Will the Neocons Strike Back?

WILL THE NEOCONS STRIKE BACK?

Vivek Ramaswamy has a favorite term for his enemies on foreign policy: “neocon,” short for neoconservative.

“I want to be careful to avoid making the mistakes from the neocon establishment of the past,” he told moderator Lester Holt during the third Republican presidential debate, held earlier this month in Miami.

He went on to brand both Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley “Dick Cheney in three-inch heels.”

In the Republican Party revolutionized by former President Donald J. Trump, “neocon” has become something of a slur. Men like Cheney, George W. Bush, and John McCain, major figures in the GOP at the dawn of the Global War on Terror, command little respect from voters exhausted by multiple wars in the Middle East.

But the roots of neoconservatism run deeper than Bush Jr.’s presidency to a movement among hawkish liberals during the Cold War. Many started out as followers of the communist Leon Trotsky before veering to the right.

Along with figures influenced by the Bush Sr. administration, they continue to have considerable clout in Washington through everything from think tanks such as the American Enterprise Institute to publications like the Bulwark. Many if not most are anti-Trump—but they’re uneasy with Joe Biden and the Democrats as well.

As Haley meets with major donors and gains strength in polls, it’s worth pausing to ask if neoconservatives are poised to recapture some of the power they lost in Trump’s Republican Party.

Former Trump adviser Steve Bannon doesn’t think they stand a chance.

“You can’t really win a Republican primary or even really be competitive being a neocon. Impossible,” he told The Epoch Times.

Bannon, Col. Douglas Macgregor, and other influential figures in the America First movement that Trump inspired spoke with The Epoch Times about the neoconservative streak in American politics and what it means for 2024.

So did the neoconservative writer Joshua Muravchik.

Muravchik made it clear he doesn’t like Trump or, for that matter, Ramaswamy.

“He reminds me of something out of a horror movie,” he said of the Millennial businessman.

He’s holding out hope for Haley.

Bannon and Macgregor, meanwhile, said that Haley’s foreign policy views are downstream of big money.

“Purely American interests are not actually represented in Washington,” Macgregor said.

“I call her neocon Nikki. She never saw a war she didn’t like,” Bannon said.

With the onset of the Israel-Hamas war, some fear the United States could become embroiled in a conflict with Iran, particularly under the leadership of Haley or another politician with neoconservative sympathies.

Macgregor believes a U.S. war with Iran would “unhinge the Middle East.”

“We should not be attacking anyone,” he added.

Muravchik, known for his consistent advocacy of bombing Iran, has a different perspective.

He said he hoped Israel would take out Iran’s nuclear weapon development facilities—but he believes the United States would be better suited to take the lead.

“I think it should be our job,” he said. “We’re the world peacekeepers.”

Depending on who secures the nominations in both parties, 2024 could be another referendum on America’s orientation toward the rest of the planet. Is the U.S.A. still the “World Police” of two decades ago? If so, where does that leave “purely American interests”?

—Nathan Worcester

RFK Jr.’s WAR CHEST

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. raised millions ahead of 2024. His campaign is already spending it to put together what could be the most notable independent presidential campaign since Ross Perot’s 1992 run that captured 18 percent of the popular vote.

Kennedy, since announcing an independent rather than Democratic Party run in October, has rallied in 13 key states including Georgia, Texas, and Florida. The key for the campaign now, according to Kennedy 24 Press Secretary Stefanie Spear, is getting on the ballot in every state.

That will include, she said, setting up offices, holding rallies, and finding volunteers. All of that, of course, will require serious cash.

The upstart candidate and member of the politically famous Kennedy clan had more than $6.1 million on hand at the end of September, according to Federal Election Commission filings. That put him ahead of several GOP hopefuls including Vivek Ramaswamy and Chris Christie.

Along with his own campaign fund —Team Kennedy— RFK Jr. has a super PAC backing him named American Values 2024 which had about $9.8 million on hand at the end of September. American Values 2024’s biggest booster was Timothy Mellon, a Mellon family heir who previously backed Donald Trump. Mellon gave $5 million in April.

Tony Lyons, a leader of American Values 2024 previously said he believes the super PAC can raise as much as $100 million by the end of 2023.

For now, Spear said about 30 percent of campaign spending will have to go toward private security. The campaign bemoans its candidate’s lack of Secret Service protection.

The Secret Service isn’t required to provide protection until 120 days before the general election. Only Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and a cadre of congressmen can decide if RFK Jr.—or any candidate—will get protection from the G-men any earlier.

—Austin Alonzo

CONGRESS IN DECEMBER

Congress went back into session yesterday and the fireworks could begin as early as today.

The House may vote on the motion to expel Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) any day now. Santos’s alleged misdeeds were so well documented in the House Ethics Committee report two weeks ago that Santos seems likely to get the boot.

The hitch? Voting to expel would cost Republicans a seat in the already too-close-for-comfort House. And there’s no guarantee that another Republican would win the special election to fill it. This vote will require a two-thirds majority to pass.

Next up is the Senate’s vote on a $106 billion supplemental military aid package for Ukraine, Israel, and allies in the Indo-Pacific region. That could come as early as next week.

The hitch there is that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (R-N.Y.) isn’t happy about Republicans’ demand that border security measures be added to the bill. In a letter to colleagues, Schumer called that the “biggest holdup” to getting more money and materiel to U.S. allies.

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) told reporters in Sarasota, Florida, today that he is “confident and optimistic” that Congress will get the supplemental passed. But! “If there is to be additional assistance to Ukraine … we have to also work in changing our own border policy.”

“We owe that to the American people,” Johnson added.

The Senate is also expected to pull the plug on a hold Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) has placed on more than 350 military promotions. Tuberville has been using the tactic for months to pressure the Pentagon to change its policy of granting leave and reimbursing transportation expenses for service members to have an abortion.

Schumer will call a vote on a measure that would allow all the promotions to be voted on at one time sometime “in the coming weeks,” he wrote.

The National Defense Authorization Act is headed to a conference committee. This $886 billion spending bill funds the U.S. military. The House and Senate agree on the amount. It’s the social programming that’s at issue. Schumer pledged to work with House and Senate top guns to get this deal done before the end of 2023.

Don’t forget FISA. This law governs intelligence gathering, including, in some instances, on American citizens. Section 702 has been so badly used by the FBI that some in Congress want to let it expire at the end of the year.

That’s not likely, according to a number of lawmakers. Look for Congress to make some major revisions to this law before the holiday break.

—Lawrence Wilson 

WHAT’S HAPPENING

1. President Biden and First Lady Jill Biden travel to Atlanta to attend a tribute service for former First Lady Rosalynn Carter. The services will be held at the Glenn Memorial United Methodist Church on the campus of Emory University. Biden will then travel to Denver, Colorado, for a campaign reception.
2. Argentina’s firebrand conservative President-elect Javier Milei visits Washington and is due to meet with White House and State Department officials, and leaders from the International Monetary Fund.
3. The Senate Finance Committee holds a hearing to consider the nomination of former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley to be Biden’s head of the Social Security Administration.

BOOKMARKS

As a companion to Nathan Worcester’s deep dive into Neocon vs. MAGA, check out Christopher Caldwell’s timely think piece in First Things about how domestic policy went off the rails in the 1990s. Key quote: “Government is about rulers’ relationship to the ruled—it is constitutional accountability. Governance is about rulers’ relationship to their projects—it is business accountability.”

Speaking of populism, Lily Zhou of The Epoch Times has the latest on the aftermath of the riots in Ireland last weekend. Meanwhile, Aris Roussinos of UnHerd wonders aloud whether the huge influx of immigrants into the United Kingdom during the past two years will spark similar unrest on the big island.

Step aside, John Kerry, there’s a new globe-trotting carbon emitter in town: the New York Post reports on a study that found Jeff Bezos’s superyacht produces at least 7,154 tons of greenhouse gasses per year. That means the climate hawk’s big boat has a carbon footprint almost 450 times as large as the average American household.

With all the words being spilled about Israel’s war against Hamas, be sure to read the personal story of a woman who survived the deadly attack on a music festival that began the October massacre of Israeli citizens. Jackson Richman of The Epoch Times delivers the report.

For a macro view of the festival attack, check this wide-angle piece from the Associated Press.

Got guns? More Americans do according to Michael Clements of The Epoch Times. He files this report on the rate of increase in gun ownership—and the reasons why.

Not everyone is thrilled about that news. Here’s a summary from ABC News on where each presidential candidate stands on the issue of gun ownership.