Dawn Of The Neo-NeoCon
By Mitch Berg
Kevin Williamson successfully articulated something I couldn’t quite, myself, over this past few weeks, as American “liberals” have gone from flirting with police defunders to cheerleading for no-fly zones: it’s the dawn of the neo-neocon. All of the neo, none of the (visible) con.
The war has produced a bull market in what I suppose we have to call neo-neo-conservatism, with Democrats and center-Left figures suddenly rediscovering the uses — and necessity — of American hard power. You won’t find a better example of this than Professor Shadi Hamid of the Brookings Institution, who in a recent conversation with Jonah Goldberg was at pains to distance himself from anything that might be called “conservative” or “Bushian,” in his words. Instead, Professor Hamid insisted, responsible liberals such as himself (1) have kept true to their principles while other elements of the Democratic coalition have descended into mad radicalism and identity politics; (2) understand that the alternative to American hegemony is Chinese hegemony or Russo-Chinese hegemony; and (3) being worldly cosmopolitans, admit that it is entirely understandable that Europeans take a different view of European refugees than they do of, say, Muslim refugees from Syria, whose culture and religion inevitably make it more difficult to assimilate them.
For those of you keeping score at home, Professor Hamid here has channeled (1) Ronald Reagan (“I didn’t leave the Democratic Party — the Democratic Party left me!”); (2) George W. Bush (an axis of what, now?); and, perhaps most surprising, (3) Pat Buchanan, once denounced as a vile racist for asking hypothetically whether Virginia would have an easier time assimilating 1 million English immigrants or 1 million Zulu immigrants.
Everything old is truly new again.
March 21st, 2022 at 6:23 am
Heads up, Patriots!
Your Ukrainian Democracy(tm) got BTFO yesterday.
“Zelensky Announces Ban on 11 Political Parties”
LMAO Wave those flags harder, Patriots!
March 21st, 2022 at 6:26 am
“ The war has produced a bull market in what I suppose we have to call neo-neo-conservatism, with Democrats and center-Left figures suddenly rediscovering the uses — and necessity — of American hard power.”
Next week, they’ll be covering those BLM tattoos with Somnenrads!
Hahahaha
March 21st, 2022 at 6:53 am
neo-neo-conservatism
Oh, please. Giving name to this realization of electoral reality presumes some sort of thought or principles. I mean, other than being vote whores. Once they’ve gotten past this graveyard of their past decisions, whistling a quiet song, Democrats will go right back to their usual insanities.
PS, Kevin Williamson *and* Jonah Goldberg? Acting as right-wing proxies. Nice. Gotta think writing this post brought a smile to your face.
March 21st, 2022 at 8:19 am
What if the truth is that it takes a strong man like Putin to hold Russia together? Russia has long been called a “prison house of nations,” even by Russians themselves.
The desire to preserve the post WW2 peace in Europe is not neo-conservative. Calling for regime change in Russia is neo-conservative.
March 21st, 2022 at 8:40 am
Man, this Williamson piece — when he’s fired up, his writing is a something to behold.
/Autocracy’s Fatal Flaws/
“Putin’s right-wing fanboys are transfixed in rapt homoerotic admiration to see him half naked on horseback, but he doesn’t look so tough getting pushed around by maternal bureaucrats such as Lagarde, von der Leyen, and Yellen.”
https://www.nationalreview.com/2022/03/autocracys-fatal-flaws/
March 21st, 2022 at 8:49 am
What if the truth is that it takes a strong man like Putin to hold Russia together?
That is the truth. Throughout its history, Russia had never been free other than for a few months here and there. There has always been a strongman in charge… always. It is inevitable. The peasants demand it.
March 21st, 2022 at 9:11 am
Surrender happens where there is a war going on. Russia says there is no war going on.
Since 1940, the peace loving Russians have only attacked and occupied Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Finland, DDR, Hungary, Czech, Slovakia, Afghanistan, Moldova, Georgia and Ukraine
The peace loving Russians had to poison the Ukrainian President, Yushchenko with Dioxin in 2004 because he was not a man of peace
I have no idea why those countries would be interested in NATO, when they live near peace loving Russians — forget all about the EU and join The Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) — you get two extra letters free
Unlike NATO and the EU, the Russian Army comes in peace. Eternal President Putin — the white dove of the steppe.
March 21st, 2022 at 9:15 am
^^The font of blather is running quite strongly this morning.
March 21st, 2022 at 9:58 am
“The bombardment will continue until surrendering improves” ~ Russia
March 21st, 2022 at 10:20 am
A conservative rejects entangling alliances with foreign powers in favor of peace, friendship and honest commerce with all nations.
A neo-conservative is a Liberal who opposed that sensible policy but has seen the error of his ways and now wishes to become a conservative.
A neo-neo conservative is a Liberal who saw that Liberalism was bad, briefly flirted with rejecting Satan, but has decided to embrace him again. That makes him even worse than an ordinary Liberal – he has seen the truth and actively, intentionally, turned his back on it.
The Neo-neo-cons believe American must take over the world to prevent China or Russia from taking it over. We must destroy the village in order to save it.
March 21st, 2022 at 10:49 am
JD, I disagree on the intent. The intent of a neo-neo-con is to do whatever possible to destroy the USA as we know it, by any means necessary, including starting wars they cannot win. Is there anyone in the world afraid of the current cadre of woke US generals?
March 21st, 2022 at 12:03 pm
justplainangry on March 21, 2022 at 10:49 am said:
. . . .
Is there anyone in the world afraid of the current cadre of woke US generals?
Putin never would have invaded Ukraine if it were not for Biden’s Afghanistan disaster. And that was all Joe, that’s why he hasn’t fired anyone for it. Why would he fire them? Because he went against their recommendation?
Miley and Blinken would have resigned over it if they had any honor.
March 21st, 2022 at 12:09 pm
Now they say Belarus is going in on Russia’s side directly.
I am getting bad WW I vibes about this. The years of trench warfare in the West were the result of the failed German plan to quickly occupy Paris and force the surrender of France. They had no plan B because they could think of no other way to win the war if France did not capitulate before her allies (mainly the Russians) could mobilize.
I don’t think that Putin had a plan B, either. And Zelenskyy is not afraid to bring on WW 3 if he thinks it will stop the Russians.
March 21st, 2022 at 1:32 pm
The West needs to ramp up its efforts now to
ensure that Russia is soundly sent packing with its tail between its legs.
The only solution is to give the Ukrainian military and people whatever they need to defeat the Russians. An armistice or truce is no permanent solution with Russia. They must be pushed out of the Ukraine if they don’t leave of their own accord. A new baseline needs to be set with a defeated Russia. Anything else will prolong a highly destructible economic and military war.
March 21st, 2022 at 3:05 pm
Putin—providing Ukraine with MIGs will bring on WWIII
Putin—proving Moldova with Stingers or Javelins will bring on WWIII
Putin—providing Finland with anything will mean WWIII
Putin—I can’t believe this shit is still working…..
March 21st, 2022 at 3:46 pm
It’s still working because the people pulling the strings for Lesko Brandon want it to work. They don’t really want World War III. They want Ukraine to surrender.
When it does, Russia will take part of the country and the US and Russia will pick a New Puppet Regime to oversee the rest. Congress will give $15 billion in foreign aid to the New Puppet Regime to recover from the invasion. The New Puppet Regime will kick back a billion or so in the form of donations to various congress-critters’ non-profit Foundations and Institutes at which their sons and daughters are employed (except for the millions in subsidies the New Puppet Regime will give to Ukrainian corporations who will use those subsidies to offer well-paid no-show seats on the Boards of Directors to sons and daughters of Lesko Brandon’s string-pullers). For Washington, it’s all about laundering the money; has been for decades.
For Washington insiders, this war was never about the people of Ukraine, it was about destroying the evidence of past malfeasance and putting the right guy in charge for future money laundering. Zelenskyy isn’t the Good Guy, he’s the Fall Guy. Putin isn’t the Bad Man, he’s the Straight Man playing to Lesko Brandon’s Wise Guy for comic relief. Everything is going according to plan or would be, if Zelenskyy would get out of the way. Look for him to commit suicide by stabbing himself in the back a dozen times in the coming days.
Your problem E, is you believe the propaganda. Stop drinking the Kool-Aid.
March 21st, 2022 at 4:15 pm
JD, we are in violent agreement.
March 21st, 2022 at 4:26 pm
Look for him to commit suicide by stabbing himself in the back a dozen times in the coming days.
Fugging brilliant, JD.
March 21st, 2022 at 4:29 pm
… so, it occurs to me to ask the SitD commentariat if this new found interest in borders will have any effect on the daily (hourly) violations of the southern border of Our Own Country?
… oh, just kidding. That’s different.
March 21st, 2022 at 4:31 pm
MP, given that his offensive towards Kyiv stalled out because of bad tires and a lack of fuel, I’m guessing that Putin didn’t even have Plan A besides “drive to the border and hope they surrender”. Praying with you that this doesn’t get broader, and praying with or without you that Putin gets the reward of Haman at this time for his actions.
March 21st, 2022 at 4:45 pm
By urging the US to create a no-fly zone over Ukraine, Zelenskyy is calling for direct combat between American and Russian forces.
He does not need this other than as a provocation to draw in more combatants. Ukraine is not Iraq, the Russians are not using their aircraft as the Iraqi’s used their aircraft.
March 21st, 2022 at 6:13 pm
Watching Putin’s rally this weekend wearing his $14,000 Loro Piana jacket and his $4000 Givenchy turtleneck, whilst the Rouble is tanking, planes are grounded, Western multinationals are fleeing and poor Russian conscripts are dying in a meat grinder in a ‘brotherly country’ was a strange juxtaposition. I feel this isn’t going to end well for Putin.
Since Putin fancies himself as a historian, maybe he should read about the fate of King Louis XVI to see how bankrupting a nation, sending the poor to die in your wars of choice and leading the nation into poverty whilst you live in luxury worked out for him.
Tell me how this ends? — Russia won’t be a superpower again. Ever.
March 21st, 2022 at 7:07 pm
Hahahaha!
Look at little rAT, scurrying around wearing a GWB mask!
I expect him to declare on the “Axis of Evil”, any minute!
Reaching levels of nitwitted buffoonery never before thought possible!
March 21st, 2022 at 7:12 pm
Leave it to 80IQ reprobates to wear the pelt of a failed ideology (neo-conservativism) like a hat, long after everyone else has chucked it into the trash.
I call on all Patriotic leftists to grab the first flight to Kiyiv, and volunteer to be cannon fodder for the Askov Batallikn right away….to protect Democracy ™.
If they refuse, it means they’re racist Nazis.
March 21st, 2022 at 10:35 pm
Bikebubba, I think that we are hip deep in the fog of war. I’m not the first in this thread to use a mixed metaphor (see Emery’s 13:32 ” . . . Russia is soundly sent packing with its tail between its legs”).
The Russians can be as brutal as the Nazis. As recently as 1999, Putin won the battle of Grozny by killing at least 20,000 civilians. Why would that work in 1999, but not in 2022? Zelenskyy’s efforts to attract foreign allies is done, I think, with Grozny in mind. Nobody outside of Asia cared what Putin did in Grozny.
All of that part of the earth has been soaked in blood for centuries.
March 22nd, 2022 at 8:21 am
If only Putin realized most of Ukraine isn’t Crimea.l Putin’s three aims: Invade and annex Ukraine. Get Central and Eastern Europe out of NATO. Prevent Finland and Sweden from joining NATO. It appears he’s going to fail in all three.
March 22nd, 2022 at 8:34 am
MP, Plato’s perfect city state incorporates the work of three classes: Guardians, Auxiliaries, and Craftsmen.
The guardians, who Plato sometimes referred to as rulers or philosopher-kings, are the military of the city. Plato says they must epitomize physical strength, “spiritedness”, and a love for learning.
“Spiritedness”, as I understood it, is a euphemism for brutality. In Plato’s time, warfare was marked by animal brutality, as it is today.
Between 13 & 15 February 1945, the Royal Air Force and the United States Army Air Force dropped more than 3,900 tons of high-explosive and incendiary bombs on the city of Dresden. It created a firestorm that sucked the air right out of people’s lungs and completely destroyed a beautiful medieval city that had absolutely no military value.
The allies saw the end of the war coming; it was pure revenge.
Plato saw the need for brutality in warfare, but I seriously doubt he meant to include mindless mass murder for no practical purpose. But we digress….please continue with your comparison regarding Putin and Nazi’s.
March 22nd, 2022 at 10:16 am
^ I think Swift’s whole national conservatism, anti-wokeness, fake manliness themes have collapsed with this war. They all look utterly ridiculous now.
March 22nd, 2022 at 10:54 am
Ukrainian doctors ‘told to castrate captured Russians because they are cockroaches’
War-zone hospital owner Gennadiy Druzenko told his doctors to castrate captured Russian soldiers, he claims. He is set to be added to the Kremlin’s most wanted list
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/ukrainian-doctors-told-castrate-captured-26523466
LOL…muh deMocraCY! 🌈
March 22nd, 2022 at 11:44 am
^ Ego is the anesthesia that deadens the pain of stupidity. ~ Dr. Rick Rigsby
In the defined territorial conflict of Ukraine and Europe, with Russia as the specific aggressor, it is a battle between autocracy and democracy.
March 22nd, 2022 at 11:59 am
Emery aka War Pig’s 11:44 is exactly correct.
The battle is between Ukraine and Europe. It does not – and should not – involve the United States.
As I’ve been saying all along. Glad we agree.
March 22nd, 2022 at 3:17 pm
Hopefully Putin will take neither more territory nor the country. In the meantime, the Biden administration has to be commended for how action has been coordinated with US allies, in a marked difference from the previous administration where Trump called NATO “obsolete”.
March 22nd, 2022 at 3:23 pm
You are fantasizing again, Emery.
Biden is being his usual eccentric self. He is a day late and a dollar short. He pushed Europe towards using more, not less Russian fossil fuels. He is on record until last week, of wanting to cancel EXISTING PRODUCTIVE AMERICAN OIL WELLS. He is against fracking in the US. Germany, not the US, is taking the lead in organizing NATO’s response to Russia.
March 22nd, 2022 at 4:17 pm
The United States pursued a two-track strategy relative to allies in the postwar world and will continue to do so. But let’s look at how remarkable that dual-track strategy is. It is pragmatism and idealism combined at its best.
The heart of the strategy is strong military alliance among all the advanced democracies covered almost entirely by Senate-approved treaty commitments. This was also the backbone of the expansion of the global integrated economy that has enriched the democracies and gives them economic sway over the global economy. Democratic governance is the common denominator. This is pragmatic idealism at best.
And this is the button Putin is pushing against while China is getting an uncomfortable masterclass in the power of democratic coherence.
The United States and its democratic allies have also made pragmatic arrangements with nondemocratic regimes across the world but they are rarely invited into the club of treaty-guaranteed military alliance. But they do get important agreements with “benefits” that help sustain their regimes. Stability is important —and that is the quality that Putin is now holding hostage: global stability.
This is why going forward US foreign policy has to be two track: stronger and better coherence among the treaty-based advanced democracies and new and stronger agreements based on shared common interests with other powers and countries around the world. Common interests are the best lodestar in foreign relations. Democracy appears to make the most durable cement.
What the United States and its democratic allies have constructed since World War II is a mighty edifice. Maybe it can be destroyed but it cannot be torn down.
March 22nd, 2022 at 7:06 pm
rAT is PEdo JOe’s Baghdad Bob! lmao
March 23rd, 2022 at 8:15 am
Comrade Swift—God this aggression from NATO is terrible isn’t it?
Not attacking Russia, closing membership to Ukraine… so aggressive.
Poor Russia on the other hand has had to kill hundreds of innocent children while pretending it hasn’t. All to defend … itself presumably … against … Nazis? Or NATO? Or America? Or terrorists? So hard to keep track. Maybe against the Novichok that it hasn’t got.
Who knows.
Poor Russia.