ArtLindsey.com

As made obvious by my last post, I have become fond of having political discussions. Some people find that to be rather morbid, but I don’t know, I think it’s fun. It gives me the potential to learn a great deal, and also figure out what makes some people tick. That’s also very cool in my book. But, as with anything in life you have to take the good with the bad. I can have really interesting conversations with other conservatives, be they Republicans or Libertarians (Who, by the way, are crazy in their own “special” way, and that’s great.) Hell, I can even on occasion have an interesting discussion with a liberal, as long as they aren’t the New-York-Times-reading Starbucks-coffee-swilling-birkenstock-wearing-non-bathing-flag-burning type.

But those are hard to find. The only one who I can site off the top of my head right now is Joe Lieberman, but he’s all the way up in Connecticut. It’s not like I can call him up for a chat.

Nope. I couldn’t get that lucky.

I normally get the crazy hippie, and at some point, the following statement will spew forth from their bearded pie-hole, be they a man or a woman. (Oddly enough, it’s a strange thing how facial hair doesn’t seem to discriminate among the hippie sect of our culture, but I digress.)

Anyway:

“You’re a Neocon!”

“Oh, really?”

“Yeah! That’s right! You’re one of those Bush-Nazis! You want to control everything and turn us into a police state! You want to invade everyone’s privacy and get your nose all up in their personal business for the sake of ‘national security!’ That Bush guy is a neocon too! He’s just like you! He’s like Hitler, you know! He’s worse than Hitler!”

Neocon. Mmmhmm. Sure. It’s rather funny how one word can take on such a life of its own. I mean, every time you see that word, it is predicated with hate, sarcasm and general distaste toward the conservative movement, not to mention George W. Bush alone. There’s no denying that.

But wait. Here’s the really funny part: Nobody who uses that word knows what it means.

That’s right. The people who have turned the word “neocon” into a buzzword are using it completely wrong. Just because the prefix “neo” reminds you of the “neo” in “neo-nazi”, that doesn’t make it so. The word “Neocon” has nothing to do with Nazis.

Listen up, mouth breathers. Class is in session.

Neoconservatism (or neocon) refers to the political movement, ideology, and public policy goals of “new conservatives” in the United States, that are relatively unopposed to “big government” principles and restrictions on social spending, when compared with other American conservatives such as traditional or paleoconservatives.

In the context of United States foreign policy, neoconservative has another, narrower definition. Critics define it as interventionist with hawkish views on foreign policy. Supporters define it as advocating the use of military force, unilaterally if necessary, to replace autocratic regimes with democratic ones. This view competes with liberal internationalism, realism, and non-interventionism.

The prefix “neo” can denote that many of the movement’s founders, originally liberals, Democrats or from socialist backgrounds were new to conservatism, but can also refer to the comparatively recent emergence of this “new wave” of conservative thought, which coalesced in the early 1970s from a variety of intellectual roots in the decades following World War II. It also serves to distinguish the ideology from the viewpoints of “old” or traditional American conservatism.

In a nutshell, what this means is that a “neocon” is someone who is big on defense, but is also more liberal when it comes to social entitlements. So actually, yes: George W. Bush is indeed a neocon.

But, of course, he’s not a neocon in the sense that a lot of his detractors claim he is, and you know that would piss them off, because few things are more embarrassing than misusing a word in a public forum.

I however, am *not* a neocon. I believe in individuality, low taxes, and fiscal responsibility, and peace through the use of force. (*True* force. Not “Oh, crap. what will CBS say if they see this?” force.) Simply put, the government is there to protect you. Your destiny is your own. I do believe in lending a hand, but you must make your own way. It is not the responsibility of the federal government to wipe your butt for you. (Do you hear me, Louisiana? Don’t blame the feds because you’re too stupid to get on a bus. It’s got nothing to do with you being black, and everything to do with you being an idiot.)

Admittedly, sometimes I will agree I am a neocon, just because the person who says I am already has their preconceived notion of what it means, and it’s fun to watch them flip out. But, the truth is, I’m more of a classic conservative, like many of our grandparents were. They were the ones who built this country, and it is their line of reasoning that has kept this country standing all these years, despite all the “new schools of thought” that came along. We owe the World War II generation everything.

I’ve been called lots of things, and some of those things haven’t been very nice. But if you insist on labeling me, you’d better have a grasp of the English language before you try it, because if you don’t, you’ll start to make yourself look stupid, and I’ll gladly help you finish the job.

If I ever have kids, I will raise them as conservatives. Not in an effort to mold them in my image, but because I know it works. It would be my job as a parent to teach my kids the right way to do things. (No pun intended.)
What’s the alternative? A lifetime of misinformed, self-important, pseudo-intellectualism? What kind of parent would that make me? I have no interest in having offspring who have been educated by MTV, and I have no interest in being the parent who *allows* it to happen and then *blames* it on MTV.

The most important thing people can do is pay attention, educate themselves, and for God’s sake, know what the hell you are talking about before you open your mouth. We’d all be a lot better off.

Just because you think something is true, or you want it to be true, that *doesn’t* make it true. And sometimes, all it takes in the context of today’s topic, is an encyclopedia or a dictionary. But some people don’t really want to *know* anything. They’re perfectly happy just *thinking* they know. People like that are not only lying to themselves, but they are also using propaganda (intentionally or unintentionally) to deceive other people.

Hmm. Maybe if they insist on calling me a Neocon, I should start calling them…Decepticons? What a witty idea.

What’s the true moral of this story? Some people may be neocons, but they are easily outnumbered by morons.

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