Daily Loaf

This past friday, the “godfather of neoconservatism” Irving Kristol died after complications with lung cancer.  He was 89.

As a writer and editor, Kristol’s ideas had a profound affect on American politics and ideological identities, influencing major political figures such as George W. Bush.

Coined by notable socialist Michael Harrington, the term “neoconservatism” referred to a new brand of conservative thought that rejected the liberal programs of Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society, favoring instead a limited welfare state in the tradition of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Motivated primarily by their Christian faith, Neocons went against traditional conservatism by favoring a bigger government for the cause of social justice and supporting the poor (hence the label “compassionate conservatism”).

Writer Michael Lind, himself a former neoconservative, claims that many neoconservatives preferred to be called “paleoliberals”, as the original movement in the 1970s were comprised mostly of disillusioned liberals and Democrats. Although now primarily identified as a Republican ideology, neoconservatism has deep roots in the political Left.

Kristol himself famously described a follower of this movement to be “a liberal who has been mugged by reality.”

Neoconservatism became a popular subject in 2001, when the Post-9/11 Bush Administration had a radical shift in policies towards the ideology. Neoconservative thought would dominate the Bush Administration’s policies for the remainder of his time in office. Bush’s interventionist foreign policy was praised by Neocons, and it was the ideology’s advocacy of welfare programs that lead to Bush’s support of Medicare Part D, offering prescription drug benefits. It also motivated Bush to support the bi-partisan No Child Left Behind program.

Irving Kristol was awarded the Medal of Freedom by President Bush in 2002, who described him as “a wide-ranging thinker whose writings have helped transform America’s political landscape.”

Kristol is survived by his wife, historian Gertrude Himmelfarb, and his two children, Elizabeth Nelson and William Kristol, founder of the Neocon think-tank Project for the New American Century and editor of The Weekly Standard.

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