From the Wall Street Journal's editorial page:
Will Obama Bring Home the Neocons?
On immigration, the family, even defense, there is common ground.by Gabriel Schoenfeld
"Neoconservative" and "neocon" have become terms of abuse, denoting right-wing extremism. But the original neoconservatives began mostly as left-leaning intellectuals who only deserted the Democratic Party after it fell under the influence of the counterculture during the Vietnam War. With Barack Obama about to become president, is there any chance neoconservatives will finally return to the roost?...
Don't let the doorknob hit you on the way out.
Now that seething hostility toward immigrants and the heartless work-place roundups of illegal aliens carried out by the Bush administration have brought the GOP low, neoconservative intellectuals will find little common ground with those Republicans who helped drive away Hispanic voters and marched their party off the electoral cliff. If Mr. Obama pushes for immigration reform that balances humaneness with respect for the rule of law, he will almost certainly draw in some neoconservatives.
Oh, so that's why the co-author of the McCain-Kennedy amnesty bill lost!
It is too early to say which way Mr. Obama will really swing in foreign affairs. But if it is toward resolve in the war against Islamic terrorism -- with an occasional humanitarian intervention thrown in -- he may well garner waves of support from quarters that were avidly tearing him down right up until Nov. 4.
"Waves" is putting it grandly -- Republican-voting Jews must have accounted for less than half a percent of the vote in 2008.
On the other hand, if he extends an olive branch to the neoconservatives ... he might pick up some surprising allies. He might also fracture the opposition's idea machine and help turn the Republicans back into the stupid party for years to come.
Yeah, without neocon brainpower, the poor dumb bastards won't come up with any more great ideas like starting a needless land war in Asia.
As a convenience for all the neocons out there, here's the District of Columbia form you have to fill in to change your party registration from Republican to Democrat.
My published articles are archived at iSteve.com -- Steve Sailer
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40 comments:
What an assholish post from Steve.
This WSJ nonsense must be painful to read for a conservative American. But it just shows the disdain these people have had for ordinary white conservatives all along. They switched to the GOP because they wanted war and the GOP was offering more of that. And the GOP had power which was what they also lusted for. Their immigration enthusiasm gave them away however.
Considering your VDare article and the demise of conservatism in most western countries, do you foresee Brazil for all of us or can we expect a development reminiscent of 1968 where extra-parliamentary movements suddenly appear out of the blue and turn the establishment on its ear? I imagine there are a lot of nascent nationalist movements in many western countries which are currently under the thumb of the authorities. But maybe they eventually manage to tap into the dissatisfaction many people have of the multicultural states?
"As a convenience for all the neocons out there..."
Sounds like Steve is trying to drive away his Jewish readers.
Shouldn't you include the NYC form, too?
Yeah, people don't actually learn anything from elections anymore - or from economic meltdowns, for that matter. They just use whatever miniscule, obscure fact they can to spin the results their way. In the case of the Wall Street Urinal they don't even use those.
If Mr. Obama pushes for immigration reform that balances humaneness with respect for the rule of law, he will almost certainly draw in some neoconservatives.
So is the WSJ saying that immigration is really the only thing that moves neocons. Wow. Just, wow.
Isn't that really all you need to know to know that these guys aren't our allies and never really were?
From the form:
"To vote in a primary election in the District of Columbia, you must be registered with the Democratic (sic), Republican, or DC Statehood Green Party"
That sums up a lot of today's politics.
The article is dumb Steve, and so frankly is your response.
Neocons like Sarah Palin, or Mark Steyn, or Victor Davis Hanson, or Roger L. Simon, or Richard Fernandez, don't think much of Obama and all his policies.
This includes mass immigration from the Third World. National apology tours. Affirmative Action up the wazoo. And surrender to Islam at home and abroad.
As far as the Paleocon fantasy of fortress America, sorry that died on 9/11 along with 3,000 Americans. It was NEVER about us, ALWAYS about them. Specifically, the polygamy and Big Man society that drives huge amounts of young men who will never have wives to Jihad in the hope of either sex in the Afterlife or conquest. That's as true in Brixton or Amsterdam or NYC as it is Pakistan, Afghanistan, or Iraq.
Bush won in Iraq. He avoided losing in Afghanistan. Obama is poised to lose in both places, snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. There's no way to win in Afghanistan without war with Pakistan (a nuclear one, thanks to Bill Clinton declining to make war to stop Pakistan from going nuclear).
Reality check: nuke proliferation is reality, any nation that wants it can get it, helped along by the Chinese and Russians who see us as the first target.
Obama's got nothing to offer neocons who don't see Cold War policies on security offering much to respond to global Islamic Jihad plus nukes. He can't even keep Gitmo open, and has run away from doing anything but surrender in Afghanistan. Much less demography.
As for Jews = neocons, not so. Last time I looked Evangelicals supported Israel more than Jews in the US, look at who dislikes Hamas and wants them destroyed and who supports them and would prefer Israel be erased. The leading lights of neoconism are not Jews, rather Mormons (Romney, Hugh Hewitt), Evangelicals (Palin, Huck, Fred) or Catholics (Rudy).
Paleos think it's always 1965, while neos understand that nuclear proliferation means America must be able to deter attacks on a society-wide level, not just state to state (which is by this point meaningless).
If anything Obama has more in common with Paleoconservatives than neoconservatives.
Of course he will draw in Neo-cons. As long as Obama stays Pro-Israel and Pro-War in the Middle East, he'll attract a lot of Neo-Cons (Buzz word for Jews).
no, not his "jewish" readers. i'd venture to say i am more exemplary of his jewish readers than any neocon. i am mostly libertarian, interested in HBD and economics and have NEVER in my life been a liberal, nor do i grant the liberals their good intentions nor any of their first premises.
its the REPUBLICANS, under the necons' watch, that have driven me away from them and increasingly towards the steve-o-sphere for solace. i no longer have a political home.
This sounds more like the neocons begging to be taken in by the O.
I don't think O is interested. Obama has also been snuggling up to Scowcroft, et al, and has kept Gates at DoD. Gates is a realist and the bad blood between the realist Scowcroft types and the Kristol types is well known.
I don't see where the neocons can go now, the Democrat base despises the neocons and the Democrat pols aren't too keen on them either. Meanwhile, the Republicans are out of power and are going to be a hell of a lot more wary about foreign interventions if they ever return to power.
Neocons will remain in their Beltway perches in think tanks, the Weekly Standard and National Review, but that's about it.
[i]... neoconservative intellectuals will find little common ground with those Republicans who helped drive away Hispanic voters and marched their party off the electoral cliff.[/i]
Why publish this dreck, Steve? For real analysis, I just thumb thru my back issues of Pravda.
--Senor Doug
Great post.
The neocons are nothing more than hawkish (Jewish) liberals. Always have been and always will be. It makes sense for them to return to their original party.
Repubs are out in the cold now. The neocons like to be inside and warm. No one likes to be out in the cold. The neocons are trying to keep the pay cheques flowing. How much does ideology have to do with it? Hard to say.
good riddance
As I write this little note I hear on the TV in the kitchen Barrack Obama being sworn in as the President. I, like everyone else in the world, wonders what he will do.
You Steve, are a published Obama expert. But even you I suspect are not quite sure which way he will jump.
I best guess is that he will not do much.
Obama is a very, very good politician but he is less accomplished in office as it were. He is not stupid of course but he is also not particularly smart. He was getting mediocre college grades at a mediocre college in a mediocre major when he skyrocketed through Affirmative Action considerations into Harvard Law. He hides his test scores so the last quantitative measures "you can believe in" are his undergraduate grades. I and many of your readership would not have associated with other students who only got the kind of grades Obama did. He was an undistinguised student, as were Bush and Kerry.
Obama is like Pavarotti. A unique world class talent but guided by a rather mediocre intellect.
Obama rose by professing Anti-American attitudes and adherance to lefty causes. Then at Harvard amidst a lot of campus racial strife there is an opening for the President of the Law Review. Obama wins easily.
So you might think that Obama the professed lefty ideologue would use his new platform for some radical initiatives. Not so. Obama does nothing "in office". He writes nothing. He knows how to be elected but he hesitates while "in office" to actually do anything.
Later we see the same pattern. He stakes out a radical position in Illinois with his connections to Ayers and Wright. He is attacked for his "street" credentials but he counters with his movement associations.
You might think that someone as ostensibly Anti-American and radically leftish would be on fire when set loose in the US Congress. Not so. He sponsors no new legislation. He makes no alliances. He votes predictably lestish but he makes no waves.
I think Obama is smart enough to be President but he harbors some self doubt. He knows that he can beat nearly anyone in an election campaign but he doesn't seem comfortable with advancing a political agenda. He recognizes that his grasp of issues is unremarkable. For example I doubt if he thinks his own understanding of Smoot-Hawly is particularly acute. Not being sure of his ground, he won't act.
Ironically he seems to me to be poorly equipted to institute change. Most of his political stances seem to be formulaic if not robotic. He reminds me of Gerald Ford.
So I'm not worried all that much about Obama. If he follows his previous pattern he will try to avoid actually doing much of anything. I expect his more radical supporters to be very disappointed.
In my view Obama is a tempremental conservative who has just used radical rhetoric opportunistically.
I doubt if the neocons, being Jews, will cuddle up with someone with such close ties to Muslims - Black and otherwise. Also to the extent that being a neoconservative means being adventuresome in foreign affairs I don't think Obama will be very satisfactory. I expect Obama to start no wars nor respond very vigorously to any kind of an attack on us.
Conservatives have the wrong George. They fear he will be Patton but he's probably more like McClellan.
Schoenfeld; a surname like that means not shying away from stupidities like this:
Now that seething hostility toward immigrants and the heartless work-place roundups of illegal aliens carried out by the Bush administration have brought the GOP low
LOL!
starting a needless land war in Asia
Never go up against a Sicilian, when death is on the line!
"heartless work-place roundups of illegal aliens"
These neocon journalists are beyond pathetic. So now enforcing the law is "heartless"?
The sooner we just ignore them the sooner they'll sink in to nothingness at some dingy DC think-tank.
Quality over quantity, Spartan!
If by 2012 no GOP neocon changes registration will anyone here apologise?
Thought not.
What a impassioned, clever, and good-hearted post from Steve.
And to the weirdos who continue to kid themselves that Jews = neocons/leftists:
Read some Ilana Mercer, sooner rather than later.
Anti-semitism is the socialism of fools.
Anti-neoconnery is the only ethical stance for any human being alive today. Every time Bob Gates praises a "New Presidential Initiative to create Peace in Our Time", I'm going to snicker. Good to have all America's enemies in one place.
You're all wet again, Steve.
Unless we open the borders and increase support to Israel, we will be nuked.
It is no longer 1965. This means we must invite and invade the world.
9/11! 9/11!
Don't post on subjects you don't understand.
(PS: Black and Israeli chicks are HOT.)
"Now that seething hostility toward immigrants and the heartless work-place roundups of illegal aliens carried out by the Bush administration have brought the GOP low..."
Schoenfeld, huh? This is tone-deaf Jewish thinking at its finest.
"Unless we open the borders and increase support to Israel, we will be nuked."
Huh??? Portable nukes are exactly the reason to CLOSE the borders, and deny entry to anyone who is of an enemy country or ideology. JUST SAY YES TO PROFILING.
And, if you're suggesting nuclear warhead tipped ICBM missiles, then let's not tick off Putin.
And as for the idea of backward Arab countries building ICBM missiles anytime soon, that's just laughable. Well, short of treasonous assistance on the part of Americans.
But HOW does defending Israel make Americans safer? I keep hearing it's true but I don't get what they mean.
China could be a threat, I'll grant that one.
TESTING 99, are you engaging in satire?
"testing99 said...
The article is dumb Steve, and so frankly is your response.
.........
.........
........."
Testing, you must have a keyboard macro that generates these posts.
If you any more "on message", you'd be a Jehovah's Witness.
"anony-mouse said...
If by 2012 no GOP neocon changes registration will anyone here apologise?"
Yeah, you're right. This is all nonsense. No Republicans actually supported Obama - except for Colin Powell. And Ken Adelman (Defense Intellectual). And William Weld (former governor of Massachusetts) and Anne Carlson (former governor of Minnesota). And Scott McClellan (former flack-catcher for G.W. Bush) and Charles Fried (Reagan administration solicitor general). And, for that matter, McCain's own campaign manager. And, as far as I can tell John McCain himself.
The leading lights of neoconism are not Jews, rather Mormons (Romney, Hugh Hewitt), Evangelicals (Palin, Huck, Fred) or Catholics (Rudy).
You're delusional. Those aren't the "leading lights of neoconism", not even close.
"I doubt if the neocons, being Jews, will cuddle up with someone with such close ties to Muslims - Black and otherwise."
Somewhat OT, but considering the vociferous support international Jewry and Harry Oppenheimer gave to the anti-Apartheid movement, I did enjoy watching the ANC government call in the Israeli ambassador and giving him the rap about Gaza.
Neocons really are only looking for power. They're Macchiavellians, they will say anything to get power.
I hope Obama is stupid enough to convince himself that: "these guys are not so bad," so he'll be gone in four years too.
"No Republicans actually supported Obama - except for Colin Powell. "
Colin Powell was Republican?
testing99999: (PS: Black and Israeli chicks are HOT.)
When did testing99 say that black chicks were hot?
PS: Israel chicks sporting heavy metal are very, very hot:
GOOGLE IMAGES: girls of the idf
"Smokin'", you might say.
Testing99The article is dumb Steve, and so frankly is your response.
As I was reading this article I thought if testing99 hasn't posted a reply yet I'm going to parody him with a "this is why people think you're stupid, Steve" post.
None of Gab Schonfeld's article was surprising. He's an inveterate dissimulator. The hollowness just starts smacking you across the face after you catch on.
Steve's wit and obvious disdain and disgust for these toads is a delight to read.
When IS that trial supposed to happen for the alleged AIPAC spies?
Oh, I know Ilana Mercer is exceptional. In many ways! I wasn't trying to prove that Jews aren't overrepresented among neocons, I just we should judge every group by its finest rather than its worst examples.
Jews: Ilana Mercer
Italians: Oriana Fallaci
Black Americans: Thomas Sowell
mongrelly white guys: me. Not really.
Sorry if I was unclear.
- Ilana Mercer fan and it's not just because she's a pippin
'He might also fracture the opposition's idea machine and help turn the Republicans back into the stupid party for years to come.'
A King Kong-sized logical fallacy festering here, obfuscating true causes of decay, i.e population characteristics (thank you Steve).
The dye is cast and Mr. Schoenfeld is already hard at work creating a plausible paper trail for the benefit of the future students of history.
Let us all give a warm welcome to the up-and-coming Outer Party of USA (bi-partisanship and a free newsletter included in price).
Anonymous asked
TESTING 99, are you engaging in satire?
I am not the appeaser known as Testing99. I am Testing99999.
Don't comment on subjects you don't understand.
Like testing99, and unlike all the rest of you deluded fools, I see clearly that the root of all evil is those dastardly Harvard WASP elites, with their raccoon coats and their bobbed hair and their decadent Charleston dances, controlling out media and whatnot. Those f*ckers wouldn't let my dear grandpapa into Harvard, so they're gonna pay some day, you'll see....
Wasps aren't the Harvard elite anymore. Jews are. Jews are the new wasps.
"Wasps aren't the Harvard elite anymore. Jews are. Jews are the new wasps."
Not according to testing99, and he is never wrong, nor does he ever dissemble. You must be some WASP minion spreading falsehoods about Jews in America...or else you're a dupe of our WASP-controlled media. One of these days, we're going to take over Hollywood and start making movies exposing the true perfidy of our WASP elites! Just you wait and see, Muffy.
PU
Notice how the anti-semites fight tooth and nail for the right to indulge in their pathological obsession? Reminds me of how heroin addicts will struggle while being forced to go cold turkey. It's really not so difficult to separate those who have an honest beef with some Jewish behavior from the crazies.
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