Hoisted from Francis Fukuyama's Archives from 2006: He Needs to Take a Much More Jaundiced View of Neoconservatism
Rereading:
(2006): After Neoconservatism: "How did the neoconservatives end up overreaching to such an extent that they risk undermining their own goals?...
He gets himself tangled up in knots because he bends over not just backward but completely upside down to provide a sympathetic view of the Neoconservatist impulse.
I have always had a much more jaundiced view:
The rational kernel is, roughly: totalitarianism is worst, authoritarianism is bad, social democracy is good, and government failure is a very important problem.
But on top of this, Neoconservatism overlaid its mystical shell. It was:
- We don't like Negroes.
- We don't like Commies.
- We think we can change the world through Trotskyist political conspiracy.
And on top of this the Neoconservatives later added:
- We don't like Arabs.
Understand that overlaid mystical shell, and you will understand a great deal--including Nathan Glazer's and Daniel Patrick Moynihan's abandonment of the movement in disgust.
