Sorry about the SCREAMING headline, but would you really be reading this entry, if I called it by its real title, "Misunderstanding Neoconservatism?"
There has been a lot of chatter on this board in diaries and in comments regarding the term "Neoconservative," or as some like to say, "Neocon." It is almost always misused. I thought I would try to give a good description of what Neoconservatism is, from what I know, and then open the floor up to other opinions.
First of all, contrary to opinions often expressed here, Neoconservatism does not refer to the Religious Right or the Libertarian-Conservative movements. Nor does it refer any of the wackier parts of the GOP as represented by Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh or Fox News.
The grandma in Nebraska who goes to bed at night with a Bible under her pillow, dreaming of the Rapture, is not a Neoconservative. The rifle-hunting Upper Peninsula survivalist is not a Neoconservative. The zany cable talk show guest with the blonde hair, Adam's apple and mini-skirt is not a Neoconservative.
Neoconservatism is something else. It's quite difficult to describe, but I will give it a try.
First of all, it is a deeply pessimistic and cynical world view, founded at the fringes of Marxist intellectualism, that dictates that our present system of Liberal Democracy is an aberration. It says that the inevitable end of the human experiment is oppression. According to this philosophy, we are passing through our modern "democratic" phase of systems of power toward the ultimate end of Authoritarianism and, well, basically, slavery.
The American tradition is founded on Utopianism, Jeffersonian ideals and the philosophy of the Scottish and French Enlightenment, which espoused such values as "human liberty" and "pursuit of happiness." It is a profoundly optimistic tradition that has created the most prosperous and free society in the history of human development.
The Neoconservative tradition, on the other, hand is something different. Its original proponents were European emigres (and some American intellectuals) from the World War II era who were teachers and students of Marxist political philosophy. When they and their second-generation descendents realized that European Communism was not producing the sort of results that anyone could be associated with and still retain their dignity, they went shopping for a new type of power system to advocate.
This power system turned out to be a type of Conservatism, but not Conservatism as traditionally espoused by country club Republicans, guns and trucks Libertarians or Evangelical Christians. The world view of Neoconservatives is much darker and is strongly influenced by the European experiments in Fascism and Communism during the first half of the 20th century.
If you could imagine a political theory designed by someone who had been educated by Communists, suffered through the horrors of World War II Nazism, and then came to America, misunderstanding it as a ruthless, corrupt gangster state, where everything is for the taking ... You would not be very far from understanding the point of view of a Neoconservative.
Furthermore, because of the terrible pessimism that is at the root of this world view, followers of this doctrine are shielded from the moral considerations that guide most people's lives. Humanity, Neoconservatives believe, is by its nature tragic. It matters little in terms of your personal worth whether you lie, cheat and/or steal, because your inevitable destiny is to be either master or slave ... and better to be a master.
In some ways, Neoconservatism is the most deeply anti-American political philosophy ever to be raised on our soil. Country club Republicans, and the guns and jeeps folks -- even Evangelicals -- are a defining part of the American experience. Though we can debate them fervently, their goals are the same as ours: peace, liberty and prosperity.
Neoconservatism is something else. A misbegotten heir of Fascism and Communism, shaped by people who inherently misunderstand our country and its legacy. It is an enormous threat and its immense potential for evil cannot be underestimated.