{"id":1440904,"date":"2023-11-28T02:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-11-28T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/?p=1440904"},"modified":"2023-11-28T02:00:00","modified_gmt":"2023-11-28T07:00:00","slug":"the-republican-battle-between-neoconservatism-and-america-first","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/the-republican-battle-between-neoconservatism-and-america-first\/1440904\/","title":{"rendered":"The Republican Battle Between Neoconservatism And America First"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Republican Battle Between Neoconservatism And America First<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Authored by Nathan Worcester via The Epoch Times<\/a> (emphasis ours),<\/em><\/p>\n

Vivek Ramaswamy has a favorite term for his enemies on foreign policy: “neocon,” short for neoconservative.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI want to be careful to avoid making the mistakes from the neocon establishment of the past,\u201d he told moderator Lester Holt during the third Republican presidential debate on Nov. 8 in Miami.<\/p>\n

\u201cCorrupt politicians in both parties spent trillions, killed millions, made billions for themselves in places like Iraq and Afghanistan fighting wars that sent thousands of our sons and daughters, people my age, to die in wars,\u201d the millennial businessman continued, rattling off criticisms of pre-Trump foreign policy.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo you want Dick Cheney in three-inch heels?<\/strong>\u201d Mr. Ramaswamy asked. “Because we have two of them on this stage tonight,\u201d taking a swing at Nikki Haley and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Ms. Haley later hit back on social media: \u201cI wear heels. They\u2019re not for a fashion statement. They\u2019re for ammunition.<\/strong>\u201d<\/p>\n

As Ms. Haley pushes past 10 percent in the polls, she is drawing attention from influential donors amid the Israel\u2013Hamas war and the ongoing Russia\u2013Ukraine conflict. In Miami, she indicated she was willing to bomb Iran in response to proxy attacks against Israel and the United States.<\/p>\n

Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley puts her hand up to Vivek Ramaswamy as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (C) listens during a Republican presidential primary debate in Miami, on Nov. 8, 2023. (Joe Raedle\/Getty Images)<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Alongside foreign policy assumptions from the George H.W. Bush administration, neoconservatism has helped set the tone for foreign policy views that still dominate the GOP establishment, according to both Col. Douglas MacGregor, a senior defense adviser under President Trump, and Steve Bannon, who served as the White House\u2019s chief strategist early in the Trump presidency, and host of the \u201cBannon\u2019s War Room\u201d podcast.<\/p>\n

\n

They spoke with The Epoch Times, along with several others, about the neoconservative streak in American politics and what it means for 2024.<\/p>\n

Rise of the Neocons<\/h2>\n

The word \u201cneocon\u201d conjures up some familiar faces from the last several decades of American politics.<\/p>\n

Aside from Mr. Cheney, there\u2019s John Bolton, U.N. ambassador under President George W. Bush and a national security adviser for President Trump. Mr. Bolton has since repudiated the 45th president.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the Senate, there\u2019s the late John McCain (R-Ariz.) and the living Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.). On the other side of the aisle, there\u2019s former Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.) and, from the Cold War era, the late Sen. Henry \u201cScoop\u201d Jackson (D-Wash.).<\/p>\n

But behind the names that get quoted in mass media, is a tight network of intellectuals.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In 2004, Francis Fukuyama, a one-time fellow traveler of the movement, wrote<\/a> about \u201cthe neoconservative moment\u201d for The National Interest.<\/p>\n

Mr. Fukuyama, then a professor at Johns Hopkins University\u2019s School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), linked the thinking that guided defense policy in the Bush administration to highly exclusive Washington dinners held during the 1990s. Attendees ranged from columnist Charles Krauthammer<\/strong> to political scientist Samuel Huntington<\/strong> to the \u201cgodfather of neoconservatism,\u201d Irving Kristol,<\/strong> and his son, future “Never Trumper” Bill Kristol.<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

The Kristol family tradition continues today in various influential institutions, including the Washington Free Beacon. Selected by the Republican National Committee (RNC) as a co-host of the upcoming fourth presidential debate in Alabama, the periodical was co-founded by Bill Kristol\u2019s son-in-law.<\/p>\n

Like many other first-generation neoconservatives, Irving Kristol began as a follower of communist Leon Trotsky<\/strong> before falling out with the Left during the Cold War. In place of internationalist socialism, Mr. Kristol and his friends pursued a different kind of internationalism\u2014one that relied on the powerful military during and, in Mr. Fukuyama\u2019s reflections, after the collapse of the Soviet Union.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was at one of those dinners that Charles Krauthammer first articulated the idea of American unipolarity,<\/strong>\u201d Mr. Fukuyama wrote.<\/p>\n

The Soviet Union had fallen\u2014though communist China remained standing\u2014and the United States was the lone superpower. In the decade before 9\/11, that mostly meant peace, at least for the American people.<\/p>\n

Joshua Muravchik, an influential neoconservative whose pedigree includes service with Mr. Jackson and work at Hopkins\u2019 SAIS, told The Epoch Times that his movement emerged against the backdrop of the Vietnam War.<\/strong><\/p>\n

While he and a few other liberals still supported the containment doctrine advanced by diplomat George Kennan during the Truman administration, the unpopular conflict in Southeast Asia brought anti-communism into disrepute among American liberals.<\/p>\n

The term \u201cneoconservative\u201d was, he said, \u201cmeant as an insult because we still regarded ourselves as liberals back in the ’70s.\u201d<\/p>\n

Soon afterward\u2014sooner than many thought possible\u2014the Soviet Union collapsed and the Cold War was over.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we neoconservatives were vindicated<\/strong>,\u201d Mr. Muravchik said.<\/p>\n

West Berliners crowd in front of the Berlin Wall early Nov. 11, 1989, as they watch East German border guards demolishing a section of the wall. (Gerard Malie\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

From the Soviet Union to the Middle East<\/h2>\n

In narrating the history of neoconservatism, Mr. Muravchik moved quickly from the post-Cold War \u201cunipolar moment\u201d to 9\/11 and, in short order, the Iraq War.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe people who had kind of advocated an aggressive international approach, which came to be called the Global War on Terror, were largely from the old group of neoconservatives<\/strong>,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

But history didn\u2019t quite stop between the two periods. In 1996, for example, neoconservative strategist Richard Perle, another \u201cScoop\u201d Jackson veteran, wrote the \u201cClean Break\u201d memo for Mr. Netanyahu, who was then about to become Israel\u2019s prime minister. The front page of the report states it drew on a conversation with Douglas Feith, Charles Fairbanks, Jr., and David Wurmser, among others in the movement.<\/p>\n

Mr. Perle, who later advised Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld during the Bush administration, argued that Israel should be \u201cweakening, containing, and even rolling back Syria.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis effort can focus on removing Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq<\/strong>,\u201d it continued.<\/p>\n

Alongside policies under the second Bush administration, the \u201cClean Break\u201d memo has led critics of neoconservatism to link the movement to strong U.S. support for Israel, or even a blurring of the lines between the two countries\u2019 respective interests.<\/p>\n

Indeed, in \u201cThe Neoconservative Moment,\u201d Mr. Fukuyama suggested that Mr. Krauthammer conflated the two countries\u2019 strategic realities during a speech to the American Enterprise Institute.<\/p>\n

But very pro-Israel politicians don\u2019t always enjoy the favor of neoconservatives. Notably, many neoconservatives have vocally opposed one of the most pro-Israel presidents in American history, Donald Trump. This placed them in an uneasy alliance with President Joe Biden, one of a small and dwindling number of living lawmakers from the Mr. Jackson era of the Senate.<\/p>\n

Saurabh Sharma, a man in his 20s who leads the American Moment networking organization for young conservatives, pointed out that the neoconservative commentator Max Boot had argued for Israel to send weapons to Ukraine.<\/p>\n

According to Mr. Sharma, if Israel had done what Mr. Boot suggested \u201cthey would have been woefully unprepared when this conflict began.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mr. Muravchik, the influential neoconservative, noted the apparent discrepancy between President Trump\u2019s support for Israel and neoconservatives\u2019 views in a 2020 article<\/a> for American Purpose.<\/p>\n

In his interview with The Epoch Times, he elaborated on his objections to President Trump\u2019s approach to foreign affairs.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s been nothing but a suck-up to [Russian President Vladimir] Putin. He said he fell in love with [North Korean leader] Kim-Jong Un. He said he thought [Chinese leader Xi Jinping] was a great guy,\u201d he told The Epoch Times.<\/p>\n

President Trump\u2019s allies might counter that his maneuvers on the world stage actually put America first by defusing tension while also showing strength. But to Mr. Muravchik and other neoconservatives, Trump\u2019s statecraft looks less like crafty realism and more like appeasement of anti-democratic leaders.<\/p>\n

\u201cA hallmark of neoconservatism was the idea, not just having military strength, but trying to make the world an easier place to deal with by making it more democratic,\u201d Mr. Muravchik said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we can encourage the world to become more democratic\u2014if we can encourage more countries to turn away from dictatorship to democracy\u2014it will make the world a more peaceful place and a more pro-American place,<\/strong>\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

He said \u201cdemocracy\u201d hasn\u2019t spread as broadly this century as it did at the end of the 20th century.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s stopped,\u201d he said before correcting himself: \u201cIt\u2019s stalled.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Sharma suggested President Trump made enemies of the neocons early in his candidacy when he criticized the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.<\/p>\n

\u201c[The neoconservatives] made egregious mistakes in the Global War on Terror, and they want to get away with it,\u201d he said, adding that a reorientation of the GOP against wars in the Middle East \u201cmeans they\u2019re all out of a job.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some America First critics of neoconservatism suggest the movement is only part of the story. Understanding why President Trump\u2019s \u201cAmerica First\u201d message provoked such fury requires a broader perspective.<\/p>\n

\u201cControl of the [RNC] rests in the hands of the same people that took us into the Middle East\u2014Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Lebanon, and so forth\u2014under Bush Sr.,\u201d said Col. MacGregor, referring to President George H.W. Bush.<\/p>\n

According to Mr. Bannon, President Trump\u2019s apparent rejection of the global order that emerged after World War II\u2014\u201cthe postwar, international, rules-based order\u201d\u2014united the establishment against him.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou’re in this situation where the postwar international rules-based order, which has been underwritten financially by American taxpayers and paid for by their sons\u2019 and daughters\u2019 sacrifice and blood, has done nothing but gut jobs and ship every high-value manufacturing job out of the United States into China and other places in the Eurasian landmass,” Mr. Bannon said. “At the same time, our capital all financed it\u2014our private equity capital, all the pension funds. … That order is the order that America First is against.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both men rejected the isolationist label often applied to America Firsters.<\/p>\n

Col. MacGregor outlined the limited circumstances in which force might be justified.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnless we ourselves are attacked, or what we deem to be interests that are vitally strategic to us, we should not attack anyone,\u201d Col. MacGregor said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s not that we don’t understand how the world is interconnected,” Mr. Bannon said. “It’s obviously interconnected. But the difference in Trump and the American First movement was, you will put America’s interest first\u2014and, particularly, we will not support an international order that allows the Chinese Communist Party to rise from basically a destitute, third world country into an economic superpower on the backs of the American taxpayer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Muravchik argued that Trump-style rhetoric against the Chinese regime is ultimately insincere.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cThey\u2019re not worried about China. When it comes time to face up to China, they\u2019re not going to do that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The Next Generation<\/h2>\n

In Col. MacGregor\u2019s view, the RNC hasn’t shifted on foreign policy in decades.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cI don’t think anything, anything has fundamentally changed with the institutional Republican Party,” he said. “And the institutional Republican Party does not represent most of the American citizens who refer to themselves as traditional conservatives.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Ramaswamy has targeted neoconservatism with more zeal than anyone gunning for the White House, President Trump possibly excepted.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Before the debate at which he unleashed his \u201cDick Cheney in three-inch heels\u201d line, he circulated<\/a> a \u201cNo to Neocons\u201d pledge.<\/p>\n

Mr. Ramaswamy also called on RNC Chair Ronna Romney McDaniel to resign, while on stage in Miami. According to reporting<\/a> from Timcast, she then loudly insulted him from the audience, pledging that he wouldn\u2019t get \u201ca cent\u201d from the RNC.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not her money. It\u2019s the Republican voters\u2019 money,\u201d Ramaswamy senior adviser Tricia McLaughlin told The Epoch Times.<\/p>\n

Mr. Ramaswamy has since filed a petition to oust Ms. McDaniel as RNC chair.<\/p>\n

Unsurprisingly, Mr. Muravchik, the neoconservative intellectual, is no fan of Mr. Ramaswamy.<\/p>\n

Iraqi President Saddam Hussein (R) and King Hussein of Jordan review the honor guard upon Hussein’s arrival for the Arab cooperation council meeting in Amman, Jordan, on Feb. 24, 1990. (MIKE NELSON\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/em><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span>
\nMon, 11\/27\/2023 – 21:00<\/span><\/p>\n

\u200bhttps:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/political\/republican-battle-between-neoconservatism-and-america-first<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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