Is the word "neo-con" used for criticism or description?

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by Blake Butler

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I prefer to call them Reagan Republicans, or Demopublican Republicrats. The Republican Party was destroyed, true Conservatism is almost non-existent.

Neo-Con is a description. It is what it is, and it is undeniable. If Neo conservatives take offense to this label, perhaps they should resort to the original Conservative Republican platform and ideals. The ideas which made American so great and powerful in almost an eyeblink. In 1962, Ronald Reagan switched his party affiliation from Democratic to Republican. After being defeated for the Republican nomination in 1968 and 1976, Ronald finally won the Republican ticket and, unfortunately, the White House.

Neo Conservatism were born.

I'm strongly opposed to the Reagan Republican, or "Neo conservative". Reagan is one of the most highly celebrated "Conservative Republicans" of all time, yet he came from the Democratic party. He's not a true Conservative and he's not a true Republican. He brought with him, from the Democratic side of the aisle, big spending and failed Liberal policy. As a Libertarian and someone who strongly believes in the American Constitution, Civil Liberties, small central government, personal choice and strong local government, I am horrified to know the once-fiscally Conservative Republican base embraced this man [Ronald Reagan] and have made him into an iconic figure.

Conservative Republicans used to cut spending and end pointless wars like Vietnam and Korea. Conservative Republicans used to be opposed to nation building and entangling alliances. Conservative Republicans used to be strongly opposed to outsourcing jobs and waging war on drugs and personal choice.
Conservative Republicans used to be opposed to the surveillance of the American People.

Reagan went against almost every value and ideal Conservatism stood for.

Topplebush.com has put together a list of the monumental political blunders committed by Ronald Reagan and his failed administration. I'm opposed to bias websites, but these are indisputable facts: Take a look:

*Had it not been for Reagan busting the air traffic controllers union, 9/11 might not have succeeded because former union air traffic controllers would have been better able to spot and isolate the hijacked planes from the others on their screen so they could have been intercepted BEFORE they hit their targets.
*Nuclear weapon proliferation and escalation with the Soviet Union wouldn't have continued as long had it not been for Reagan's insistence on the missile shield.
*Contributed to a vast expansion of corporate theft and illegal behavior by disabling governmental functions and regulatory agencies that would have prevented these things.
*Contributed to a general distrust and dislike of government by devaluing civic participation thus discouraging good people from participating in public service.
*Allowed the EPA to unravel laws that protect the environment. If you are breathing bad air and drinking contaminated water, it's Reagan's fault. So is the increase in global warming.
*Started the trend where reporters are afraid to question or contradict the president for fear of losing access.
*One reason Osama bin Laden felt emboldened enough to attack us on 9/11 was because Reagan didn't do anything when the Marine barracks in Lebanon were bombed in 1983 by suicide bombers killing 241 US servicemen. There was no serious retaliation for the Beirut bombing from the Americans. Instead, the Marines were moved offshore where they could not be targeted. On February 7, 1984, President Reagan ordered the Marines to begin withdrawal from Lebanon.
*Because he asked for and got fast track authority for trade bills while removing Congress from negotiating these, we are now shipping out hundreds of billions of dollars per year to buy consumer goods from China and other countries and we are spending hundreds of billions of dollars buying our energy from elsewhere so these countries can use our own money to buy our country and our debt. And because of this our trade deficits have skyrocketed and American jobs are being moved overseas.
* The U. S. hostages taken by Iran were deliberately and illegally allowed to remain hostages for much longer than necessary in order to help Reagan beat Carter.
* We are more dependent upon foreign oil than ever before because Reagan reversed Carter's demands for energy independence. He even removed the solar panels from the White House showing his contempt for saving energy.
* We are now the largest net debtor nation and the largest importer of goods because of his trade policies and Reagonomics.
* Because of Reagan our country now meets the definition of a Third World nation.
* Wasted billions of taxpayer dollars that are still being wasted on failed Star Wars systems.
* His policies helped bring about the ruination of thousands of good companies with resulting loss of jobs that were destroyed by leveraged buyouts financed by junk bonds.
* His lack of oversight and regulation created billions of dollars in taxpayer losses from failed Savings and Loans and their resulting bailouts.
* His lack of oversight, outright fraud, and mismanagement created billions of dollars in taxpayer losses from HUD scandals.
* The rush by Reagan to be associated with a successful space shuttle mission, led to the hasty and failed inspections of the O-rings that caused the Challenger blow-up.
* Reagan's 11th commandment of never speaking ill of fellow Republicans has contributed to the extreme partisanship we now see operating in government.
* Helped fuel a culture of greed and extreme avarice.
* His support and coverup of Iran contra affair led to a massive increase in cocaine and cocaine use in this country while illegally arming the Mullahs in Iran.
* Helped reverse decades of social reform policies in Latin America by nurturing savage and brutal free market dictators like Pinochet in Chile.
* Drove down employee wages by increasing the labor pool in an attempt to destroy unions and the Democratic party while turning a blind eye to employers who hired illegal aliens.
* Reagan provided many of the weapons and military hardware Saddam used against the Kurds and other groups and he helped Saddam get international loans, restored formal relations in 1984 and secretly provided Iraq with intelligence and military support, so Reagan helped to prop up this tyrant.
* Promoted the theory of 'trickle down' economics and 'rising tide raises all boats' thus neglecting any efforts to reduce poverty or close increasing income gaps. -from viewer in Columbia, SC
* Ignored the AIDS crisis til Rock Hudson was dying; prevented testing of blood supply and impeded the conduct of effective nationwide educational programs. -from GrantGrandma, Columbia, SC
* Nurtured Pinochet the murdering thug dictator of Chile to institute a savage free-market system that reversed decades of social welfare reforms.
* Responsible for today's out of control homeless population. He closed all the federal mental institutions and the states were unable to absorb them, so the mentally ill population ended up on the streets. -from viewer Sage, Atlanta, GA
* Facilitated the barbarity that raged through Central America in the 1980s, claiming the lives of tens of thousands of peasants, clergy and students, men, women and children...the Central American violence was always more about entrenched ruling elites determined to retain their privileges against impoverished peasants, including descendants of the region's Maya Indians, seeking social, political and economic reforms. -taken from Robert Parry at consortiumnews.com, "Reagan & the Salvadoran Baby Skulls", January 30, 2007.
* Wasted millions of taxpayer money only to find out that pornography isn't harmful to most people.
* Put the country into more debt than all of the previous presidents before him combined.
* Thanks to Reagan's policies the U.S. has become the leading exporter of raw materials and the leading importer of finished goods.
* Set the U.S. on a course to make 9/11 happen by undoing Carter's sound and successful energy conservation policies allowing our dependence on exported oil to grow much faster ever since.
* Popularized the infamous (and now commonly used Republican) defense: "I do not recall". -from viewer Lisa, SD
* Presided over a corrupt administration: 32 members were convicted of crimes, of which two were overturned on appeal. Fourteen of these were related to Iran/Contra, sixteen to the HUD housing scandal, and two to the illegal lobbying of the Administration by ex-officials. Compare this to the Clinton administration: Zero officials indicted.
* The Iran/Contra scandal was a deliberate act in violation of and disrespect for the law by Reagan and others in his administration and was an impeachable offense.
* The collapse of the Soviet Union had little to nothing to do with Reagan's policies nor him making the Soviets spend more on defense as portrayed by those who have contributed to these myths. Instead the collapse of the Soviet Union had already started in the early 1970's and was rooted in the failings of the system created by Lenin and Stalin.
* In his first term he acted just like Bush with the same disasterous results: He championed U.S. military prowess, doubled the military budget, scorned arms control, the UN and international law. Goaded by neocons he launched a war to overthrow Nicaragua's Sandinista government. These policies divided us from our alllies.
* Recklessly put Marines into harm's way in a civil war in Lebanon where they were blown up in a terrorist bombing and then invaded hapless Grenada to distract the country from his mistakes.
* By the end of his presidency, 138 administration officials had been convicted, indicted, or subjected to official investigations for official misconduct and/or criminal violation-more than in any other prior administration.
* His deregulation of the savings and loan industry produced the costliest financial scandal in U.S. history with a bailout costing taxpayers more than $130 billion.
* He ended Republican support for choice, campaigned against equal rights for women, and perfected race-baiting politics, packed the court with ideologues, all of which contributed to driving the country apart.
* His voodoo economic policies of top-end tax cuts, increased military spending and balanced budgets produced the worst recession since the Great Depression, growing inequality and record deficits.
* His trade policies laid waste American manufacturing.
* His assault on labor and opposition to the minimum wage contributed to a decade in which wages stagnated while CEO salaries soared.
* Caused 10 million Americans to lose their jobs because of plant closings and layoffs from 1983-1988, with half of those who found work forced into lower wage jobs.
* His economic recovery was made possible because it was purchased on credit as the U.S was transformed into the greatest debtor nation.
* Reagan tried as President to weaken the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Reagan was a racist. His campaign for President deliberately chose kickoff at the Neshoba County Fair in Meshoba County, Mississipi, a white-supremacist stronghold, to gather votes from white bigots. Meshoba County was a place where several activists had been murdered not that long ago, shot to death by whites enraged at the very idea of people trying to secure the rights of African-Americans.
* He opposed a national holiday for the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
* He tried to get rid of the federal ban on tax exemptions for private schools that practiced racial discrimination.
* In 1988, he vetoed a bill to expand the reach of federal civil rights legislation - a veto that Congress overrode.
* Reagan also vetoed the imposition of sanctions on the apartheid regime in South Africa. Congress overrode that veto, too.
* While the rich got much richer, there was little sustained economic improvement for most Americans. By the late 1980s, middle-class incomes were barely higher than they had been a decade before - and the poverty rate had actually risen. -see Paul Krugman reference #6 below
* Like productivity, American business prestige [during Reagan's presidency] didn't stage a comeback until the mid-1990s, when the U.S. began to reassert its technological and economic leadership. -see Paul Krugman reference #6 below
* Reagan - the fiscal conservative - never balanced a budget. Reagan - the fiscal conservative - never came close to balancing a budget. Reagan - the fiscal conservative - never even came remotely close to even thinking about balancing a budget. So, how did Reagan pay for this? He mired the country in a mammoth explosion of Federal debt. He nearly tripled the national debt. -from Hale Stewart see reference #7 below
* Yes, it's the deregulatory 1980s, not the Swinging Sixties, that paved the way for serial killing on CBS [ie Dexter]. Before then, networks might have been worried about things like what message they were projecting, community service, the Fairness Doctrine, and other old-fashioned stuff that the Federal Communications Commission cared about. By the time the Reagan White House was done dismantling the FCC's oversight powers, all that the commissioners cared about were naughty words and wardrobe malfunctions. -see reference #8 below.
* Murdered 1/2 a million Americans by allowing an Ebola Type Virus (HIV) to run rampant in the gay community. The AIDS crisis was 5 years old before Ronnie publicly said the word AIDS. -from a viewer
* Contributed to the decay of the infrastructure due to lack of maintenance. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." -from viewer Jack, in San Francisco, CA

Ronald Reagan has spurned big-spending, war mongering Neo Conservatives such as George W. Bush, George H.W. Bush senior, Senator John McCain and Mayor Rudolph Guiliani. Power hungry men, with Global Government and the destruction of American sovereignty on their minds.

The term Reagan Republican and Neo Conservative is a term in which I wish I didn't have to use. True Conservatism rarely exists in this day and age, seen only in men like Ron Paul and Barry Goldwater Jr.

If only people weren't swayed by rousing speech-makers, and those who come across as "tough". It would do this country a great Service to start paying greater attention to political records, integrity, job qualifications and education.

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