Following the elections in 2000 and the subsequent Supreme Court ruling that decided who would occupy the white house it seems that certain political, social and economic concepts emerged with a speed that could only indicate that they had been pre-determined and waiting to emerge.
The decision to attack Iraq, to cut taxes, to raise social wedge issues and divide the nation, to promote school vouchers, to involve the Federal government in local issues such as education with the “No Child Left Behind” bill, privatization of social security, an all volunteer military thus creating in effect the imperial legions, the concept of a mono-polar world following the bi-polar power balance of the cold war, the mandate to spread democracy and more....these all came so quickly and in such short order that it was as if these ideas had been floating around for some time just waiting to be liberated once power was achieved. They were.
Where did these carefully articulated ideas come from? Certainly they weren’t hatched on the post- 2000 and pre-9-11 golf courses of our fair nation?
I have looked up a few influences on current conservative thinking and tried to identify their importance in today events.
See if you can identify any influences on today’s political events as ushered in by the RW, when and where they arose and how they impact us today.
The issue of the rise of the religious right still needs exploring.
What is the importance today of Friedman’s plan to abolish the draft?
Is Grover Nordquist derivative or a cohort?
Why is there such a vicious attack on feminism by the RW today? What purpose does that serve?
Like wise, why the virulent homophobia by the RW? What is the real purpose?
Who is Shadia Drury and should the left embrace her and listen to her?
I was hoping that this thread could be on going with people contributing their research and resources and ideas.
Economics:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milton_Friedman“Milton Friedman (July 31, 1912 – November 16, 2006) was an American economist and public intellectual who made major contributions to the fields of macroeconomics, microeconomics, economic history and statistics while advocating laissez-faire capitalism.
Friedman himself considered classically liberal, stressed the advantages of the marketplace and the disadvantages of government intervention, shaping the outlook of American conservatives and libertarians. He adamantly argued that if capitalism, or economic freedom, is introduced into countries governed by totalitarian regimes that political freedom would tend to result.
(Yeah that worked well in Chile under Pinochet)
during the 1980s, a watershed decade for the acceptance of Friedman's ideas. His views of monetary policy, taxation, privatization and deregulation informed the policy of governments around the globe,
Friedman also supported various policies such as:
decriminalization of drugs and prostitution
the possibility of a move towards a paid/volunteer armed force
the abolition of the draft
many of the services performed by government could be performed better by the private sector.
promoting school vouchers that can be used to pay for tuition at both private and public schools
a negative income tax to replace the existing welfare system
Friedman and more than 500 other economists called for discussions regarding the economic benefits of the legalization of marijuana.”
We see current examples of this thinking in:
The move to privatize social security
The avoidance of a draft for our “wars” in the ME.
School vouchers
The elevation of the entrepreneur and small businesses.
The rise of multinational conglomerates, corporations providing jobs with-out borders as a way of obtaining cheap foreign labor.
Anti-public welfare programs
Anti-union views.
Anti-minimum wage.
Pro-corporate welfare.
laissez-faire capitalism- the duty of corporations is only to their share holders, not society. Thus, no clean air and water concerns, no worry about out sourcing jobs.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laissez-faire_capitalism“After the Second World War, laissez-faire thinking was in part resurrected through the Austrian School and Chicago School, and such liberal thinkers as Ludwig von Mises, Friedrich Hayek and Milton Friedman, who argued that if the Free World was truly defined by its freedom, then its citizens should have full economic freedom.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Hayek“Friedrich August von Hayek, CH (May 8, 1899 in Vienna – March 23, 1992 in Freiburg) was an Austrian-born British economist and political philosopher known for his defense of liberal democracy and free-market capitalism against socialist and collectivist thought in the mid-20th century. He is considered to be one of the most important economists and political philosophers of the twentieth century.”
“Hayek was one of the leading academic critics of collectivism in the 20th century. Hayek believed that all forms of collectivism (even those theoretically based on voluntary cooperation) could only be maintained by a central authority of some kind. In his popular book, The Road to Serfdom (1944) and in subsequent works, Hayek claimed that socialism required central economic planning and that such planning in turn had a risk of leading towards totalitarianism, because the central authority would have to be endowed with powers that would impact social life as well, and because the scope of knowledge required for central planning is inherently decentralized.”
“Hayek attracted new attention in the 1980s and 1990s with the rise of conservative governments in the United States and the United Kingdom. Margaret Thatcher, the Conservative British prime minister from 1979 to 1990, was an outspoken devotée of Hayek's writings...Likewise, some of Ronald Reagan’s economic advisors were friends of Hayek.<6>.”
“Hayek's discussion in The Road to Serfdom (1944) about truth, falsehood and the use of language influenced some later opponents of postmodernism (e.g., Wolin 2004).”
Neoconservatism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neo-conservative“Neoconservatism is a political movement, mainly in the United States and Canada, which is generally held to have emerged in the 1960s, coalesced in the 1970s, and has had a significant presence in the administration of George W. Bush.”
“According to Irving Kristol, the founder and "god-father" of Neoconservatism, there are three basic pillars of Neoconservatism:
1. Economics: Cutting tax rates...necessity of the risks inherent in that growth, such as budget deficits...
2. Domestic Affairs: Preferring strong government but not intrusive government, slight acceptance of the welfare state, adherence to social conservatism, and disapproval of counterculture
3. Foreign Policy: Patriotism is a necessity, world government is a terrible idea, the ability to distinguish friend from foe, protecting national interest both at home and abroad, and the necessity of a strong military. “
The original neoconservatives were a band of liberal intellectuals who rebelled against the Democratic Party's leftward drift on defense issues in the 1970s
neoconservatives' support for aggressive foreign policy...unilateralism and lack of concern with international consensus through organizations such as the United Nations
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Strauss“Leo Strauss (September 20, 1899 – October 18, 1973), was a German-born Jewish political philosopher who specialized in the study of classical political philosophy. He spent most of his career as a Political Science Professor at the University of Chicago, where he taught several generations of devoted students, as well as publishing fifteen books. Since his death, he has come to be regarded as an intellectual source of neoconservatism in the United States.”
“Strauss taught that liberalism in its modern form contained within it an intrinsic tendency towards relativism, which in turn led to two types of nihilism.<3> The first was a “brutal” nihilism, expressed in Nazi and Marxist regimes. These ideologies, both descendants of Enlightenment thought, tried to destroy all traditions, history, ethics and moral standards and replace it by force with a supreme authority from which nature and mankind are subjugated and conquered.<4> The second type- the ‘gentle’ nihilism expressed in Western liberal democracies- was a kind of value-free aimlessness and hedonism, which he saw permeating the fabric of contemporary American society.”
“Strauss is a controversial figure,<12> not only for his political views, but because some of his students and their followers are themselves controversial public figures.
Allan Bloom, best known for his critique of higher education.
Harry V. Jaffa, another student of Strauss, served as a speechwriter for 1964 Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater and is a proponent of Declarationism constitutional theory.
Paul Wolfowitz, Deputy Secretary of Defense during the United States invasion of Iraq and later President of the World Bank, was briefly a student of Strauss .
The Pentagon's Office of Special Plans, which worked under Wolfowitz to gather intelligence for the Iraq War, was headed by Abram Shulsky, another of Strauss's students.<8>
Harvey C. Mansfield, though never a student of Strauss, is a noted Straussian (as followers of Strauss frequently identify themselves) and prominent neoconservative whose notable students include:
Andrew Sullivan
Elliott Abrams
lan Keyes
Richard Pearle
Bill Kristol
and Irving Kristol”
“What Ryn calls the 'new Jacobinism' of the neoconservative- and Straussian-controlled pseudo-Right is no longer 'new.' It is the warmed-over rhetoric of Saint-Juste and Trotsky that the philosophically impoverished American Right has taken over with mindless alacrity.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint-Juste“Louis Antoine Léon de Saint-Just (25 August 1767 – 28 July 1794), usually known as Saint-Just, was a French revolutionary leader. Closely allied with Robespierre, he served with him on the Committee of Public Safety and perished with him after the events of 9 Thermidor.”
“Saint-Just was despatched to Strasbourg, in company with fellow deputy and friend, Philippe Lebas, to superintend the military operations. It was suspected that the enemy without was being aided by treason within. Saint-Just's remedy was to follow his experience in Paris, organise the Reign of Terror, and soon the heads of all suspects sent to Paris were falling under the guillotine.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irving_KristolIrving Kristol
“Irving Kristol (born January 22, 1920, New York City) is considered the founder of American neoconservatism. He is married to conservative author and emeritus professor Gertrude Himmelfarb, and is the father of William Kristol. He describes himself as a ‘liberal mugged by reality’.”
“He was the managing editor of Commentary magazine from 1947 to 1952, cofounder of the British-based covertly CIA financed magazine Encounter and its editor from 1953 to 1958, editor of the Reporter from 1959 to 1960, executive vice-president of Basic Books from 1961 to 1969, and professor of social thought at the New York University Graduate School of Business from 1969 to 1988. Since 1988, he has been John M. Olin Distinguished Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_M._Olin_FoundationJohn M. Olin
John M. Olin Foundation was a grant-making foundation established in 1953 by John M. Olin, president of the Olin Industries chemical and munitions manufacturing businesses
“...one of the principle funders of the Project for the New American Century (PNAC), the think tank in which prominent members of the (George W) Bush Administration (Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Richard Perle, Paul Wolfowitz) aligned themselves with in the late 1990s to articulate their neoconservative foreign policy..”
“The John M. Olin Foundation has also given large amounts of money to conservative groups at prestigious colleges and universities, including the Federalist Society.”
Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts is a member of the Federalist Society.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federalist_SocietyThe basis for selecting judges that are not “activist judges” and are “strict constructionists.”
“The Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies, most frequently called simply the Federalist Society, began at Yale Law School, Harvard Law School, and the University of Chicago Law School in 1982 as a student organization that challenged the perceived orthodox American liberal ideology found in most law schools. The Federalist Society states that it is founded on the principles that "the state exists to preserve freedom," that "the separation of governmental powers is central to our Constitution," and that the duty of the judicial branch is "to say what the law is, not what the law should be."<1>
The Society has many prominent conservative members, including United States Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia (who served as the original faculty advisor to the organization), Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas, former United States Circuit Court Judge Robert Bork, former United States Attorney General Edwin Meese, former United States Solicitor General Ted Olson, Senator Orrin Hatch, former United States Solicitor General Kenneth Starr and Congressman Dan Lungren.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadia_DruryAnti-Straussian
Shadia B. Drury (1950-) is a Canadian academic and political commentator. She is Canada Research Chair in Social Justice at the University of Regina
“Drury has stated her aim as an interdisciplinary social scientist is to temper enthusiasm for social ideals and values that are taken too seriously and which thus threaten moderation and justice. In her opinion, when society starts to believe that its ideals and values are "worthy of every sacrifice, every hardship and every abomination", moderation and justice are threatened. Accordingly, much of her writing is aimed at a debunking of, or an attempt at critique of, extreme political views, as she sees them.”
She has not shied away from voicing a critical interpretation of Strauss' work, linking it to American right-wing public policy. In print and on the airwaves she has stated that Straussians are a "cult"
“In Terror and Civilization: Christianity, Politics, and the Western Psyche, Drury regards the contemporary political problem as "thoroughly Biblical." ‘Each (civilization) is convinced that it is on the side of God, truth and justice, while its enemy is allied with Satan, wickedness, and barbarism.’”
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