The Neocon is dead. Long live the Conservative!

I've never liked the neoconservative movement. It prescribes precisely what I do not support: a morals-based interventionist foreign policy and generally (if addressed) liberal domestic agenda. That it has found its home in the Republican Party is somewhat odd (read: annoying), given history. It really rings more like the Democrat Party of the first 2/3 of the twentieth century - the Scoop Jacksons, John F. Kennedys. Neoconservatism is a profound distraction from the goals of mainline conservatism, which I largely support. The neocons can thus be blamed in part for giving the American voter 2 Democrat parties (one international bully, one international pansy, both domestic whores) and no mainstream voice of true conservative values.

David Rose has an interesting piece in Vanity Fair, in which he interviews a number of prominent neocons, seeking their opinions on Iraq and the Bush administration. One of the interviewed, Kenneth Adelman goes even further, commenting on the health of neoconservatism itself:

Fearing that worse is still to come, Adelman believes that neoconservatism itself—what he defines as "the idea of a tough foreign policy on behalf of morality, the idea of using our power for moral good in the world"—is dead, at least for a generation. After Iraq, he says, "it's not going to sell." And if he, too, had his time over, Adelman says, "I would write an article that would be skeptical over whether there would be a performance that would be good enough to implement our policy. The policy can be absolutely right, and noble, beneficial, but if you can't execute it, it's useless, just useless. I guess that's what I would have said: that Bush's arguments are absolutely right, but you know what, you just have to put them in the drawer marked can't do. And that's very different from let's go."

This actually gives me hope, for if neoconservatism is "dead, at least for a generation" then there's hope for conservatives - that this grand distraction can be silenced, giving up precious energies for attending to vital domestic matters. Issues such as eliminating the ridiculous federal budget deficit and the ever more stultifying national debt will never garner any real focus until we are - this seems idiotic to have to write - free to focus on them. Conservative principles shine not in foreign affairs, but in domestic policies. That conservatism has somehow been stripped of this truth and, on the domestic front, turned into "if it moves, throw $$ at it" - this is so very disheartening.

If any disaffected conservatives within the Bush administration happen to be reading this, I have a plan for getting out of Iraq. Shoot me an e-mail and I'll write it up all nice and whatnot, so it sounds like you thought it up. ;-)

And on this note, good news analysis from Rich Tucker:

The tide is clearly moving to the right. A recent CNN poll found that 54 percent of Americans believe the government is trying “to do too many things that should be left to individuals and businesses.” That poll, incidentally, also “showed that an overwhelming majority of Americans perceive, correctly, that the size and cost of government have gone up in the past four years, when Republicans have had a grip on the House of Representatives, the Senate and the White House,” CNN wrote on its Web site.

Next week, newspapers may be writing the obituary of Republican leadership. There’s little doubt that Republicans, dragged down by their anti-conservative spending policies, are going to lose seats. But no matter how the election goes, it’ll be a victory for conservatives.

Published at OpinionEditorials.com.