2006-11-24

Name 3 Neo-Conservatives in the Bush Administration. Name 3 non-Neo-Conservatives in the Bush Administration. What's the difference between them?

Adam Daifallah decides to address this talk about "neo-conservatism". And about time too.

"Neo-cons" sounds good when Rabble.ca and Adbusters talk about it. But what does it mean? Daifallah is criticized in his comments to this entry for using a "wrong" definition of neocon. The problem is that there doesn't seem to be a right definition for it!

Dick Cheney is considered the quintessential neo-con. But pretty much everybody connected with the Bush Presidency [or, as brain-dead liberals call it, the "Cheney Presidency" -ed] has been labelled a "neo-con". Harper has been labelled a neo-con by the Raging Granny crowd. Is John Ashcroft a neo-con? Was Donald Rumsfield? Is Peter MacKay? Ralph Klein? Jim Dinning? Mike Harris? Is there a test you can apply to differentiate? Or is "neo-con" just a term for a conservative who can't be pigeonholed as either a libertarian or a social conservative? Can there be a mix therein? Can you be 30% Libertarian, 15% Religious Right, and 55% NeoCon? Is it like those "which Serenity character are you?" quizzes where the totals can surpass 100%?

Nobody tells you. Because they don't know.

Neo-Con is just shorthand for "somebody we don't like".

1 comments:

JB said...

People have trouble putting me in a box because I'm a libertarian at home and a neoconservative (based on my definition, anyway) in foreign policy...but that doesn't matter to liberals. Say anything nice about Bush, Harper, Morton, or non-Fair Trade coffee, and they call you a bigoted neocon bastard.

By the way, I'm some freakish hybrid of Simon, Wash, and Kaylee. Sounds about right. :D