The Truth About Neo-Conservatives: Print and Share!!It's amazing that "liberal" has been turned into such a dirty word while the media and its pundits have no problem with "neo-conservatives," casually referring to them as "Neo-cons" without any compulsion to actually tell the American people what Neo-Conservatives actually believe. It's disgraceful.
Well boys and girls, here's a great lesson on the Neo-Con movement and ideology. I suggest you print it out and read it and share it with others. We must aggressively label the current administration as the dangerous, decidedly un-American Neo-Conservatives they are and back it up with what that means. I have to believe that most people would be aghast at what these criminals believe - and people would be inclined to rethink any positive opinions of Bush & co. that they may still have.
The despicable truth about what neo-conservatives actually believe appear below, using excerpts from Wonderboy's site, followed by a little bit about the right-wing's pro-Nazi/fascist origins. These excerpts come from "Fascist Fantasy," which provides about 20 pages of riveting US history, located at
http://www.winterboy.com/dejavu4.html-------------
"...Members of the new government would preserve and defend those basic principles on which our nation has been built up. They regard Christianity as the foundation of our national morality and the family as the basis of our national life." Hitler, in his first radio address to the German people, 2/1/33
"Those who are fit to rule are those who realize there is no morality and that there is only one natural right- the right of the superior to rule over the inferior." Leo Strauss, hero of the neo-conservative movement.
1938: German political philosopher Leo Strauss arrives in the US, an ethnic Jew and refugee from Nazi Germany. He struggles with these basic philosophical questions: What is the relation of nature to culture? Can society be founded on rational principles? Has the Enlightenment brought about its own downfall? Strauss teaches at several major universities, including Paul Wolfowitz's alma mater, the University of Chicago, before his death in 1973.
NOTE: Strauss is a popular figure among the late 20th-Century neo-conservatives. Adherents of his ideas include many prominent conservative activists, including: 'Weekly Standard' editor William Kristol and his father (the ‘godfather’ of the neocon movement), Irving Kristol; a number of senior fellows at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI- home to former Defense Policy Board chairman Richard Perle and Lynne Cheney); members and consultants of the think tank Project for the New American Century (PNAC),
including William Kristol; Paul Wolfowitz; Dick Cheney; Richard Perle, Newt Gingrich, Jeb Bush, etc.Strauss teaches that deception is the norm in political life. Secrecy is paramount, especially when it comes to matters of foreign policy. Strauss believes that societies should be hierarchical- divided between an elite who should and must lead, and the masses who should follow. Strauss believes that "those who are fit to rule are those who realize there is no morality and that there is only one natural right- the right of the superior to rule over the inferior."
This dichotomy requires "perpetual deception" between the rulers and the ruled, says Strauss, and "The people are told what they need to know and no more." While the elite few are capable of absorbing the absence of any moral truth, Strauss thought, the masses could not cope. If exposed to the absence of absolute truth, they would quickly fall into nihilism or anarchy.
Strauss has a "huge contempt" for secular democracy. Because Strauss views religion as absolutely essential in imposing moral law on the masses (who would otherwise be out of control), 20th century neoconservatives have long argued for religion's greater role in the public sphere, even suggesting that the Founding Fathers of the American Republic made a major mistake by insisting on the separation of church and state.
At the same time, Strauss stresses that religion is for the masses alone; the rulers need not be bound by it. Indeed, it would be absurd if they were, since the truths proclaimed by religion are "a pious fraud." As Ronald Bailey, science correspondent for Reason magazine points out, "Many neoconservatives are pro-religion even though they themselves may not be believers." Secular society in their view is the worst possible thing because it leads to individualism, liberalism, and relativism, precisely those traits that may promote dissent which, in turn, could dangerously weaken society's ability to 'cope with external threats.'
Strauss believes that the inherently aggressive nature of human beings can only be restrained by a powerful nationalistic state. "Because mankind is intrinsically wicked, he has to be governed," he writes. "Such governance can only be established, however, when men are united- and they can only be united against other people."
Not surprisingly, Strauss' attitude toward foreign policy is distinctly Machiavellian. Since political order can be stable only if it is united by an external threat, he maintains, then if no external threat exists one has to be manufactured.
Perpetual war, not perpetual peace, is what Straussians believe in. The idea easily translates into an "aggressive, belligerent foreign policy," of the kind that has been advocated by neocon groups like PNAC and AEI scholars, not to mention Wolfowitz and other 20th century administration hawks who have called for a world order dominated by US military power. Strauss' neoconservative students see foreign policy as a means to fulfill a "national destiny" (as Irving Kristol defined it as early as 1983).Perhaps Roosevelt’s two greatest enemies in Congress are Republican Senator Gerald Nye from North Dakota and Democratic Congressmen Martin Dies from Texas. Both head Congressional committees vital to preparation for the coming war.
Both abuse their franking privileges (the traditional House practice of sending mail by signature rather than stamp) to mail out propaganda opposing the war, or even propaganda from pro-fascists groups, to thousands of their constituents. Both are openly pro-Nazi/fascist.On the floor of the Senate, Nye charges that British, not German, submarines have sunk non-Axis ships. He initiates a probe of Hollywood. He arranges for a German-American Bund member to air his views before the Senate, and later uses his Congressional frank to mail thousands of copies of the speech. Later, he's a booster for the American First Committee. Nye also praises and promotes the anti-Semitic preacher Gerald Smith’s sermons.
Hans Thomsen, the charge d'affaires at the German embassy in Washington, mentions Senator Nye in a July 18, 1940, top-secret dispatch to Berlin. Excerpts of Nye speeches from the Congressional Record are being sent by isolationist groups to some 200,000 "specially selected persons."
"This undertaking is not altogether easy and is particularly delicate," Thomsen writes, "since Senator Nye, as a political opponent of the President, is under the careful observation of the secret state police here."
Some Congressmen have no reservations about proclaiming their admiration for Nazi Germany/fascism, and/or their hatred of Roosevelt and his policies. One such Congressman is John Schafer (R-WI). He’s quoted as follows by the press, discussing a ‘revolution against democracy’:
"...the Bloody kind. There will be purges and Roosevelt will be cleaned right off the earth along with the Jews. We’ll have a military dictatorship to save the country."
Senator Rufus Holman (R-Or) inserts pro-Nazi propaganda pieces into the Congressional record. As Oregon’s State Treasurer, he had praised Hitler’s sterilization program and persuaded the Governor to expand Oregon’s ‘sodomy law’ compulsory sterilization program. As well, Holman defends Hitler on the floor of the Senate.
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A little bit about the right-wing's pro-Nazi/fascist origins... As the Depression deepens through the ‘30s, rampant anti-Semitism increases, driven by the Ku Klux Klan and the 750 plus pro-Nazi/fascist grass roots organizations springing up all over America.
William Dudley Pelly, the son of a Methodist minister who believes that Jews are the children of Satan, founds the ‘Silver Shirts’ on January 31, in Asheville, NC (the day Hitler takes power in Germany). He describes the group as a ‘Christian militia.’ Throughout the ‘30s, the Silver Shirts become one of the largest and most violent of the pro-Nazi/fascist groups and are most popular in areas of the country where the Klan is well established.
In the Pacific Northwest they assume dominance among groups after the Klan splits apart in Oregon and Washington. The Silver Shirts are openly pro-Hitler and form alliances with the American Bund and the Klan.
Many of today's far right groups can trace their ancestry directly to the Silver Shirts. The Posse Comitatus’ founder Henry Lamont Beach was a leader of the Silver Shirts in Oregon. Likewise, Richard Butler, the founder of the Aryan Nations in Hayden Lake, ID was also a Silver Shirter (as well as former Klansmen).
Gerald L. K. Smith, one of the founders of today’s Christian Identity religion- common to the Posse, the Aryan nations and many of the militias and Klan groups- is perhaps the most influential former Silver Shirt member. It is the intolerance and blinding racism of religious fundamentalists that binds the fascists groups of the 1930s to today's right-wing extremists groups.
Much of today’s televangelism can be directly traced back to the 1930’s ‘ministries of hate.’ The media may have changed from radio to television, but the delivery is still in the style of Father Coughlin, whose radio broadcasts reach millions. His sermons are filled with virulent hate of Jews, Communism and Roosevelt. Pat Robertson’s, Jerry Falwell’s, or even secular Rush Limbaugh’s ‘sermons’ follow the same formula today -
whip up the fear factor, identify the 'other', blame the 'other' as the cause for the original fear. Only now they carefully substitute hatred of gays, welfare (read that as the poor), abortion, unions or any liberal program designed to help the poor or working person, and of course- Bill Clinton, who has replaced Roosevelt as an object of scorn. ------------
These excerpts come from "Fascist Fantasy," which provides about 20 pages of riveting US history, located at
http://www.winterboy.com/dejavu4.html