Photos by Gage Skidmore: John Bolton, 2017; William Kristol, 2017; Lic.: CC BY-SA 2.0
The term neoconservative has long sparked confusion and controversy. Jonathan Keeperman, founder of Passage Press and known as ‘Lomez,’ attempts to demystify neoconservatism, tracing its roots and evolution. Understanding this ideological movement is essential for conservatives today, as it has profoundly shaped the modern right—often to its detriment.
Keeperman identifies neoconservatism as an ideology born from disillusioned leftists in the 1960s, intellectuals like Irving Kristol and Norman Podhoretz. These thinkers abandoned the revolutionary zeal of the New Left in favor of more pragmatic, data-driven critiques of social dysfunction. As Keeperman notes, “You go back and read through this stuff… and you can easily imagine these articles running in Free Press or Quillette.” Their work provided a veneer of intellectual sophistication to the right, addressing issues like welfare dependency and cultural decay with empirical rigor.
Yet, from the beginning, neoconservatism was a fundamentally alien presence within the broader conservative movement. Keeperman highlights its origins in fear and its commitment to preserving a bureaucratically managed welfare state, albeit more efficiently than the left. This ethos clashed with the traditional right’s focus on first principles and constitutional restraint. The neoconservative emphasis on “moral universalism,” rooted in Trotskyist impulses, prioritized global ideological crusades over the national interest, setting the stage for later foreign policy disasters.
Keeperman captures this tension, asking, “Would their posture of moderate pragmatism at home ever come into conflict with their revolutionary moralism abroad?” Indeed, it did. The neocons’ zeal for interventionism, exemplified by figures like John Bolton and Bill Kristol, alienated populist conservatives and squandered goodwill earned during the Reagan years. Their anti-populist tendencies created a rift, leaving neoconservatism increasingly isolated.
Keeperman’s analysis underscores the reason conservatives must remain vigilant against movements prioritizing ideological abstraction over the nation’s preservation. The lessons of neoconservatism’s rise and fall are ones we cannot afford to forget.
This post originally appeared at https://www.phyllisschlafly.com/constitution/what-is-a-neocon/
