Maybe I'm just not very bright, but can someone please explain NEOCON?

Answer 1

Neoconservatism is a political current and ideology, mainly in the United States, which emerged in the 1960s, coalesced in the 1970s, and has had a significant presence in the administrations of Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush. It is today most closely identified with a set of foreign policy positions and goals: a hawkish stance during the Cold War and, more recently, in various conflicts in the Middle East. At times there have been distinct neoconservative positions in domestic policies; in particular, the first generation of neoconservatives were generally less opposed to "big government" and to social spending than other U.S. conservatives of the time, though they also called for significant restructuring of the goals and methods of many social programs.

The prefix neo- refers to two ways in which neoconservatism was new: many of the movement's founders, originally liberals, Democrats or from socialist backgrounds, were new to conservatism; neoconservatism was also a comparatively recent strain of conservative thought, which derived from a variety of intellectual roots in the decades following World War II. While some (such as Irving Kristol) have described themselves as "neoconservatives", the term is used today more by opponents and critics of this political current than by its adherents, some of whom reject even the claim that neoconservatism is an identifiable current of American political thought.

Within American conservatism, the foreign policy of neoconservatism is particularly contrasted to isolationism, especially as found in paleoconservatism. While the neoconservatives share some of the Christian right critique of a purely secular society, this is not as central to their politics as it is for the Christian right, nor are the neoconservative prescriptions always the same as those of the Christian right.

Neoconservatism is associated with periodicals such as Commentary and The Weekly Standard and some of the foreign policy initiatives of think tanks such as the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) and the Project for the New American Century (PNAC). Neoconservative journalists, pundits, policy analysts, and politicians, often dubbed "neocons" by supporters and critics alike, have been credited with (or blamed for) their influence on U.S. foreign policy, especially under the administrations of Ronald Reagan (1981-1989) and George W. Bush (2001-present).

Answer 2

Neocon stands for neoconservative.

The neocon moment came out of the Cold War. The neocon stance is for a welfare state that is anti-Soviet. The neocons primarily consisted of leftists who had shifted to the right.

Since of the fall of the Soviet Union, there haven't really been any true neoconservative; however, the term has come up in modern times. The modern usage of neocon has been used (incorrectly) to identify any conservative with an aggressive foreign policy. This new definition is likely due to the aggressiveness of the neocons towards the former Soviet Union.

Answer 3

Neoconservative means "new conservative". The real neocons (Kristol, Wolfowitz, etc) are former Jewish liberals who grew weary of the old American foreign policy that was based on realpolitik (i.e. we sometimes have to support unsavory characters to avoid more unsavory situations- witness Iraq today versus Iraq under Saddam Hussein).

They started suggesting a more proactive foreign policy because they felt the old realpolitik was getting the world nowhere. The neoconservatives big idea was to warm-over a strategy from the era of the Crusades, whereby we actually go around the world killing men, women & children, raping & pillaging in order to spread democracy.

This idea didn't work back when we tried to spread Christianity- it backfired and the world hated us because of our holier-than-thou imperialism. The same mistake is being made again, today!

This is why some conservatives of the old school such as William F. Buckley & George Will admit the neocons were wrong. The world is more dangerous today because of their severely misguided foreign policy.

Francis Fukuyama, professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, is the highest profile neoconservative to realize their agenda was a grave error.

Quoting an excerpt from "Why shouldn't I change my mind?" by Francis Fukuyama in the LA Times: {In our ever-more-polarized political debate, it appears that it is now wrong to ever change your mind, even if empirical evidence from the real world suggests you ought to. I find this a strange and disturbing conclusion.}

Answer 4

Neoconservatism is a political current and ideology, mainly in the United States, which emerged in the 1960s, coalesced in the 1970s, and has had a significant presence in the administrations of Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush. It is today most closely identified with a set of foreign policy positions and goals: a hawkish stance during the Cold War and, more recently, in various conflicts in the Middle East. At times there have been distinct neoconservative positions in domestic policies; in particular, the first generation of neoconservatives were generally less opposed to "big government" and to social spending than other U.S. conservatives of the time, though they also called for significant restructuring of the goals and methods of many social programs.

The prefix neo- refers to two ways in which neoconservatism was new: many of the movement's founders, originally liberals, Democrats or from socialist backgrounds, were new to conservatism; neoconservatism was also a comparatively recent strain of conservative thought, which derived from a variety of intellectual roots in the decades following World War II. While some (such as Irving Kristol) have described themselves as "neoconservatives", the term is used today more by opponents and critics of this political current than by its adherents, some of whom reject even the claim that neoconservatism is an identifiable current of American political thought

Answer 5

Technically, I liked "coragryph's" answer. I was surprised to read that "ideogenetic" was alive and helping to fight the Great Crusades.

Anyway....

Neocon is usually used today to denote anybody who doesn't want to go along with the Communist/Socialist agenda that is enveloping the world. They (those who like to use the term neocon) are a bunch of cry babies who hate the thought that their money can't save the poor, or they fall into the group of people who realize they don't have enough skill to earn a living, so they support a system that let's them blabber their mouth all day about the evils of Capitalism (the "Neocons") instead.

Answer 6

Main Entry: neo·con·ser·va·tive
Pronunciation: "nE-O-k&n-'s&r-v&-tiv
Function: noun
1 : a former liberal espousing political conservatism
2 : a conservative who advocates the assertive promotion of democracy and U.S. national interest in international affairs including through military means
- neo·con·ser·va·tism /-v&-"ti-z&m/ noun
- neoconservative adjective

Answer 7

Neo-conservative.

For a long time, the conservative party supported a platform of small government, and reduced federal spending. This led them to also be referred to as fiscal conservatives.

Recently, in the past decade or so, a different subset of the conservative movement has emerged. They see the advantages of having a large central government, as a way to advance the rest of they conservative social agenda.

To distinguish them from the original fiscal conservatives, they were referred to as neo (new) conservatives. Which got shortened to neo-cons.

Answer 8

I've asked this question myself more than once, but I've never really gotten a straight answer.

Answer 9

"neo-con" is a bullshit buzzword liberals use to describe people they hate (usually Bush, people who support the war in Iraq or Israel, who are against gun control etc.), unaware that the word has no clear definition and that this word, along with words like "pundit" and "demogogue" are all words that expose morons who pretend they are experts in international politics and economics just from watching Michael Moore movies for what they really are.

Answer 10

basically a conservative...