By Paul Weiser
One of the more confusing appellations in politics today is "neo-conservative." This confusion stems from the contradictory features actual neo-conservatives display... and one of which opponents only accuse them. Is there, in fact, a central neo-conservative mindset?
Neo-conservatives have a number of characteristics in common. They endorse an assertive US foreign policy (specifically the global war on "terror" since 9/11); they favor open borders (encompassing international free trade and amnesty for illegal residents in the US); they favor big government programs such as the Medicare drug benefit; and they tend to go along with opponents at the expense of principle, even of self- interest (the TSA monstrosity, complaisant relations with our enemy Saudi Arabia and, again, amnesty for illegals). In addition, many neo-conservatives are Jewish (though this has no obvious relationship to their policies) and ex-socialists (which has).
The only actual conservative policies of neo- conservatives are the war on "terror" (even that gutted to mollify our enemies the Saudis) and free trade (without open borders or squishy sentimentality toward illegals). As to Judaism, many Jewish intellectuals were socialists; accusations of a Jewish closed circle and counter-accusations of anti-Semitism are both void.
But accusations of incomplete conversion from socialism are perfectly valid. All the bad neo-con policies spring from an infiltration of New Deal/red-diaper socialists into the conservative camp via assertive international policy... their bleeding-heart domestic policies and big-government affinity unreformed.
This is no way to run a war, or a political party. In particular, welcoming Saudi treachery and illegal residents makes a mockery of national security assertiveness either in the world or nationally. We don't need the neo-cons, and the best use conservatives can make of them (without, mind you, muttered anti- Semitism) is to catapult them back into the Democrat/socialist camp - to cheers from all true conservatives coast to coast.
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