Neoconservatism

"Bush neoconservative" is a term of convenience to refer to members of the group usually labeled simply "neoconservatives", or "neocons", in the era of George W. Bush's presidency and most notably after the beginning of the US Invasion of Iraq. The usage of the term "neocon[servative]" has changed substantially since it was first used, so it is necessary to distinguish the Bush-era variety from other uses.

Bush neoconservatives are loosely defined as those who tend to support or favor most of the following:

• the US Invasion of Iraq
• President George W. Bush
• the precedence of presidential authority over constitutional law
• using Christianity as a basis for legislative decision-making
• big government spending for political ends

There may be other characteristics shared in common as well.

Bush neoconservatives generally reject the term "neocon[servative]" and instead self-describe as conservative, despite the fact that they are philosophically at odds with many traditional conservative values such as small government.

Brin definitions

Author David Brin says that the Bush neoconservative movement consists of three main components [1]:

1. A sub-set of aristocrats seeking (with great success) to use government as a free source of new wealth.
2. A sub-set of messianic "Left Behind" Christianity that actively hungers for a final confrontation between Good and Evil, culminating in a stage-drama end of the world predicted in Revelations.
3. A movement of doctrine-focused intellectuals – many of whom are neither Christians nor aristocrats – pushing a particularly aggressive version of nationalism with a theoretical, neo-platonic basis and its own fervid sense of non-religious but messianic mission.

Reference

• Neoconservatism: Wikipedia

Links

• Leo Strauss and the neoconservatives by Shadia B. Drury
• from David Brin:
  • War in the 21st Century: Maturity vs. Neocon Panic...
  • Neoconservatism, Islam and Ideology: The Real Culture War
  • The Guru of Neoconservatism (The Intellectual/Platonist Version)

Notes

From David Brin [2]:

For 14 years and more, Rove & allies have bent all efforts toward maintaining a Big Tent coalition, uniting a melange of contradictory groups. With the sole aim of achieving and holding actual political power, they managed to wed together: Xenophobic-isolationists... and interventionist-adventurers. Free-marketers... and big government contract-parasites. Lifestyle libertarians... with bedroom-voyeur fundamentalists. Deficit hawks... and spendthrift pork barrel hogs. Snooty Straussian neocon eggheads...and proudly anti-intellectual know-nothings. Small business owners... with megacorp monopolists. Nativist border worriers... and exploiters of cheap, undocumented labor... ... and so on. A great... nay incredible... morass of contradictions! How on Earth did they manage that? There is one simple answer. By getting every last one of these forces to call themselves “conservative.”