Neocons and the Blogger Wars

When we think of neoconservatives we tend to think of Republicans like Dick Cheney. This, at least in a historic sense, is not accurate. The neoconservatives were Democrats in the beginning and would probably have been seen as progressives when domestic policy was concerned. Today there are many who think of themselves as Democrats who fit the original neocon mold. Joe Lieberman and Marshall Wittmann come to mind.

So what is a neocon? From Wikipedai:

Historically, neoconservatives supported a militant anticommunism, tolerated more social welfare spending than was sometimes acceptable to libertarians and mainstream conservatives, supported civil equality for blacks and other minorities, and sympathized with a non-traditional foreign policy agenda that was less deferential to traditional conceptions of diplomacy and international law and less inclined to compromise principles even if that meant unilateral action. Indeed, domestic policy does not define neoconservatism — it is a movement founded on, and perpetuated by an aggressive approach to foreign policy, free trade, opposition to communism during the Cold War, support for Israel and Taiwan and opposition to Middle Eastern and other states that are perceived to support terrorism.

Broadly sympathetic to Woodrow Wilson's idealistic goals to spread American ideals of government, economics, and culture abroad, they grew to reject his reliance on international organizations and treaties to accomplish these objectives.

Compared to other U.S. conservatives, neoconservatives may be characterized by an aggressive moralist stance on foreign policy, a lesser social conservatism, and a much weaker dedication to a policy of minimal government, and, in the past, a greater acceptance of the welfare state, though none of these qualities are necessarily requisite.

This is the key; "a non-traditional foreign policy agenda that was less deferential to traditional conceptions of diplomacy and international law and less inclined to compromise principles even if that meant unilateral action." The neocons represented by Cheney and Rumsfeld were largely kept out of policy making during the presidencies of not only Clinton but also Reagan and Bush I. With the election of George W. Bush and his puppet master Dick Cheney they felt their time had finally come. The neocons finally got what they wanted, both a war in Afghanistan and an invasion of Iraq. Then reality set in. As the invasion of Iraq was mismanaged and quickly became a debacle it became obvious that Dick Cheney and the Bush cabal had other priorities. Their first priorities were political not ideological and they had much more interest is making money than they did winning wars. Frank Rich addressed this in his NYT commentary yesterday:

If we had honored our grand promises to the people we were liberating, Dick Cheney's prediction that we would be viewed as liberators might have had a chance of coming true. Greater loyalty from the civilian population would have helped reduce the threat to American soldiers, who are prey to insurgents in places like Yusufiya. But what we've wrought instead is a variation on Arthur Miller's post-World War II drama, "All My Sons." Working from a true story, Miller told the tragedy of a shoddy contractor whose defectively manufactured aircraft parts led directly to the deaths of a score of Army pilots and implicitly to the death of his own son.

Back then such a scandal was a shocking anomaly. Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration, the very model of big government that the current administration vilifies, never would have trusted private contractors to run the show. Somehow that unwieldy, bloated government took less time to win World War II than George W. Bush's privatized government is taking to blow this one.

Believe it or not this brings us to the attack on the blogs by the DLC's Marshall Wittmann and the neocons at The New Republic, yes in the classic sense they are neocons. This is not an attack on blogs as such but an attack on those horrible "lefty" McGovernites that drove the neocons from the Democratic Party in the first place. Many neocon ideologues feel the Republican Party has failed them and are looking to regain power in the Democratic Party.

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