Published on Jul 28, 2014 Art Thompson and John McManus of the John Birch Society explain what neo-conservatism is, how it started, who promotes it and how to spot one.--July 28, 2014
Partial transcription: Election after election, America votes in Democrats or Republicans. ... why is it that, no matter what the party, our country continues to suffer? Year after year, Americans witness the ever-growing government power, never-ending Wars, increasing indebtedness and more international entanglements ...
Audio of Dr. Paul explaining the origins and philosophy of neoconservatism, with some footage of the good Doctor.
Partial transcription: Since the change of the political party in charge has not made a difference, who's really in charge? Someone is responsible and it's important for those of us who love Liberty and resent Big Brother government [to] identify the philosophic supporters who have the most to say about the direction our country is going. These are the neoconservatives of recent fame. ... But can freedom and the Republic survive this takeover? That question should concern us. ... Neoconservatives are obviously in positions of influence ... placed throughout our government and the media. ... Above all else, they were not and are not conservatives dedicated to limited Constitutional government. More recently, the modern-day neocons have come from the far left - a group historically identified as former Trotskyites. ... Many neocons now in position of influence in Washington can trace their status back to Professor Leo Strauss of the University of Chicago. ... key players in designing our new strategy of pre-emptive war. ... More important than the names of people affiliated with neoconservatism are the views they adhere to. Here is a brief summary of the general understanding of what neocons believe:
They agree with Trotsky on permanent revolution - violent as well as intellectual. They are for redrawing the map of the Middle East and are willing to use force to do it. They believe in pre-emptive war to achieve desired ends. They accept the notion that the ends justify the means. They express no opposition to the welfare state. They are not bashful about an American Empire. Instead, they strongly endorse it. They believe lying is necessary for the state to survive. They believe a powerful federal government is a benefit. They believe pertinent facts about how a society should be run should be held by the elite and withheld from those who do not have the courage to deal with it. They believe neutrality in foreign affairs is ill-advised. Force should not be limited to the defense of our country. They dislike and despise the libertarians. Therefore, the same applies to all strict Constitutionalists. They endorse attacks on civil liberties, such as those found in the Patriot Act, as being necessary. They unconditionally support Israel and have a close alliance with the Likud Party.
Various organizations and publications of the past 30 years have played a significant role in the rise to power of the neoconservatives. A product of the Bradley Foundation, the American Enterprise Institute led the neocon charge but the real push for war came from the Project for a New American Century - another organization helped by the Bradley Foundation. This occurred in 1998 and was chaired by Weekly Standard editor, Bill Kristol. ... They have been amazingly successful in their efforts to control the debate over what Western values are and by what methods they will be spread throughout the world. It's of interest and note that some large Christian denominations have joined the neoconservatives in promoting pre-emptive war while completely ignoring the Christian doctrine of a just war. ... Neoconservatism is not the philosophy of free markets and a wise foreign policy. Instead, it represents big-government welfare at home and a program of using our military might to spread their version of American values throughout the world. ...
Uploaded on Feb 27, 2008 (circa 1965) John Birch Society founder Robert Welch lists the stark differences in operating principles between the JBS and the communists (now called Neocons and liberal Democrats).
- The Leninist method, based on deception and violent coup d'Etats and revolutions. To be used essentially in 'easy targets': poor, dispossessed nations with no tradition of personal independence and wealth;
- The Fabian method, to be used in affluent nations, with a tradition of personal independence and wealth. These nations would not accept Leninist revolution, so they would have to be brought down through a different method: institutional stealth and gradualism. Incremental change, on a step-by-step basis. As Fabian socialist HG Wells said, through incrementalism, you could slowly transform a free-market society into a communist one, during the span of decades, and in the end people would still call it free-market, or 'capitalist' -- even though it would be a regimented system, entirely controlled by the state corporate intelligentsia. This, of course, is the slow transformation system under which we have been living for decades now, in the Americas and Europe.
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"They're on our left, they're on our right, they're in front of us, they're behind us...they can't get away this time." -- Col. Puller, USMC