FOX News: Kirsten Powers VS Charles Krauthammer On Neoconservatism

Source:Andrew Yezen- Then Fox News political analyst, Kirsten Powers.

“Kirsten Powers: Charles Krauthammer knows he’s a Neocon. Sign the petition to arrest Marxist collaborator Marco Rubio at:MofoPolitics.com.”

Source:Andrew Yezen 

"Political analysts Kirsten Powers and Charles Krauthammer got into a tense exchange last week, arguing over the definition of the term "neocon."

Krauthammer asserted on the Fox News "Special Report" panel that the term is meaningless and challenged someone to provide a definition for it.

"Charles, you know what a neocon is," Powers told him. "I mean, this is kind of silly—."

"It is not," contributor Steve Hayes interjected." 

Source:The Blaze- Kirsten Powers vs. Charles Krauthammer 

From The Blaze

“In a post-show discussion posted online, Fox News Channel’s “Special Report” got heated when Kirsten Powers called out fellow panel regular Charles Krauthammer for being a pro-war neoconservative. Krauthammer denies it and Steve Hayes goes on the attack.” 

Source:Real Clear Politics- then Fox News political analyst Kirsten Powers in 2015.

From Real Clear Politics

From Dictionary on neoconservatism: "relating to or denoting a return to a modified form of a traditional viewpoint, in particular a political ideology characterized by an emphasis on free-market capitalism and an interventionist foreign policy."  

"Neoconservatism is a political movement that began in the United States during the 1960s among liberal hawks who became disenchanted with the increasingly pacifist foreign policy of the Democratic Party and with the growing New Left and counterculture of the 1960s, particularly the Vietnam protests. Some also began to question their liberal beliefs regarding domestic policies such as the Great Society. Neoconservatives typically advocate the promotion of democracy and interventionism in international affairs, including peace through strength, and are known for espousing disdain for communism and political radicalism." 

From Wikipedia 

Kirsten Powers, even though it took her a while to get there, definition of Neoconservative is pretty good: "Someone who is very hawkish on foreign policy and national security and believes in using American military force to advance democracy around the world." 

And yes, Neoconservatives gave us the 2003 Iraq War because they wanted democracy to come to Iraq. And as it turns out weapons of mass destruction, was really just an excuse for sending America to war in Iraq. The real Neoconservative objective here was to eliminate the Saddam Hussein Regime and replace it with an American friendly, democratic government and state. 

Kirsten Powers, also made another good point here when she says that Charles Krauthammer knows he's a Neocon. Krauthammer is one of the fathers of the American modern neoconservative movement. Former Liberal Democrats, (meaning people who believe in liberal democracy) who are very hawkish on foreign policy and national security. They're still let's say, right-progressive on economic policy as far as what they believe that government should do as it relates to the economy and helping people in need help themselves and believe in things like the a public safety net, but that the safety net should just be there for people who truly need it. And aren't Social Democrats or Democratic Socialists ( people like Bernie Sanders ) who believe that public social insurance programs should be universal.

It's weird to see Charles Krauthammer denying his neoconservatism and that he's a Neoconservative, because again Krauthammer is one of the original Neoconservatives in America. But it was also great to see Kirsten Powers call him out on that just flatly say that he knows he's a Neoconservative. She literally called ( excuse my language ) bullshit on him and did it on national TV.

My simple definition of a Neoconservative is someone who is a Right-Progressive. Someone who is not anti-government and believes in the safety net and a basic regulatory state and things like equal rights. But who isn't a Social Democrat and puts real limits on what government should try to do for people and is very hawkish on national security, foreign policy, and law enforcement. What they were talking about in this segment, had to do with Neoconservatives as it related to national security and foreign affairs, but there's a broader political philosophy to neoconservatism.

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Murray Rothbard On Neoconservatives

Except for Jack Kemp, who definitely wasn't a Neoconservative but a Barry Goldwater/Ronald Reagan get big government out of my wallet and bedroom classical Conservative, Murray Rothbard pretty much nails what Neoconservatives are when he called them statists and I would add right-wing statists, in fact, borderline fascists.

Neoconservatives basically represent the neo-right in America.  They say economic freedom is a good thing generally but that low-income people should benefit from it as well.  They are not completely against the safety net. When it comes to things like education and job training and encouraging business's to invest in low-income areas, they are somewhat progressive.

But when it comes to foreign policy they believe America is the sole superpower and should always remain that way at any cost.  They tend to judge military power by the size of the national security budget.  They ignore the the details of capabilities and threats and cannot articulate any specific objectives of military action.  They see America's number one job in the world as the military  promotion of a very general notion of democracy even in places where the people have no experience of it and no knowledge of how to participate in it..

The American religious-right believes that the country has been going downhill morally since the 1960s and that we have too much personal freedom.  They believe that it is time for government to intervene in personal behavior even inside of the home.

When I think of Neoconservatives, Michelle Bachmann and Rick Santorum come to mind pretty quickly.  Representative Bachmann would like to see a much smaller government when it comes to economic policy than Senator Santorum who is a true Neo-Con, across the board.  

 The Heritage Foundation is perhaps the lead organization in Neoconservative thinking