From neocons to crazy-cons

[SecularMotion]

Once the conservative movement was about finding meaning in private life and public service. But it has undergone a shift toward demagoguery and hucksterism.

Once, the iconic figures on the political right were urbane visionaries and builders of institutions — like William F. Buckley Jr., Irving Kristol and Father Richard John Neuhaus, all dead now. Today, far more representative is potty-mouthed Internet entrepreneur Andrew Breitbart, whose news and opinion website, Breitbart.com, is read by millions. In his most recent triumph, Breitbart got a U.S. Department of Agriculture official pushed out of her job after he released a deceptively edited video clip of her supposedly endorsing racism against white people.

What has become of conservatism? We have reached a point at which nothing could be more important than to stop and recall what brought us here, to the right, in the first place.

Buckley's National Review, where I was the literary editor through the 1990s, remains as vital and interesting as ever. But more characteristic of conservative leadership are figures on TV, radio and the Internet who make their money by stirring fears and resentments. With its descent to baiting blacks, Mexicans and Muslims, its accommodation of conspiracy theories and an increasing nastiness and vulgarity, the conservative movement has undergone a shift toward demagoguery and hucksterism. Once the talk was of "neocons" versus "paleocons." Now we observe the rule of the crazy-cons.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-klinghoffer-conservatism-20100801,0,3905768.story

[The Magistrate]

1. Mr. Klinghoffer, Sir, Protests Too Much And Deserves Not a Shred Of Sympathy

These people he affects such distress over are nothing new; they were always the great bulk of the right in our country, and he knows it. It is true that leadership on the right years ago saw as one of its leading tasks keeping the true nature of the mass of right wingers concealed, but they knew just who and what they were concealing. His lament is for the fact that the true nature of the right is now on public display.

[BeFree]

2. The Truth is revealed

Conservatism is BORING and it leads to death and destruction.

So they make shit up to keep people tuned in. Modern conservatism is a JOKE.

[applegrove]

3. YES! And the MSM tells it like it is.

[chrisa]

4. Modern Conservatism is corrupted by Fascist PNAC traitors.

They're crazy, racist, and think America should rule the world through military force. The Bush Administration was stuffed to the brim with these Reagan-worshipping toolbags.

I think it's because many of the old, true Conservatives are now considered moderates, while Far-Right lunatics have made it into the mainstream. By far-right loonies, I mean the 'Defend Israel at all costs / Get rid of all welfare and government programs / Kiss Reagan's feet / We're being attacked from within (immigration)' people.

They're traitors because they want to corrupt our system, and are trying to channel racist anger against Obama. Their main motive is profitability for the big corporations they work for. Yup, they're pretty Fascist. They could care less about the US and what it stands for.

[The Magistrate]

5. No, Ma'am: It is What It Always Has Been

It is just one of their old faction divisions, between racists who place a higher priority on hating Jews and racists who place a higher priority on contemptuous treatment of brown foreigners, getting a little more openly displayed.

It is a very bad mistake to romanticize the 'paleo-cons', and particularly so to do it over questions Middle Eastern....

[EFerrari]

6. Ray McGovern has said the neo-cons were called "the crazies"

on the hill way back when.