In an article in Commentary, that bastion of neoconservative thought, Charles Krauthammer exhibits the arrogance and hubris that is now all-too-characteristic of the right, as he declares that neoconservatism is one of the three main strands of American foreign policy. Instead, as Vivek Krishnamurthy argues at The Reaction, it’s actually “just the bastard child of every previous approach held together with a large dollop of political expediency”.
Neoconservatism has its virtues — not least its commitment to the spread of democracy and its faith in our liberal institutions — but it’s grown increasingly self-delusional in proportion to its acquisition of power and influence. One almost longs for traditional conservatism, the conservatism of Bush I — to reassert itself and to push aside the obnoxious idealism of Krauthammer and his ilk.