AND GEORGE WILL TURNS ON HIS FELLOW NEOCONS

In a vitriolic piece, unusual for its direction rather than necessarily his characteristically dyspeptic prose, George Will is uncharacteristically candid about the rhetorical techniques of his usual neoconservative fellow travelers--they smear.

"Some persons -- perhaps many persons; no names being named, the smear remained tantalizingly vague -- doubt his nation-building project because they are racists.

That is one way to respond to questions about the wisdom of thinking America can transform the entire Middle East by constructing a liberal democracy in Iraq. But if any Americans want to be governed by politicians who short-circuit complex discussions by recklessly imputing racism to those who differ with them, such Americans do not usually turn to the Republican choice in our two-party system. . . . .

Speaking of culture, as neoconservative nation-builders would be well-advised to avoid doing, Pat Moynihan said: "The central conservative truth is that it is culture, not politics, that determines the success of a society. The central liberal truth is that politics can change a culture and save it from itself.""

Hmmm. "Neoconservatives" (of which Will proudly used to claim to be one) smear the opponents of their "policies" as racist. Sounds pretty much like Buchanan.

Comments

[Anonymous]

But Buchanan is an anti-semite. If Britain and the US had done as he has said they should, i.e., let Germany rule Europe, then nearly every Jew in Europe would have been killed. If supporting a policy that would have resulted in successful genocide isn't anti-semitism, then I don't know what is.

Al, you're far more interesting when your talking about Monarchy, mixed government, distributism, and Franco (or would be; I've never seen you comment on him) than when you obsess over those awful neo-cons and follow an anti-semitic, isolationist nut like Buchanan.

[al]

Anon,
I know Pat Buchanan, and I don't believe he's antiSemetic. But if you'll read Claes Ryn's article posted above, you'll find that talking about the neocons, and talking about Monarchy, mixed govt. and distributism are really just two sides of the same coin.

[Aquinas Admirer]

al,

You have the privileged position of personally knowing Pat Buchannan, few Americans do. For the rest of us, who simply learn about what he thinks from his writings and television appearances, anti-semitism is an easy conclusion to make.

[c matt]

I, like most other Americans, only know PB from his writings. I keep hearing this anti-semitic claim against him, but the closest I can detect is his positions that: (1) we don't owe Israel anything (2) we should not fight their battles for them without identifying a specific national interest for us and (3) Israel has been less than the greatest ally for us. Granted, it may not seem charitable, but how, exactly is that anti-semitic? Can you point me to some other position he has held that is clearly anti-semitic?