Hello from a former neo-con

[MGS]

Wow!

It is interesting to see some self proclaimed neo-cons reverting to true conservatism!

Bear in mind, the entire nation building/ preemption philosophy has it's roots in Woodrow Wilson's liberal/socialist ideals. Personally i never understood how so called conservatives (neo-cons) could claim to be Republicans.. it just blows my mind.

Anyway, good post.

 

[angelatc]

I think it's akin to the way that the Socialists became Nazis.

 

[MGS]

I think it's akin to the way that the Socialists became Nazis.

Good observation. I hadn't thought of that.

 

[lifeasariver]

I thought it would be interesting for all of us former neo-cons to share how we became disillusioned with the Republican Party and hooked on Ron Paul.

The Iraq war has got to be my biggest beef. I, like many many people, thought it was a good idea (God knows why) to invade Iraq. I bought into the whole idea that "every Iraqi yearns for western style democracy and values." Now, I'm not surprised that the Iraq war has gone so badly--of course it was going to go badly because they would view us as occupiers.

Secondly, I've stopped buying into the notion of the "war on terror." I do think that we need to arrest or kill those who perpetrated 9/11 (which we haven't yet--which is insane), but I don't think that "war" is the appropriate word and I also don't think you can have a war against a tactic.

Thirdly, I think the whole "war on drugs" has been a complete failure and shouldn't even be waged. It is an egregious assault on our civil liberties to have the federal government regulate the substances we choose to put into our bodies. It is especially insane to deny medical marijuana to sick people.

Fourth, I am upset about illegal immigration. President Bush has done almost nothing to secure the border and now seems to be mad at us for not wanting to accept his anmesty.

I guess I just don't buy into the whole neo-con agenda that we need to spread our values by force around the world and exploit illegal cheap labor from Mexico into this country to keep our economy running.

Ron Paul is my first choice, but truly I would rather have almost anybody else except a neo-con in office. I would prefer a libertarian, but if it came down to it, I'd choose a paleoconservative or a liberal democrat over a neo-con anyday.

adwads,

it is really useful to see how one's judgment and beliefs about political ideas are formed, shaped, and changed over time. I used to consider myself a liberal democrat but now I understand that liberal democrats are no better than the neocons. The root of all evil for both neocon and democrat ideas resides in their organic view of the society and their despise against individual freedom. Now I consider myself too a libertarian and realize more and more the genius of Madison and Jefferson when they were talking about a Republic. We are so brainwashed now that we consider "democracy" synonym with "liberty". Nothing further from the truth. Democrats today are just socialist, one step away from communism. Only one outcome is possible from both democrats and neocon ideologies, and that is statism and world government more or less Orwellian.

When I look at the debates I see the Genoveses and the Gambinoes coming together under one objective: the expansion of the state.

The way I see it, the only hope is Ron Paul; if he will not be the next president, the Founding Fathers' Republic will be forever buried in the depths of history, never to be revived again.

 

[MGS]

adwads,

it is really useful to see how one's judgment and beliefs about political ideas are formed, shaped, and changed over time. I used to consider myself a liberal democrat but now I understand that liberal democrats are no better than the neocons. The root of all evil for both neocon and democrat ideas resides in their organic view of the society and their despise against individual freedom. Now I consider myself too a libertarian and realize more and more the genius of Madison and Jefferson when they were talking about a Republic. We are so brainwashed now that we consider "democracy" synonym with "liberty". Nothing further from the truth. Democrats today are just socialist, one step away from communism. Only one outcome is possible from both democrats and neocon ideologies, and that is statism and world government more or less Orwellian.

When I look at the debates I see the Genoveses and the Gambinoes coming together under one objective: the expansion of the state.

The way I see it, the only hope is Ron Paul; if he will not be the next president, the Founding Fathers' Republic will be forever buried in the depths of history, never to be revived again.

Precisely! The neo-libs and neo-cons share the same end goals. They just go about it differently.

Ron Paul is pretty much the only hope!

 

[adwads]

I thought it would be interesting to revive this threat from June. This was my personal "confession" when I first joined the forums. I'm feeling nostaglic after the tea party. We've all come a long way...

 

[paulgirl]

Heck, let's start a Montana cave settlement. It can be the next Free State Project. (Though I figured NH would secede along with Vermont, and we'd then kick the liberals out of Massachussetts and eventually colonize all of New England.)

Can we pick somewhere warmer?

Why is it that the freedom-lovers always have to get banished to these God-forsaken cold places?? I suppose we always have Alaska if things get really bad.

 

[jdmyprez_deo_vindice]

Lincoln

I personally opened my eyes and put down the neo con banner when I was about to give a speech about Lincoln to a history preservation group. I went to jot down a few notes (I always wing the speeches and just jot down notes with dates, etc) and with every evil that the Lincoln administration gave us and with every violation of the Constitution they pulled off that was written down on that sheet, it became more and more obvious that I had voted for and was supporting a modern day Lincoln. That was the day that I turned my back becaus as a student of history I knew nothing good was coming from this administration and I refuse to be a part of it.

 

[newyearsrevolution08]

the one thing that Dr. Paul I think has made us all realize is all those stereotypes and "groups" that we were so proud to be apart of really does not matter in the grand scheme of things. "We the people" is starting to ring true in all of our hearts!

 

[automagic]

I never was a neocon, but here's part of my story anyway. My personality has always made the peacemaker or middleman among feuding friends and family, so my political views took a similar stance. Always playing devils advocate with even my own beliefs. For a while there, I thought I was liberal, because that's what us anti-Iraq-war folks were called. I'd rather take what I like from each side, and leave the stuff I don't like. I'm not an "undecided" person, I do know what I like. I consider myself a temp republican, for the sake the closed primaries only. I'll probably go to independent afterwards.

I was deployed in Uzbekistan when they "shock and awed" Iraq. I was skeptical from the get go about attacking Iraq, because from my recollection, they didn't do anything to us. I later learned that Saddam actually complied to UN demands a few weeks before we attacked. He began destroying the long range missiles that the UN found. He was cooperating to demands that even we don't follow. We attacked anyway. I've talked to some guys that were staging as much as 3 months prior. It was set in stone. Since then, nothing but more and more reasons to be against the war was surfacing. The only thing they have is "the surge is working". Even if it is working, it's a moot point. I suck at analogies off the top of my head, but that's like saying "A robber broke in and killed my family, but at least he mopped the floor!" Sigh.

After being back for almost a year, it was my turn to go to Iraq. Despite my feelings, I was kinda anxious to go. I wanted to see what it was like, plus I recently made SGT, and was all motivated and wouldn't think twice of leaving my squad. Getting away from Fort Bragg, where all we did was mow lawns and rake sand was also an incentive.

From time to time, I'll run into someone with views almost exactly like mine, but when they find out I was military, they immediately discount everything I say. They say I should have chose prison instead of Iraq. Then they say that wouldn't have even mattered, because people join the army to kill innocent people. They think military guys love Bush and are all rednecks. Such crap. It's just not black and white like that.

I'm disappointed with humanity.