Which way MAGA paleo-con or neo-con?

Yes it’s bad AI “art,” may Jesus have mercy on my soul

Authors note, I rarely write about horse race politics as I feel it is where real ideas go to die, but this subject is important enough that I am going to break that rule and perhaps even bump into a substantive idea or two along the way.

I What is a paleo-con and why did I become one?

In the late fall of 2011 when Occupy Wall St. ended I decided I had, had enough of the left, the local Occupy I had been a part of had been infiltrated from the hard left by Trotskyite Communists and from the establishment by mainstream Democrats. Further what was then called political correctness was beginning to swamp a class analysis and anti-war activism on the left. Already there was something called “the progressive stack,” where women, what was then LGB people, and racial minorities got to jump the line when speaking to people. I was finding dealing with emotion driven left “activist,” politics to be draining and highly unsatisfying. Still I was opposed to Bush’s ongoing war in Iraq, and wanted some kind of worldview that accommodated being against the war.

Fortunately I had an out, I was reading antiwar.com at that time a paleo-libertarian anti-war website, where I was able to delve into the history of the anti-war paleo-conservatives, and how the conservative movement was hijacked by the neo-cons in the early 80s. Considering the resurgence of neo-cons now with people like Victoria Nuland in the Biden administration those articles on antiwar.com are still relevant today. Sadly, then as now being anti-neo-con got you labeled an “anti-Semite,” everything old is new again. Anyway here are a couple of classic articles on antiwar.com to give you a feel for what I was reading then. I highly recommend reading them before proceeding if you are not familiar with the battle between neo-cons and plaeo-cons.

https://www.antiwar.com/orig/lind1.html

See also:

“The idea that the major media have been taken over by neo-Nazis, and that the campaign to identify who and/or what got us involved in an unnecessary and ultimately futile war is all part of "the new anti-Semitism," is the rather implausible theme of the neocons' defense.”

Sound familiar from today’s headlines? Guess what this was written in 2003, over 20 years ago! So all very well, perhaps you understand where I am coming from a little better in my essays now, but what relevance does this have to today? Well guess what the neo-cons are on the march again in the form of people like Victoria Nuland, Nikki Haley, and Elise Stefanik, and in AIPAC’s harassment of dubious free speech hero Elon Musk.

II The establishment strikes back resurrecting neo-cons from the dead

When it became obvious to everyone the Iraq and Afghanistan wars started by Bush and his gaggle of neo-cons were going south and were unwinnable around 2014 or so, the neo-cons slithered underground and kept a low profile, while also conspicuously not apologizing for the 200,000 to 1,000,0000 dead Iraqis, or the 1 in 4 American soldiers who participated in that war who were seriously injured, psychologically traumatized, or killed.

Just because they weren’t writing op-eds doesn’t mean they weren’t doing damage though. Victoria Nuland the husband of Robert Kagan of PNAC fame and deputy foreign policy adviser to Dick Cheney was one of the major forces behind the 2014 coup in Ukraine in the Obama years, and she was caught on the phone picking the government of Ukraine after the coup. She is currently second in command at the state department and one of the major instigators for continued funding of the disastrous war in Ukraine and for supplying weapons and diplomatic cover for Israel. Neo-cons have no party loyalty as you can see from Nuland’s career, she is perfectly content to work for Republicans or Democrats as long as there are constant attacks on Russia and support for Israel’s repression of the Palestinians. Here are some links with background on all this.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_for_the_New_American_Century

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_Nuland

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-26079957

(Telephone transcript of Nuland’s participation in selecting Ukraine’s government after the coup)

John Bolton another notorious neo-con manged to weasel his way into the Trump administration as National Security Adviser, but Trump also wound up firing him.

Trump also ousted Victoria Nuland, who as I mentioned before was later picked up by Biden, and is a major player in Biden’s disastrous war mongering foreign policy. After the October 7th terror attacks on Israel, and Israel’s disproportionate response that has led to the bombing and compete destruction of dozens of hospitals and the deaths of thousands of women and children the neo-cons have been fully resurrected from the dead, and are on the march in full public view now.

Currently the neo-cons are demanding broad censorship of any criticism of Israel’s conduct of their war and neo-con adjacent politician Elise Stefanak recently claimed the scalp of Harvard President Claudine Gay. While I do not have much pity for Claudine Gay as a plagiarist lazy “scholar” making a million dollars a year at Harvard, I am concerned that a portion of the right that was previously united against woke censorship is now all on board with censorship and cancellation of anyone who offends Zionists. As usual the neo-con clique is acting in an authoritarian fashion when it comes to protecting the interests of the foreign country of Israel, putting the feelings of Zionists and American Zionist sympathizers above the free speech rights of Americans who oppose Israel’s war.

We can also add into this mix odious war profiteer Nikki Haley who has never seen a war she doesn’t love, and who has called for a ban on anonymous posting on the internet, which would destroy American political discourse. Fellow Substacker Lee Fang documents Haley’s rise being closely tied to defense contracting and advocacy for pro war Zionist policies.

“Haley became wealthy in large part from her ties to a network of defense interests and hawkish advocacy organizations tied to U.S. and Israeli intelligence officials.
In one of her first reported private sector jobs after leaving her last government post, Haley joined the board of Boeing, a defense contractor, a position that paid around $300,000 a year in cash and stock. Haley, according to disclosures, still owns up to $250,000 in Boeing stock.Haley’s primary income, aside from speaking engagements, is from United Against a Nuclear Iran, an advocacy group shrouded in secrecy.”

Nikki Haley's Sudden Wealth Rooted in Weapons Industry, Pro-War Advocacy Network

So Nikki Haley whether she directly identifies as a neo-con or not, is in essence a neo-con. And as I noted earlier Joe Biden’s foreign policy has been captured by neo-cons as well in the most obvious form of Dick Cheney protege Victoria Nuland, and also IMO in the form of the head of the State Department Antony Blinken. 

While this article labels him a neo-liberal and not a neo-con in foreign policy terms there is very little difference between neo-cons and neo-libs. Our only apparent hope of avoiding the neo-cons dreams of expanded war in the middle east, continuing the proxy war against Russia in Ukraine, and war against China i.e. in total WWIII seems to be Trump defeating Nikki Haley in the primaries, and Joe Biden in the general election. And yet...

III Which way MAGA Paleo-con or neo-con?

...this is reliant on Trump being solidly America First and not caving to establishment demands he appoints neo-cons to his VP and other key cabinet positions like National Security adviser, Sec. of Defense, and Secretary of State. Can Trump be trusted to show good judgment on this crucial issue? Sadly I have my doubts considering in his first term he appointed John Bolton at least for a while as National Security Adviser, and he also appointed other people who sabotaged his policy agenda like Mike Pence. Further Trump seemed flummoxed when deep state stay behinds like Michael Hayden who signed the infamous letter claiming the Hunter Biden laptop was “misinformation,” and stay behind FBI head James Comey conspired against his agenda. Trump is extremely susceptible to flattery and will overlook almost anything his underlings do as long as he considers them to be loyal to him as an individual. Further lets not kid ourselves he is a womanizer and thus susceptible to a woman younger than himself whispering poison in his ear. Normally this is just gossip rag fodder but unfortunately in this case it has deadly serious policy implications.

If Trump isn’t imprisoned by the deep state, and manages to have a fair primary where he defeats Nikki Haley, he will be under tremendous establishment donor class pressure to appoint Haley or Stefanik as his VP pick. His ring of hangers on will tell him having a woman and a “moderate” will “balance” the ticket and please the donor class and his media critics. Further running along side a younger woman would stroke his vanity. If this happens it will be an utter disaster, not only would a Haley, Stafanik or some similar person whisper terrible advice in his ear regarding a neo-con endless war based foreign policy, they would work behind the scenes with deep state stay behinds to sabotage any kind of America First freedom and paleo-con friendly policy agenda. Finally a Haley or Stefanik as VP would be the MAGA heir apparent for the 2028 election. This would make a mockery of MAGA and would simply mean a return to neo-con control of the state.

OTH if Trump does the both ethical and smart thing and picks Tucker Carlson or Vivek as his running mate I believe we at least have a fighting chance at vanquishing the neo-cons and deep state stay behinds. God speed America, the bible says good wins in the end, let’s hope and pray that’s true.

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