|
|
|
| Current Issue |
|
|
| Resources |
|
|
|
Neoconservatives in the 1980s
| Article
# : |
11533 |
|
|
Section : |
MODERN THOUGHT
|
| Issue
Date : |
10 / 1986 |
7,162 Words |
| Author
: |
Alexander Bloom
Alexander Bloom is professor of history at Wheaton College in
Massachusetts. He is the author of Prodigal Sons: The New York
Intellectuals and Their World (1986) and the
forthcoming "Takin' It to the Streets": America in the 1960s.
He is working on a book titled Red Diaper Babies: Growing Up
on the American Left. |
In the middle 1970s it looked good for neoconservatives. After the tumult of the 1960s and the national tragedies of Vietnam and Watergate, with the emergence of nostalgic longings of Americans for simpler days, and with a decided turn to the right by the American electorate, it appeared that the neoconservatives' time had come. Fanning out across the political and intellectual landscape, they seemed poised to capture high office and places of high intellect - to move into political and academic prominence. Assembling like some secret intellectual coven amid all the more blaring personalities and events of the late 1960s and early 1970s, neoconservatives burst on the public stage in the mid-1970s, staking their claims to prominence. Lots of people seemed to be listening, and perhaps ready to vote.
Now, a decade later, any reassessment of the course of neoconservatism since the 1970s must begin with the observation that not all has been as smooth and successful as it appeared ten years ago. The easy path that seemed to lie before them has been marked by fits and starts. Certainly some of the individuals connected with the movement have become increasingly prominent, new converts seem to sign on regularly, and neoconservatism-conservative journals and ideas are still read and debated. Yet the smooth transition, which appeared waiting, has been much rockier than anticipated. What makes these difficulties all the more puzzling has been the perceived rightward direction of the country during this decade. In 1976, the Democrats elected their most conservative nominee in this century, and he was soundly beaten in 1980 by the Republicans most conservative winning candidate in this century. In 1984, Ronald Reagan was convincingly re-elected, thrashing the candidate who represented twentieth-century Democratic liberalism. The nation seemed to long for conservatism, New Deal liberalism seemed to be on the wane, and the neoconservatives stood in the best place to pull together the forces that flowed around them. They could become the new center, appealing to the blue-collar Democrats with some emotional attachment to the New Deal, more intelligent and thoughtful than the Far Right, less liberal than the seemingly discredited patrons of the welfare state, and comfortably at home in both political parties.
Finally, it had been foreign-policy disasters that had sent America reeling in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Self-doubt had replaced unadorned chauvinism. Neoconservatives offered a return to a hardheaded patriotic foreign policy, one which put the blame back where cold warriors had always placed it - at the door of the communists. Dispensing with any notions that American imperialism might be involved,
...
Read Full Article
Look for this article in Ask.com
|
|
