George Mason Law professor Peter Berkowitz examines what recent books by Will Marshall and Peter Beinhart say about the pro-war left. Berkowitz’s review tells us some disturbing things about the pro-war right. Berkowitz praises cold war liberalism’s opposition to “both left and right totalitarianism,” thus embracing the left’s lie that communism is the opposite of fascism. Berkowitz also praises the cold war liberals support for the New Deal as a cornerstone of the effort to ” link the war against totalitarianism abroad to the struggle to improve the practice of democracy at home.”

Perhaps the most amazing part of Berkowitz’s article is when he criticizes Democrats for not following the bipartisan tradition of Harry Truman! I don’t think many of the Republicans Truman viciously attacked during his 1948 reelection campaign though he was a model of “bipartisan statesmanship.”

There is nothing new about neocons praise of the New Deal and Truman, but for at least 10 years many neocons have claimed that, while they do support a limited, “conservative welfare state,” they have abandoned their support for the New Deal and globalbaloney. LRC readers never fell for their charade, but a lot of conservatives did. Hopefully, Berkowitz’s article will help enlightened them about the true beliefs and agenda of those in charge of today’s conservative movement.