Have The Neocons Already Lost The GOP In 2012?

By Steve Hynd

This, from Jom Lobe, veteran journalist for IPS news:

If there were ever any doubt that the three-year-old Foreign Policy Initiative (FPI) is a re-incarnation of the Project for the New American Century (PNAC), that should be dispelled by the publication of today�s �Open Letter to House Republicans� in which the 38 (virtually exclusively neo-conservative) signatories declare that they are �gravely concerned �by news reports that Congress may consider reducing or cutting funding for U.S. involvement in the NATO-led military operations against the oppressive regime of Libyan dictator Muammar al-Qaddafi.�

...Two points to stress about this letter: 1) these are the same people who brought us the war in Iraq and who were completely taken in by Ahmad Chalabi; and 2) it is directed exclusively at Republicans, a fact that bolsters the notion that, for the first time since 9/11, the neo-cons feel they risk losing control of the party�s foreign policy.

The latter point was also underlined by Ross Douthat�s excellent column in the New York Times today in which he contrasted the worldviews of Sens. Rand Paul and Marco Rubio and noted, correctly:

�Among conservatism�s foreign policy elite, Rubio�s worldview commands more support. But in the grass roots, it�s a different story.�

More from Lobe here as he notes that:

Just last week, the Pew Research Center released its latest poll on U.S. foreign policy attitudes which found that "the current measure of isolationist sentiment is among the highest recorded" in more than 50 years.

While, for much of the Bush administration, only one in four Republicans said the U.S. should "mind its own business" internationally, that percentage has nearly doubled since Bush left office. The Pew survey also found a 50 percent increase in Republican support for "reducing [U.S.] military commitments overseas" - from 29 percent in 2008, to 44 percent in May, 2011. Moreover, 56 percent of Republicans said they support reducing those commitments as a way to cut the budget deficit.

Similarly, Republicans appear to have lost virtually all interest in promoting Bush�s and the neoconservatives� "Freedom Agenda" abroad. According to the Pew poll, only one in ten Republicans said they believe democracy-promotion should be a long-term U.S. priority.

My own view is here. Basically, I think the Republicans are doing what the Dems did: they hate America's wars only as long as the other side's guy is in the White House but as soon as their own guy is running the American hegemony, they swivel on a dime and desert their isolationist, anti-war stances in droves.