The Right’s Caricature of the Neocons
Have neocons received their fair shake? Neoconservatism is increasingly dismissed by critics on the Right as insufficiently conservative, if not outright evil. However, many of these critiques rest on a fundamental misunderstanding of the movement and its intellectual history, writes Simon Maass.
Neoconservatives have long faced criticism from other segments of the American Right, and this shows no sign of abating. In light of the United States’ ongoing war with Iran, such denunciations have reached a fever pitch. Congressman Thomas Massie blamed “neocons” for the war, while former Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene labeled Senator Lindsey Graham “a psychotic neocon.” Meanwhile, podcast host Tucker Carlson went full Hieronymus Bosch, lambasting “neocons” as carriers of “demonic influence.”
A key component of anti-neoconservative rhetoric has long been the claim that neoconservatism is somehow less conservative than other ideologies within the American conservative movement. Carlson, in fact, endorsed this view years ago, writing: “I realized that there was nothing conservative about neoconservatism. The neocons were just liberals with guns, the most destructive kind.”
Without even attempting to sound objective, the website Conservapedia strikes a similar tone, defining it as:
"....typically pro-Deep State and a RINO Backer, and like RINOs, does not accept most of the important principles in the Republican Party platform.”
The perception of neoconservatives as closeted left-wingers is, however, gravely mistaken. As shall be shown below, there have been notable cases when neoconservatives held positions well to the right of much of the American conservative movement, and this is in line with my previous Merion West essay, which dealt with the charge that neoconservatives tend to support open borders and multiculturalism.
Timeless reading in a fleeting world.
