Jack Hunter: 'Neoconservatism is Stupid'

Source:Liberty in Time- Jack Hunter talking about neoconservatism.

"Mitt Romney reminded everyone with his foreign policy speech this week." 

From Liberty in Our Time 

"Neoconservatism, variant of the political ideology of conservatism that combines features of traditional conservatism with political individualism and a qualified endorsement of free markets. Neoconservatism arose in the United States in the 1970s among intellectuals who shared a dislike of communism and a disdain for the counterculture of the 1960s, especially its political radicalism and its animus against authority, custom, and tradition." 

Source:Britannica- Jane Kilpatrick I guess is someone that Britannica identifies as a Neoconservative.

From Britannica 

I think before someone talks about Neoconservatives and neoconservatism, they should first know who and what they're talking about. Hopefully that sounds obvious and fair enough. 

Is neoconservatism a national security policy or is a broader political philosophy with a strong and national security and foreign policy that's part of it? I tend to look at it as a broader political philosophy the same way I look at socialism or communism as broader political philosophies as well. The only evidence that you need to know about that is to look at George W. Bush presidency that had that strong, hawkish foreign policy, to go along with a reformist-conservative (progressive-conservative, if you will) economic policy. 

President George W. Bush was never a hard core, right-wing, classical conservative ideologue, at any point during his political career. But someone as President and as Governor of Texas, was a reformist-conservative (Progressive Republican, if you will) as Governor of Texas, who brought those reform-minded reform conservative values to The White House. And became very hawkish on foreign policy and national security after 9/11. So ideologically I would put President Bush down as a Neoconservative Republican, which means he was very hawkish on foreign policy and national security, but very reformist, progressive even (in a Republican sense) on economic and social policy. 

So, my personal definition of a Neoconservative, is a Progressive Republican, or Right-Progressive. Men like Richard Nixon and Nelson Rockefeller fit into this ideological camp. The ideas of Welfare To Work and reforming the private health care and health insurance system, the Patients Bill of Rights, clean air, environmental standards, President Nixon was a pro-civil rights President and so were both President Bush's. School choice both private and public are neoconservative ideas. 

Newt Gingrich at least when he was in the House and even as Speaker was a Progressive Republican, or Neoconservative. Senator Joe Lieberman is a Neoconservative and so is Senator John McCain, even though they're from different parties.  Comprehensive immigration reform is a neoconservative idea, as well as reforming as public assistance system so it moves people out of poverty, with things like child care and job training, school choice for kids of low-income parents, incentivizing work, even low-income work, over not working at all, instead of just subsidizing people while they'll in poverty. Or just slashing and burning programs, which is what Conservatives has traditionally wanted to do with our public assistance programs. Medicare Advantage and giving seniors choice in how they get their health insurance and health care, instead of just eliminating Medicare or nationalizing the entire health insurance or health care system, these are all neoconservative ideas. 

Neoconservatism rose in the 1960s with Richard Nixon and perhaps with Dwight Eisenhower in the 1950s, as a response to the New Deal and Great Society progressivism from that period. As well as a Center-Right alternative to the rise of Robert Taft/Barry Goldwater, classical conservatism of that period. That George W. Bush and his followers picked up again in the 2000s to respond to the right-wing conservative takeover of the Republican Party, to show Americans that there's a Republican third way in dealing with our domestic and economic issues that a lot of Americans are facing, without looking like Socialists, who just happen to be Republicans. 

To reply to what Jack Hunter said about neoconservatism: I think to label any philosophy outright as stupid, is stupid. So perhaps it takes an idiot to know an idiot. Actually, I don't believe Jack Hunter is an idiot, but there are plenty of people if not a lot of people who are very intelligent that come from all sorts of different political movements and philosophies. 

There are plenty of problems with the neoconservatism as it relates to foreign policy and national security, with their preemptive wars, putting national security over civil liberties, their borrow and spend, supply side economic policy and all the deficits and debt that we're still paying for that. But with one broad stroke to label neoconservatism as stupid, is stupid. 

Johnny Dollar: The Kelly File- Megyn Kelly, Scott Rasmussen & Michael Reagan

Source:Johnny Dollar- Scott Rasmussen, Megyn Kelly, and Michael Reagan.

"Chuck Todd Rips Rasmussen, Rass Responds! Also present: Michael Reagan, Megyn Kelly."

Source:Johnny Dollar

Several reasons why NBC News's Chuck Todd, The Washington Post and others in the so-called mainstream media consider Scott Rasmussen and his Rasmussen Poll partisan and why FNC and Fox News use their polling so much, is because they're partisan. At least in the sense that they tend to poll heavily Republican or Republican leaning areas and then call their polls national. 

Right now only Rasmussen and Fox News views the Romney-Obama race as tight. Most of the polls have President Obama with a clear Electoral College lead, because he's leading Mitt Romney in all of the swing states right now. Florida, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, Iowa, etc. 

The President could lose both North Carolina and Indiana, which he won in 2008 and still win the Electoral College and be reelected President with a electoral landslide. But Rasmussen and Fox News perhaps because they don't want the Republican vote to feel like the election is over and that President Obama will be reelected, feel the need to make this election look closer than it actually is right now. 

Tom DeWeese: 'The Assault On Our Property Rights'

Source:Still Free To Choose- Tom DeWeese speaking for the New-Right in America.

"Tom DeWeese, American Policy Deweese identifies the assault on private property rights.  Agenda 21, ICLEI.. What's that?  Who's behind it?  Should we be concerned?  Recorded in Portland, OR Sept 22, 2011. More at Oregon Agenda." 

From Still Free To Choose

Ezra Levant: 'Freedom of Speech in Canada'

Source:Idea City- Ezra Levant talking about free speech in Canada.

"Co-founder of the Western Standard magazine, Ezra Levant, discusses freedom of speech in Canada based on his own experience of being hauled before a Canadian human rights commission for printing the Danish cartoons of Mohammed in the magazine." 

From Idea City

PBS NewsHour: 'Bush vs. Dukakis: The first 1988 Presidential Debate'

Source:PBS NewsHour- Vice President George H.W. Bush (Republican, Texas) vs Governor Michael Dukakis (Democrat, Massachusetts) in 1988.

"The 1988 presidential election cycle featured Vice President George H.W. Bush, the Republican nominee, and Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis, the Democratic nominee. The first debate was a 90-minute discussion, focusing on foreign and domestic policy. Moderated by Jim Lehrer of PBS, with questions posed by a panel of journalists, it took place on September 15, 1988, in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

This content is brought to you as part of a PBS NewsHour project to make all presidential and vice presidential debates available to watch online." 

From the PBS NewsHour

"The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and television program distributor[6] based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded[7] nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educational programming to public television stations in the United States, distributing shows such as Frontline, Nova, PBS NewsHour, Sesame Street, and This Old House.[8]

PBS is funded by a combination of member station dues, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, pledge drives, and donations from both private foundations and individual citizens. All proposed funding for programming is subject to a set of standards to ensure the program is free of influence from the funding source.[9] PBS has over 350 member television stations, many owned by educational institutions, nonprofit groups both independent or affiliated with one particular local public school district or collegiate educational institution, or entities owned by or related to state government." 

From Wikipedia

Reagan Foundation: 1984 Presidential Candidate Debate- President Ronald Reagan vs Walter Mondale

Source: Reagan Foundation- President Ronald W. Reagan (Republican, California) debating Walter Mondale (Democrat, Minnesota) in 1984.

"The full-length 1984 Presidential Candidate Debate between President Reagan and Walter Mondale on 10/7/84."

Source:Reagan Foundation 

I just saw this debate Saturday, because I knew I would probably be blogging about it this week. This was the debate that Walter Mondale was remembered for looking really strong and quick. Able to go toe-to-toe with the President of the United States and actually beat him. While Ronald Reagan, looked old, slow and unsure of himself and how to answer the questions. 

President Reagan, clearly didn't look good in the first debate, but didn't look as bad as he tends to be remembered. His answers were somewhat slow and so-forth, but he answered the questions and didn't take any shots from Vice President Mondale lying down. He took them on and threw some back as well.

But Fritz Mondale just looked good the whole night, while admitting that the economy had definitely improved from four years earlier. That the economy wasn't as strong as it needed to be and that we paid a heavy price for the recovery that we were going through. Increases in debt and deficit and: "If we continued to allow those things rise, we would pay for it in high interest and inflation rates later on." He was right, because the Stock Market crashed just three years later in 1987. The economy slowed in 1989 and of course we had a recession in 1990-91.

This was Fritz Mondale's opportunity to get back in the race. He was down 10-15 points going into this debate and took advantage of it. He brought President Reagan's lead down a bit and had he had a great debate in the second debate, he could've prevented the landslide that came and could've made it a very tight race. 

Mondale's second debate wasn't bad, but President Reagan just bounced back and had a very good debate as well with the memorable line when he was asked about his age, suggesting that he might be too old for President, by saying that: "I'm not going to make age an issue in this election and exploit Fritz Mondale's youth an inexperience." 

Whether voters decided that Fritz Mondale would've been a better President or not, what they did decide, was that they liked Ron Reagan more and liked where the country was going and headed and weren't ready to fire President Reagan.

Human Events: John Gizzi- 'Best Debate Moments': Mike Dukakis in 1988

Source:Human Events- Governor Michael Dukakis (Democrat, Massachusetts) at the 1988 presidential debate against Vice President George H.W. Bush (Republican, Maine)

"#3: What if some criminal raped and murdered Dukakis' wife, Kitty. Would Dukakis still oppose capital punishment? Michael Dukakis's unemotional response is our #3 debate moment.

John Gizzi counts down the Top 10 Debate moments in our multi-part series "Presidential Debates: How they changed the race." 

From Human Events 

Mike Dukakis had one more opportunity to turn a presidential election, he should've won at least going in around in the presidential debates and used those opportunities to let the Americans know more about him, that he wasn't cold and could connect with people in a personal positive way. 

But Governor Dukakis blew that when Bernie Shaw of CNN asked him a gotcha question, by bringing his wife into it, about the death penalty. It was sort of no win situation for Governor Dukakis, because it was a gotcha question about his wife of all people but he could've avoided losing it as well and instead of trying to make it a question about policy, he should've took the question for what it was, which was a personal gotcha question and should've answered about how he would feel, if his wife was raped and murdered. And what he feel should be done to the person responsible for the crimes. 

But instead Governor Dukakis used it as an opportunity to explain his opposition on the death penalty, an issue at least back then where a large majority of Americans were in favor of the death penalty.