 
Contemporary conservatism, whether officially Republican or
not, has specialized in surrendering and abandoning the premises of an
authentic “right” and granting the premises of the left. That is
essentially what “neo-conservatism” is — the application
of the values and assumptions of the left for (more or less) rightish
positions and policies, at least positions and policies generally to the right of
what the self-described “left” supports — although the
term “neo-conservatism” today is rather obsolete. The truth is
that what in the 1980s was called “neo-conservatism” is now
the dominant pattern of thought on the mainstream right and among those
who still call themselves “conservatives” in the Republican
Party, and even some conservatives who think of themselves as “old
right” are often little more than neo-conservatives in their
fundamental world-views. As for “multiculturalism,” the
neo-conservative conservatives have been the main force in dumping those
beliefs of the real right that could have rejected its premises and mounted a
serious resistance to its long march to power.
(To be continued)
|