Ramesh Ponnuru is not the only conservative celebrating the purging of all traces of libertarianism from the official right. The New York Times’ house neocon David Brooks heralds Bush’s embrace of “progressive conservatism” where the state interferes in our economic and social lives in the name of “empowerment.” Brooks is offering an up-dated version of Kempism, but he identifies Theodore Roosevelt, Lincoln, and Alexander Hamilton as the Founding Fathers of “progressive conservatism.” So was Hamilton the first neocon?
(Note the one issue that Brooks is sound on is criticizing the official conservative movement for abandoning free-markets to support state-granted privileges for their business supporters.)
Alvaro Vargas Llosa reveals that the delegates to the GOP convention are either in denial or just don’t care (since it is more important to win the war on terrorism and protect “traditional values” than limit the size of government) about the GOP’s embrace of the total state. Of course, the Democrats are to clueless and to beholden to statist special interests to attempt to appeal to libertarians and constitutional conservatives by returning to their classical liberal roots.
9:34 pm on September 13, 2004