragger.
“from an corpse increasingly stinking with the rot of libertarianism “
Riiiight, that explains the enormous spending spree. Libertarians being notorious for their advocacy of expanded government spending…
Nah, I’d say that the failure of the government shutdown back in the ’90s convinced the “professional” politicians in the GOP that it was all very well and good to talk about conservative principles, but that actually trying to put them into practice was political suicide. So they kicked the few real conservatives in Congress out of the driver’s seat, and settled down to some old-fashioned corruption, since doing the “right” thing wasn’t feasible.
A stupid lesson to draw from that debacle, (“Don’t let Bob Dole get behind your back unless you want a knife in it.” being a better lesson.) but one they are obviously quite comfortable with, and even now reluctant to abandon.
“that explains the enormous spending spree”
True, it does not explain it. It’s more run of the mill corruption as you put it – buying votes (or attempting to). Still, the big business interests (which are fundamentally libertarian) are at the core of the GOP…
aaaaarrrrrgggggghhhh.
Big Business does not equal limited government, free market, or libertarianism; And BB is only related to to conservatism in the sense that it is generally risk averse and a supporter of the status quo, two traits which are partial descriptions of conservatives.Big Business and Big Government go hand-in-hand.
There was a wonderful book a few years back which described those beneficiaries of Big Government as incumbents, generically referring to entities which already had an established position (Big Business, Big Labor, the education lobby, etc.), and whose interests ran counter to dynamism, upstarts, and those without the political clout to defend those interests.Anyone know what book I am talking about?
Pete,
Perhaps (if I am understanding you) most folks look at BB and it’s relationship to the GOP in more than purely economic terms. Certainly the liberals do – they rightly point out the moral dimensions (though they then recommend the wrong prescription.
What is libertarian about the relationship between the GOP and BB is it’s moral character, which of course (conservatively speaking – or for that matter liberal) is more important…
I’m with Dreher. Once we can drive the neo-cons, paleo-cons and libertarians out of the Republican Party, and bring in more people who like to drink wine, eat cheese and discuss the good life with friends, the sooner the Party can return to power.
Losing the sarcasm for just a moment here, Dreher’s subjective vision of what conservatism is and ought to be is increasingly reminiscent of Andy Sullivan’s version of conservatism, or the Catholic Church or any other thing Andy writes about. It is a projection of a highly individualistic and somewhat odd collection of prejudices, projected on a vast mass of people with divergent interests and inclinations. It’s also exclusive in nature and somewhat snotty. I used to like Sullivan, but he’s gone far down that path. I used to like Dreher too, but he’s treading on the same trail, albeit without the vicious insults aimed at others who would choose different paths.
Al, where do you get from Dreher he would be for the driving of the paleo-cons out of the party. My read of Crunchy Cons is that he shares their distrust of free-trade and the slavish devotion to corporate interests that characterizes the Wall Street wing of the GOP.
And as to neo-cons, is it too much to ask that we question their own multi-cultural viewas which apparently think that every society is the same and just waiting for democracy? Or that for some cultures democracy is even advisdable? Given Iraq, Lebanon, the Palestinian authority and some of the disturbing trends in Turkey, it appears that democracy in Islam simplly elects our enemies much as democracy in Weimar Germany brought Hitler to power.
What exactly comprises a neoconservative? Up until the media took it on themselves to identify the administration with neoconservativism, the movement was mostly thought of as being a movement of hawkish libertarians, at least in my experience.
it was all very well and good to talk about conservative principles, but that actually trying to put them into practice was political suicide.
Brett, you hit the nail on the head. we are a fat lazy people who like living off the government teet and if you try to pull that teet from the mouth of america your in a mess. it is only going to get worse too.
Given Iraq, Lebanon, the Palestinian authority and some of the disturbing trends in Turkey, it appears that democracy in Islam simplly elects our enemies much as democracy in Weimar Germany brought Hitler to power.
unhhyphenatedconservative, you are also talking my language. we need to stop sticking our nose in other peoples business and worrying about their “rights”. unless they are a danger to us i say leave them be. we march into iraq “freeing people” but we will not march into sadi arabia because they “play ball” with us. we have not got the time, money, man power, or balls to free the whole world….whatever happened to containment?
Lucas, I should point out that that’s the lesson the “pros” drew from the shutdown. It doesn’t mean that it was the correct lesson. It was merely the lesson they were predisposed to “learn” from any problem that cropped up, because they were corrupt rent seekers going into that shutdown, and only needed a plausible excuse for indulging their instincts.
In reality, public opinion was actually starting to turn around when Dole snuck back into town, and called an end to the shutdown with that blatently unconstitutional no-quorum “voice vote”.
His signature move, BTW, and conservatives should by rights have had somebody tailing him the whole while; They knew he was liable to try something like that, he’d done it before.
but bret it was getting to the point that they are so fearful of stepping on toes that they do not even walk around the room. what have we got from it all? talking about giving law breaking mexicans back pay for the fake ss#’s they used? give me a dem. or a gop. that is a man, i care little for partys anymore. your example just shows the slide that our government suffers from on both sides of the rail.