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Caroline Glick on the neocons
I have repeatedly expressed despair about the absence of forceful mainstream disagreement with the neoconservatives’ democracy policy, particularly in its latest manifestation in Libya. Caroline Glick has changed that. On August 12 she wrote a well-reasoned, powerful article in the Jerusalem Post showing how “democracy” in the Muslim world has over and over empowered Islamic extremists and is doing so now in Libya. She also condemned the neocons for automatically labeling any criticism of their Muslim-democracy policy as “isolationist.” I would note that these two sides of the neocons—the patent untruthfulness of their substantive position, and their PC-style dismissal of all disagreement—are of a piece. Proponents of a reasoned, good-faith view are willing and eager to reply to criticism and explain their position further. Proponents of a false ideology shut down all criticism. And that’s what the neocons have sought to do, with their “isolationist” charge. The neocons’ refusal to engage in debate is further demonstrated by the fact that almost three weeks after Glick’s article was first published at the Jerusalem Post (it was also published at TownHall and Real Clear Politics), there has been not a single mention of it at the two leading neoconservative websites, Commentary and The Weekly Standard. Here is an article, not by Patrick Buchanan, not by some anti-Israel paleocon, but by a respected, pro-defense, Israeli writer who is intelligently challenging the neoconservatives’ position, and instead of responding to her arguments, instead of even noting the existence of her article, they ignore it. The neocons don’t just close out Israel haters and anti-Semites. They close out conservative, Israeli Jews who disagree with their democracy policy. By such behavior, the neoconservatives demonstrate once again their total lack of legitimacy as an intellectual movement. To paraphrase neoconservative godfather Irving Kristol’s memorable observation about liberalism almost twenty years ago, neoconservatism is brain-dead, even as its heart continues to pump out blood to our entire political system. And that’s the hell of it.
Indeed, as far back as 2007, in “They’re baack, and it’s no joke” (the above linked article), I pointed out that despite having thoroughly discredited themselves in Iraq, the neocons were still carrying on as though nothing had happened, and still no one was holding them to account. Perhaps the Glick article is the beginning of such an accounting.
Speaking of the neocons’ brain-dead pumping of discredited and obnoxious positions, just after posting this entry, I went over to the Commentary site, and guess what was the top article there? A piece pushing Rudolph Giuliani’s qualifications for the presidency. Posted by Lawrence Auster at August 30, 2011 06:24 PM | Send Email entry |