The American Spectator

AmSpecBlog

McCain as Imperialist Dog

By J. Peter Freire on 3.10.08 @ 1:12PM

Colleague Matt Welch of Reason gives me a reason (finally) to watch Bill Moyers's show. He sheds light on McCain's faith in government as the tool for greatness, and has a fascinating historical take on when conservatives became Republicans first:

I'm not certain if I agree, re: the movement's concern about imperialism. Conservatives were certainly interested in fighting the Soviet Union where necessary, and Johnson's escalation of Vietnam was seen as a scary mutation of what was originally an outsourced. fight. They didn't come to Nixon's defense because they were discarding their own philosophy, but instead because Nixon was being attacked for his lifelong anti-Communist stances, including the discovery of Alger Hiss. The fight was about what to do about Communism, and at its head stood a flawed man that conservatives had to nonetheless support.

topics:
Foreign Policy, Books, Law, Communism