After reading Mr. Beinart’s essay I found myself contemplating a question: who did he write this for? Is Neo-Conservatism dead, or can even an unsophisticated reader like myself draw certain conclusions, from other sources, that might just put his conjectures in doubt? That doubt appeared because I had recently read David Bromwich’s lengthy, beautifully written piece at Al Jazeera titled Symptoms of the Bush-Obama Presidency of August 25,2011. Here is the link:
http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/08/201182185829490112.html
In comparison to The Bromwich essay Mr. Beinart’s effort seemed thin to say the least and almost had the telltale aroma of political apologetics or even worse the sound of counter propaganda. The possibility of, not the death of Neo-Conservatism, but its triumph, in policies of the Obama Administration is what Mr. Bromwich had argued- when I ran across this at The Atlantic by Conor Friedersdorf: Obama DOJ : John Yoo Memos on Spying Must Stay Secret.
In the light of all this, one might just dismiss Mr. Beinart’s essay as a premature obituary of Neo-Conservatism, but also as an endorsement of the policy continuity of the Obama Administration with the inherited Bush policies: and an embrace of the inherent paternalism and authoritarianism of that destructive, murderous ideology.
Eternal Skeptic
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