This article is good as far as it goes, but when you get down to it, conservative, neoconservative, liberal, and neoliberal are just variants of one philosophy: statism. From Jack Kerwick at lewrockwell.com:
NeverTrumper Bill Kristol, a staunch Republican neoconservative who self-styled as a conservative for decades, particularly during the Bush II years, now calls for his fellow NeverTrumpers to “rebrand” as “liberals.”
The significance of this can’t be overstated, for Kristol, a figure whose ideology is of a piece with that of the Republican Party of which his was an especially audible voice for much of this young century, has vindicated what some of us have been saying for quite some:
The GOP is not, as it insists, “conservative.”
It is neoconservative.
And between neoconservatism and classical or traditional conservatism, there is a difference not merely in degree, but in kind.
Bill’s own father, Irving, was explicit on this score. In contrast to traditional conservatives, he wrote, neoconservatives embrace “the welfare state.” They enthusiastically endorse “social security, unemployment insurance, some form of national health insurance [i.e. “universal healthcare” or “socialized medicine”], some kind of family assistance plan, etc.”
Nor, Irving Kristol continued, will neoconservatives hesitate “to interfere with the market for overriding social purposes.”
Neocons do not want to “destroy the welfare-state [.]” Quite the contrary, they seek to “reconstruct” the welfare-state “along more economical and humane lines.”
Neoconservative Nathan Glazer goes so far as to suggest that neocons are essentially socialists. “It’s very hard for us,” for neocons and socialists, “to define what it is that divides us, in any centrally principled way.” While they may disagree over policies, there doesn’t appear to be any “principles that separate us [.]”
To continue reading: Hey Bill Kristol, Consider Rebranding as “Alt-Left!”
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