NEWARK, N.J. — Neoconservatism has served as a badge of unity for those in the Bush administration who have advocated an aggressive foreign policy, massive military spending, disdain for international law and institutions, an assault on the welfare state and a return to "traditional values."
So, with the Bush era winding down in a tailspin of plummeting popularity and high-level resignations, has the neoconservative movement, too, run its course?
Neoconservatism began with different premises from traditional forms of conservatism. Because reforms can become part of "our" heritage, traditional conservatives can adapt to change, even taking credit for negotiating the connection between past and future. By contrast, neoconservatism's adherents are unconcerned with what Edmund Burke called the ties that bind "the dead, the living and the yet unborn." On the contrary, they are revolutionaries or, rather, "counter-revolutionaries" intent upon remaking America and the world.