The Tenants of Conservative Statist Socialism

For neo-conservative foreign policy, I’ll cite Emile El-Hokayem of the Henry L. Stimson Center:

The neo-conservative foreign policy goal of “universal” democracy is not a new one. Others once espoused such radical, worldwide ideals a long time ago in revolutionary France. They were called Jacobins. Jacobins “saw themselves as virtuous champions of universalist principles that required them to impose "liberty, equality, fraternity" not merely on France by a reign of terror, but also on the rest of Europe by force of arms.” (Jacobin to the Core, Paul Craig Roberts, January 25, 2005). The Jacobin’s Reign of Terror Roberts refers to was a wave of state terrorism that took France after the French Revolution. It involved jailing and killing those against the dictatorship known as the National Convention. Royalists were the main target, but eventually anyone who questioned the “revolution” was a target. The Reign of Terror killed at least 18 000 people, the higher estimates conclude 40 000 were killed by the tyranny. Bush’s second inaugural speech contained several near quotes of Jacobin propaganda. The evidence is mounting up that along with Trotsky, the neo-conservatives look up (if they know it or not) to the murderous and tyrannical Jacobins for their guidance in their worldwide goals.

Neo-conservatives, albeit most famous for their foreign policy, are also deeply rooted to putting government into every aspect of American life. Irving Kristol, in his neo-conservative manifesto “The Neoconservative Persuasion.”, says:

Oil. Revenge. Israel. Terrorism. These are some of the many theories from both the left and the right about why America went to war in Iraq. Some justify, some vilify. Despite the theories, just one has more evidence and greater chance of being correct in my eyes; and that is they went to war because of ideology.

History of Neo-conservatism

Neo-conservatism, or Conservative Statist Socialism, was born out of a fractioning of the New Left when several former liberals and statist socialists jumped ship and took on the ideals of Western conservatism, but kept with them the pro-state leftist methods learned during their New Left experiences. Unlike libertarians and anarcho-capitalsits, neo-conservatives believed in the ideas of the New Deal and of Trotskyite theorist Max Shachtman. Shachtman and the Socialist Party are said to have even influence the social policies of the Democratic Party and President Lyndon Johnson.

The left-wing Shachtmanites opposed both communist and capitalist imperialism, the right-wing Shachtmanites were feverishly anti-Stalinist and went as far as to side with the US government in the Vietnam War. The right-wing Shachtmanites eventually took over the Socialist Party and renamed it the Social Democrats USA. Members of the SDUSA were prominent in the US government during the 80s despite the false Reagan myth of his anti-leftist beliefs. One was Jeane Kirkpatrick; she labeled right-wing dictatorships as being merely "moderately repressive regimes". Reagan appointed her UN ambassador for four years. Second generation neo-conservatives, like Elliot Abrams, were less tolerant of right-wing dictatorships, and influenced some decisions in the White House, as seen in Reagan’s lack of support for Ferdinand Marcos when his regime crumbled under a popular revolt. Several former SDUSA members are in the current Bush administration, most notably Paul Wolfowitz, the so-called “mastermind” behind the Iraq War. 

Irving Kristol, the so-called “father of neo-conservatism”, started out as an anti-Communist socialist, but with LBJ’s push for the Great Society and the ever increasing “anti-American” counter-culture the Vietnam War produced he and other neo-conservatives became disillusioned with the left and began their slide to the right. In that slide, they became increasingly militarist, and also took Woodrow Wilson’s vision of spreading American values across the world, minus Wilson’s reliance on international bodies for those goals. As the Democrats turned left in their politics, the neo-conservatives turned to people like Ronald Reagan to satisfy their international interventionist goals, which he did with such actions as arming the Contras against the statist socialist Sandinistas. When Clinton entered office the neo-conservatives had little influence since the Soviet Union had fell and Clinton’s internationalist approach went against their unilateralist methods, although Clinton’s actions in Iraq and Kosovo, and the passing of the Iraq Liberation Act can be seen as neo-conservative endeavors, the conservative statist socialists did not return en force until the election of George W. Bush, and only came out publicly en force after 9/11.

Part 2: The Tenants of Conservative Statist Socialism. Coming soon.

As of today, I am still a student living at home, working a summer job for eight bucks an hour, paying tuition and dreaming of getting out on my own. Its every student’s wish to get out and get going with life, not caring about the future, but just wanting to get the future going as fast as possible, hoping it will take us to greener pastures. Students today usually walk out of post-secondary education with heavy debts to the government through student loans. Costs for post-secondary education in Ontario is sky high, and even for my relatively low-cost broadcasting course, one would be walking out of it with at least $10 000 spent over three years, and that’s just books and tuition. Most of my friends are from way out of town and they must rent out nearby houses or pay the extra couple thousand for a dorm on campus, so that gets them about $20 000 spent over three years. How fair… how moral is it to dump $20 000 (minimum) on a kid who just wants to break out of home and work for him/herself? Its not.

As always, government ties strings to everyone within its territory, and most don’t even notice that they’re being restrained. With students it’s a blow to both morale and to their economic situation when you have bureaucrats mailing constant notices about student loans, back taxes and other thieving schemes they’ve set up to further their agendas. Students, like the working-class, have the world thrown upon their shoulders unwillingly by society. Slogans proclaiming your class as the future for the State furthers the infection of political bad faith in those walking out into the harsh, violent real world. Those new to the real world don’t need to be coddled, or indoctrinated, or taxed, or pushed around. We students don’t need the State’s puppeteer pulling upon the oppressive strings they’ve given us, forcing our hands into our wallets to fork over our hard-earned labour to them. It’s bad enough that the capitalists deceive us with false advertising, price rigging and defective products. The entity that’s supposed to serve the people ends up, as it always does, suppressing the people.

The student should not have to worry about the government’s few thousand dollars. Last fiscal year the Canadian government had a $9 billion surplus. $9 BILLION. Where did this money go? To the defunct, eroded and imperialist Canadian military, to corporate tax cuts, to programs to make the politicians more popular and the people more dependant. The student is at the bottom of the working ladder, and this is where change should start. Government should not tie its strings upon the students; government should not hamper a student’s progress with loans, taxes and other petty tricks. The student, and all peoples, should have autonomy from these overbearing powers. If students are indeed the future of a nation, why burden them with capitalist notions of money and wage? The student, like the worker, needs empowerment, not enslavement. Education is work, and work for work’s sake is what we strive for. Working for work’s sake for the individual’s betterment without profiteering upon others. This is our goal.