Why Do I Get the Feeling that Jacob Weisberg Never Read Much that the "Old" Irving Kristol Wrote?
He should. He really should before he writes again. I recommend:
Jacob Weisberg:
Irving Kristol saved the right from intellectual bankruptcy in the '60s. Who will save it now?: A brilliant publicist, Kristol claimed the slur [neoconservatism] as a badge of honor and sought to define it as a political philosophy. "Neo-conservatism is not at all hostile to the idea of the welfare state, but it is critical of the Great Society version of the welfare state," Kristol wrote in Newsweek in 1976. His more famous formulation was that a neoconservative is a liberal who has been mugged—sometimes softened with the grace note "by reality." But the goal of the neoconservatives—-who in those days were still principally focused on domestic rather than foreign policy—-remained better government, more mindful of tradition, and respectful of the values of the people.
How did this prudent outlook devolve into the spectacle of ostensibly intelligent people cheering on Sarah Palin? Through the 1980s, the neoconservatives became more focused on political power and less interested in policy. They developed their own corrupting welfare state, doling out sinecures and patronage subsidized by the Olin, Scaife, and Bradley foundations.... Over time, the two best qualities of the early neocons—their skepticism about government's ability to transform societies and their rigorous empiricism—-fell by the wayside. In later years, you might say Kristol and the neoconservatives got mugged by ideology. Actually, they were the muggers. "It becomes clear that, in our time, a non-ideological politics cannot survive the relentless onslaught of ideological politics," Kristol wrote in 1980. "For better or for worse, ideology is now the vital element of organized political action."...
Without a substantive challenge, liberals grow smug and lazy. They overreach and overspend. Conservatives need to return to civic responsibility, not just to check their opponents, but to offer the country a valid alternative. They need some new neoconservatives. They need the old Irving Kristol.
I would say that they need Nathan Glazer, and Daniel Patrick Moynihan, and Daniel Bell rather than the "old" Irving Kristol.