Conservative Sheep, Neocon Shepherds

Nelson Hultberg

In 1919, Rudyard Kipling wrote in The Gods of the Copybook Headings, "As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man / That...the Sow returns to her Mire / And the burnt Fool's bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire."

Likewise, it appears that conservatives return to their disastrous past policies. In outlining his foreign policy plans for America, Jeb Bush recently stated, "I love my father and my brother...But I am my own man - and my views are shaped by my own thinking and own experiences." He went on to say, "I won't talk about the past. I'll talk about the future."

What does this mean in actual foreign policy goals and actions? As reported by Chris Stirewalt at Fox News, the foreign policy team being formed by Jeb Bush "is not just very much George W. Bush's, but includes two of the most controversial figures from [the] invasion of Iraq, former Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and former National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley. Short of including Dick Cheney, this is the strongest possible indication that Bush is embracing his brother's foreign policy."

"Feels like old times," reports Stierwalt. "Other core players from the George W. Bush administration on the team include former Homeland Security secretaries Tom Ridge and Michael Chertoff, former intelligence bosses Porter Goss, John Negroponte and Michael Hayden."

How many conservatives, other than Jeb Bush, are also of this mindset? How many are itching to get bogged down again in the Mideast cauldron with ground troops taking on ISIS? John Kasich of Ohio, for one, states in the Washington Post that he supports sending U.S. ground forces to fight the Islamic State: "You will not solve this problem with only air power." Will Chris Christie be strong enough to reject such herd thinking? Hardly. He's the personification of an establishment sycophant.

Paul, Cruz, and Walker

Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, and Scott Walker will surely not stand for this myopic rehash of Bush Doctrine interventionism. But neocons control the GOP both ideologically and financially. To become the nominee, a candidate must acquiesce to the neoconservative worldview. This is why all prospective nominees (even Paul, Cruz, and Walker), when discussing the illegal immigration problem, state that they support "opening up a path to citizenship" for the illegals. What else is this but amnesty for over 20 million illegals? What else is this but acquiescence to the neocon controllers of the party? Prospective nominees realize that such a stand is mandatory if they are to win the nomination of a party controlled by "pro-amnesty" neocons. Will the same acquiescent attitude also govern Paul, Cruz, and Walker on foreign policy?

One certainly hopes not, but the desire to win the nomination is a fire that burns obsessively in the bellies of every presidential aspirant. Such an obsessive fire, far too often, destroys the principles of all aspirants who eventually cater to the ideological and financial partisans of the GOP hierarchy, i.e., the powerful intellectuals, bankers, and corporate moguls, who dominate the Washington-Wall Street axis.

This hierarchy is "interventionist" through and through, and it will turn most GOP aspirants into dancing puppets. Watch over this next year as the GOP nomination seekers drift closer and closer into acquiescence to the neocon worldview on immigration, welfarism, and a police-the-world foreign policy.

It's disgusting because this has been going on for over 40 years now, and nothing ever changes. When do the lights come on in conservative heads? When do they come to grips with the need to form an alternative political party if we are to save the country?

Those who refuse to see this, and insist it is a mandatory rule of politics that we must "always work within the GOP," don't understand that their rule is only a slogan with no rationality to back it up. They have become part of the problem, not the solution. They have become the equivalent to Lenin's "useful idiots" for the neocon dictatorship being insidiously formed around us.

There's a saying in Las Vegas that casino owners "send cabs for the gullible sheep." Well, neocons do the same for Republicans who preach the myth that we "must always stay within the GOP and try to take it over with new conservative legislators."

Vegas casino owners love the sheep who come to gamble because they know the game is rigged in the casinos' favor. And likewise the neocon hierarchy loves conservatives who preach "eternal love for the GOP" because it knows the party is rigged in its favor. The hierarchy has the power to buy off (or discourage from running again) 90% of new libertarian and conservative legislators sent to reform Washington.

Buying Off the Patriots

If you doubt that 90% of libertarians and conservatives are bought off or discouraged from running again by the neocon hierarchy, consider this: In 1991, the Republican Liberty Caucus was formed, consisting of libertarian and conservative congressmen to fight for free-markets and restoration of the Republic as the Founders envisioned. In the first three years the RLC had about 25-30 members in the House of Representatives out of 435. Today they have 36 members.

If the strategy of taking over the Republican Party by sending new libertarian and conservative legislators to Washington has any validity, why has the RLC not grown to 200 members by now? Every election year, scores of new candidates win office who could be classified as strong patriots. Let's say 30-40 every two years. Why has all this new blood not translated into firm control of the GOP? At least 400 new conservatives and libertarians have been sent to Washington in the last 24 years. Why have we only increased the RLC membership by 8 during this time?

The answer is obvious to those who are perceptive and grasp the frailties of human nature: Out of the 400 new libertarian and conservative representatives we sent to Washington over the past 24 years who remained in Congress, only 36 had the strength of mind to stand firm on principle. Only 36 were possessed of the integrity of Ron Paul. Many got discouraged and went home. But of those who remained most capitulated to the enticements of fame, power, popularity, access to more campaign contributions, and ease of re-election that the neocon hierarchy promises to all incoming legislators who play ball with them by "modifying" their principles and easing away from hard core insistence on free-market capitalism. In other words, they got bought off. 

The lure of power and wealth has been corrupting men since time began. Do our conservative pundits believe that somehow human nature can be dramatically changed and politicians will no longer seek gratification of their egos? That such politicians will not cross over the aisle to do the neocons' bidding in order to gain more power and wealth? Do those activists in the Tea Party believe such nonsense?

Of course not. Why then are so many conservative pundits and activists preaching that "we must always remain within the Republican Party?" Why are so many ignoring history and human nature? Why are they not checking deeper into their arguments to make sure they are subscribing to truth, instead of succumbing to slogans? Isn't this what rational men do in disputes of monumental importance?

Unfortunately our pundits and activists have abandoned reason and are more interested in slogans. Consequently, the neocon hierarchy continues to bamboozle the Republican rank and file with the old communist agitprop that "one must never doubt the widsom of the party."

Thus conservative sheep remain loyal to the GOP and, in doing so, enable their neocon shepherds to relentlessly centralize government in Washington while perpetuating military interventionism around the globe. Strong minded patriots would revolt, not readily acquiesce to unconditional "love for the Party."

They Don't Think

Hitler told his Nazi followers: "How fortunate for governments that the people they administer don't think." Ditto with the neocons. How fortunate for them that so many conservatives don't think. Don't observe history. Don't grasp the flaws of human nature. Don't understand the evil of appeasement. Don't muster the courage to revolt. How fortunate for the neocons that so many conservative pundits refuse to leave the flock and continue to play the lackey to their neocon masters. How fortunate that so many are so soft and undiscerning.

America is descending into despotism because of the softness of conservative pundits and activist sheep. My message is this:

What will you tell your grandchildren when they have grown up amidst vicious tyranny and ask you, "why didn't you oppose the neocons when we still had a chance to save freedom? Why didn't you revolt? Why didn't you break from the GOP? Why would you continue for forty, fifty, sixty years to tolerate the constant 'crossing of the aisle' by conservative legislators you sent to Washington? Why would you continue to support a party hierarchy that bought off or scared off 90% of the freedom advocates you sent to reform the system? Why would you continue to tolerate collectivists who relentlessly expanded their power every year, yet soothed you every election with embarrassing lies claiming that they stood for freedom? Why didn't you revolt, Grandfather, when we still had time?"


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Nelson Hultberg is a freelance scholar/writer in Dallas, Texas and the Director of Americans for a Free Republic www.afr.org. He has a BA degree in Economics from Beloit College in Wisconsin. His articles have appeared over the past twenty years in such publications as The Dallas Morning News, American Conservative, Insight, Liberty, The Freeman, and The Social Critic, as well as on numerous Internet sites such as Capitol Hill Outsider, Conservative Action Alerts, Daily Paul, Canada Free Press, and The Daily Bell. He is the author of The Golden Mean: Libertarian Politics, Conservative Values. Email: nelshultberg (at) aol.com