The Old Neocon Game

Pat Buchanan, in today's paper, contends that "Sarah Palin is no neocon" because "she is a traditionalist whose values are those of family, faith, community, and country." Well... OK, that latter statement may be perfectly true. But since when has any of that been inconsistent with Neoconservatism? Given that the vast bulk of Neocons are Evangelicals (vs. the top layer of reformed Trotskyites), is there any doubt that they hold, without exception, values based on "family, faith, community, and country"? The problem is not with the values they hold, but with the way they choose to express them -- namely by pressuring, and encouraging, an empty suit of a president to sell off our economic future and crush civil rights in order to "fight terrorism" in the generic sense, and to send troops overseas on a bunch of very expensive, and very hazardous to life and limb, wild goose chases. I doubt if there's one Evangelical on the fruited plain who can't draw a direct line between "family" and the "Global War on Terrorism"... or betwen "faith" and the need to "defend" Israel at all costs... or between "community" and the need to stay in Iraq and/or Afghanistan until the very last vestige of militant Islam in those countries is crushed -- which means, basically, until every Islamic citizen of those countries is either killed or driven out -- which means, basically, until those countries are emptied of everyone but our troops and "contractors", and a handful of bought-off government officials. And as to "country"? Why, isn't it obvious that America's greatness has nothing to do with the freedom and prosperity of its citizens, and everything to do with its ability to go anywhere in the world any time it wants, and make loud noises and kill people, in the name of such universal values as "democracy"?

Buchanan himself points out that Sarah Palin has already had "the talk" with Joe Lieberman (Israel's unofficial ambassador to the U.S.) and AIPAC... which means that she has had that same mysterious titanium steel plate embedded in her head that every member of the Bush administration has -- you know, the one that makes them totally blind to the wrongs committed by Israel, and perfectly willing to offer up the entirety of America's human and economic resources to its "defense". And as if that weren't enough, she has that second steel plate of slightly more recent vintage, the one that requires us to see Georgia (the country, that is) as, basically, a part of the U.S.

Buchanan says "the battle for Sarah's soul is not over", but I think that it is. On the other hand, why are we even worried about this because, after this week on Wall Street, the Republicans have about as much of a chance to win in November as... well, as the Libertarians (who could have avoided _all_ of these problems if they'd been given a chance).