Neoconservatism, Donald Trump and Liz Cheney

 As the political world continues to grapple with the excommunication and fascinating status of Rep. Liz Cheney (Facts-WY), I think we need to understand how Cheney got here.  It has to do with neoconservatism.  Once upon a time, that was a curse word to the left, but like many political curse words, it has an actual meaning.  It is simply that few know the meaning.  So, let's have ourselves a little (one-way) discussion of neoconservatism, its tenets, and how it put Liz Cheney on the side of right, and against the entire Republican Party Church of Donald Trump.

Neoconservatism.  Think about the word for a moment.  It is actually a rather stupid work.  Neo-.  New.  Conserve.  To preserve.  Defense of the old.  So, um... what the fuck?!  Like much of our political language, it is stupid terminology, and I would fight against it if I could, but at this point, it is little more than a label for a set of beliefs, so here is the set of beliefs referenced.  There is an idea in political science-- the democratic peace hypothesis.  The notion is the idea that democracies don't fight each other.  Thus, if you observe a war, at least one of the countries in the dyad will be non-democratic.

Is it true?  If so, why?  These are both fraught questions.  The empirical support for the democratic peace hypothesis is mixed, but if you think about the big wars, they do tend to involve at least one non-democracy, so there's that.  It's not completely blinkered.  The harder question is whether or not democracy is the causal factor.  And that's the important one, because belief in the democratic peace hypothesis has led to a core policy prescription:  spread democracy.

And that sounds good, right?

So... how?

Depends on how bad you want it.

Ly.  Badly.

What are the consequences of spreading democracy, and what are the consequences of accepting non-democratic regimes around the world?  If the consequences of non-democratic regimes are sufficiently bad, and the consequences of democracy are sufficiently good, then you should pay a hefty price for democracy.  You may even be willing to topple non-democratic regimes, through war if necessary, for the sake of spreading democracy.  In the long term, the democratic peace hypothesis says that you'll have fewer wars.  It is an investment in peace.  That's the neoconservative interpretation of the democratic peace hypothesis.  Topple non-democratic regimes, though war if necessary, and in the long run, you'll be better off.  You will even have less war.

I'm not going to get into a thing about the democratic peace hypothesis, nor the critiques of neoconservative interpretations of it.  The point is merely that this was the basis of neoconservative foreign policy in the 2000s.  Dick Cheney was a true believer, as was...

Liz.

You know who doesn't believe in neoconservative foreign policy?  A lot of people.  The left rejected neoconservative foreign policy because they rejected the method-- war.  (They also pointedly refused to understand the ideology, but that's another matter.)  There was another group, who identified as "paleoconservatives," who refused to eat bread products and adopted an isolationist approach to foreign policy.  They rejected activist foreign policy in general, and de facto sided with the peaceniks.  But you know who else rejected neoconservatism?

People who reject democracy itself.  Like... Donald... J. ... Trump.  Who doesn't even want democracy in this country, much less around the world.

And now that the Republican Party is a Trump cult, not only has it abandoned the neoconservatism of 20 years ago, it has abandoned the belief in democracy that was central to that ideology.  Yes, Dick Cheney was an ardent small-d democrat.  As is Liz.

If you want to know why Liz Cheney is on the side of light right now, it's because she is a neoconservative.  A true believer.  And core to that ideology is a belief in democracy.  Abroad, and here.  The rest of the party?  They never understood, nor cared about the principles, and they'll sacrifice anything Trump demands to their living god.  Cheney, though, has actual, coherent beliefs.

Ideology gets a bad name.  It shouldn't.  This is what ideology looks like.  Lack of ideology?  That's what you see when you look at a shitweasel like Kevin McCarthy or Elise Stefanik.

And music.  Jeff Lang is one of the many guitarists who puts peoples' "greatest guitarist" lists to shame.  His fingerpicking and slide work are so far beyond basically anyone you've ever heard as to turn every such list into a joke.  This guy is just from another planet.  That planet being called "Australia."  Anyway, "I Want To Believe."  Here's an over-the-top live version.  The studio cut is from Chimeradour.