The
Washington Post has nowhere near the influence of the
New York Times on the rest of the media, so this may be no big thing. Nevertheless, here is something I noticed. An article in today's
Post, indicates, rather incidentally, that the collapse of Bush's messianic Iraq policy may have brought on an extremely important turning point in our political language. Here's the passage, from
an article starring historian Rashid Khalidi about how little impact Middle East experts have had on Bush's Middle East policy: "'Neocon' and 'neoconservative' are among Washington's most fraught rhetorical markers, used by some people in much the same way that 'liberal' was once used to dismiss an entire category of supposedly failed thinking."
If this is true, if "neocon" really is replacing "liberal" in Washington as a synonym for an exploded, out-of-date ideology with which none of the would-be political players dare identify themselves, then it is a new and better day, or soon will be. Nothing has been deadlier for the Democrats and many other good causes than the inability to even describe their ideology without opening themselves to all sorts of attacks. Avoiding the l-word has also led to all manner of rhetorical concessions to mendacious right-wing terminology. Seeing the architects of modern Republican foreign policy put in the same position of having to run away from their own ideas would be most satisfying, and undoubtedly safer for the people of the world.
It certainly does seem to be true that "neocon" has become an accusation in Washington rather than a description. There's no question that the sell-by date of neoconservatism, a movement dominated by former left-wing intellectuals who later embraced fervent anticommunism,passed sometime during the previous Bush administration. Whatever coherence or factual basis neoconservative thought and the anticommunist style of argument (which brought us the Iraq War) ever had went out with the Soviet Union. The problem has been the enormous appeal that old WWII-era arguments still have for many Americans, especially the baby boomers presently running the national media and sitting in Congress: opposition to "appeasement" resistance to would-be global conquerors, and international crusades for democracy . If the Cold War leftovers have finally started to smell stale in DC, as they should, that is a big deal. "Not a bad lesson to learn for a new century," as the Guardian put it.