This video is brought to you by your contributions on Patreon.
Click here if you want to help keep the lights on down at the history factory.
Hey folks,
A few weeks ago, we talked about political correctness, and several of you zeroed in
on one particular part.
A lot of you asked for me to answer this question, and sooner rather than later.
So today, let's tell the story of the counter-counter-culture, the Neo-conservatives.
So what is Neoconservatism?
It’s a political ideology representing part of the American right wing.
They argue that liberal democracies and market capitalism, everything America stand for,
are universally the best systems for any given country.
They see the duty of the United States to bring these systems wherever dictators and
socialists dwell.
They encourage doing this by any means necessary, including using military, and covert means.
It’s the foreign policy ideology of Ronald Reagan and the two George Bushes.
It’s important to know that the obsession with free markets is not a necessary part
of being a neocon.
That’s neoliberalism, a video for another time.
So who were the neocons?
The people that would become the Neocons have their start in New York City in the 1930s.
A group of Jewish scholars called “the New York Intellectuals” were activists on the
political left.
As discussed in the Political correctness video, they were part of the socialists that
had issues with hardline Communists who towed the party line.
Basically, they supported democracy, while many of their comrades on the left were backing
Stalin.
Many of these people found themselves either in the Democratic Party, or as the right wing
of the Socialist Party.
They were economic Liberals, but liked society largely the way it was, and really wanted
the United States to combat the undemocratic Soviet Union.
They were rather happy and well-represented, until…
well… the sixties.
Just in case you don’t have a baby boomer in your life reminding you every other day,
the sixties was a major turning point in American political life.
A politically engaged generation fought for civil rights for African Americans, to end
the war in Vietnam, and for economic equality for women.
Collectively, these people get labeled the New Left.
Initially, there really wasn’t a party for these activist boomers, but when President
Lyndon Johnson decided not to run for a second term, the new left got engaged with the Democratic
party.
It was changing in many ways.
Johnson’s support for the Civil Rights Act, and the third party run of pro-segregation
candidate George Wallace, resulted in the erosion of the southern, conservative Democrats.
These events pushed the democratic party to the left, and the new left joined in.
This is the point where the Neocons start to assert themselves.
A lot of the things going on at this time unsettled them.
They didn’t like that their party was moving away from a confrontational relationship with
the USSR and accepting all sorts of new social norms.
And they were not too impressed with Johnson’s Great Society programs like medicare, medicaid,
and the welfare service.
When the Democrats pushed for anti-war presidential candidate George McGovern, the Neoconservatives
broke rank and backed a different candidate for president in cold warrior Democrat Henry
“Scoop” Jackson.
These supporters included future important neoconservatives like Paul Wolfowitz, who
would serve in the cabinet of Ronald Reagan, and both the Bushes.
Many neoconservatives began crossing the aisle where the found themselves a home in the Republican
Party and attracted to the Republicans’ new darling Ronald Reagan.
Reagan was a proud conservative who openly advocated for a confrontational relationship
with the USSR.
He became president, and our many, many close calls with nuclear armageddon in that period
shows that the neocons got their wish of bullishly standing up to the Soviet Union.
Even in only one term, president George Bush managed to get into a war.
With the collapse of the Soviet Union and Bill Clinton’s rise to power in the early
90s, it seemed as if the Neoconservatives were no longer relevant.
Near the end of the century, many Neoconservative big wigs got together and published a policy
document called the project for a new American Century.
It redirected their confrontation away from the communists, and instead focused on maintaining
the United States as the unquestioned overwhelming single world power, supported by a military
regularly intervening in other countries.
The Neoconservatives finally got their day, when they dominated the cabinet picks of George
Bush Junior.
Bush actually campaigned with a desire to avoid invading other coutnries, and stay out
of military interventions.
Then…
9/11.
After 9/11, Bush’s presidency made a huge change, becoming a Neoconservative’s dream.
He implemented the Bush doctrine, which called for preemptive wars to deter foreign threats
before they even begin.
In 2008, John McCain campaigned to keep the wars of the Bush years alive in Afghanistan
and Iraq.
His loss to Barack Obama threw the Neoconservatives out of the White House for eight years.
Mitt Romney’s loss in 2012, and the Neoconservatives’ loss in the Republican primaries in 2015 and
2016 seems to show that they are still out of power.
Is this the end of the Neocons?
They seem to have an adaptable set of beliefs.
When there was no longer a cold war, it was about exporting democracy, and now they focus
on suppressing global terrorist threats.
They also seem to have a lot of influence on potential president-elect Hillary Clinton,
who is thought of as much more warlike than her predecessor.
However, millennials seems to be more against military intervention than their Baby Boomer
parents, and so the neocons’ future might be in jeopardy.
I’ll toss this question into your arena.
Is it fair to call Hillary Clinton a neoconservative, or at least acknowledge that she is inspired
by their ideas?
Or have we seen the last of them?
Let me know about it down below.
Before I go, I just want to do a small piece of housekeeping.
I am going through two weeks of very big and important testing, and so this will be the
last video until later in the month.
I am sorry guys, but I gotta do it.
If you’d like to help the channel, consider making a small recurring donation to Step
Back on Patreon.
If you still want to help, but can’t or don’t want to do so financially, share it
with someone, like the video, and be sure to subscribe to get the next Step Back.