The Neoconservatives: The Men Who Are Changing America's Politics

...Steinfels has tried to be fair-minded...

...Not really, but it is not easy to suggest a better one...

...Its author, Peter Steinfels, is the Executive Editor of Commonweal and an avowed if respectful opponent of the neoconservative orientation...

...And there are those, like neoconserva-tives, who feel they must reach beyond contemporary liberalism to preserve its heritage...

...But his most far-reaching criticisms are "external" ones, animated by his own radical outlook...

...And yet he proves unable to live up to his own strictures against the perils of descending into "personalities and motives...

...Then again, he may regard the chief aim of his enterprise as that of prompting his allies on the Left to undertake this very task...

...BOOK REVIEWS THE NEOCONSERVATIVES: THE MEN WHO ARE CHANGING AMERICA'S POLITICS Peter Steinfels / Simon & Schuster / $11.95 Marc F. Plattner These days more and more public notice is being paid to the political viewpoint now commonly known as "neoconservatism...

...But while the term "moderates" might adequately capture the neoconserva-tive stance in practical political matters, it fails to reflect the passion of their attachment to political ideas and principles or the often highly polemical character of their writings...

...Given Mr...

...it is domestic and cultural and ideological...

...There is plenty of evidence that Mr...

...Though Stein-fels never quite says so explicitly, it is clear that his own viewpoint is some version of "democratic socialism.'' His study, then, would seem to offer an exciting prospect: a serious critique of neoconservatism on the level of fundamental political principles by a judicious and fair-minded radical...

...He himself admits that a massive and obvious objection to this view is posed by " neoconservatism's conspicuous hostility to 'social engineers,' politicized intellectuals, rootless reformers, and the 'new class' which has been created by the need for educated experts and bureaucrats...

...An the final paragraph of his book, Steinfels suggests that while neoconservatism arose as a reaction within liberalism to the radicalism of the 1960s, it has now forsaken its liberal origins...

...Hence the label "neoconser-vative," which most of them have finally accepted with a greater or lesser degree of reluctance...

...The nature of Mr...

...Alas, this promise goes unfulfilled...

...But what is the nature of this "fundamental change" and how is it to be accomplished...

...Part of Mr...

...It is not merely a question of his being silent about the details...

...Steinfels' critique is aimed at internal inconsistencies or ambiguities within neoconservative thought, and here he occasionally makes a useful or interesting point...

...This speculation may reflect Mr...

...Third, that this outlook has nonetheless produced telling critiques of contending political views and provocative analyses of specific political proposals...

...It certainly does not reflect the neoconservative viewpoint as it has been plainly expressed in a host of articles in Commentary by such writers as Edward Luttwak, Richard Pipes, and Eugene Rostow...

...As late as the mid-1960s, all these men would have been regarded as being politically to the left of center, but through a combination of shifts in the political spectrum and changes in their own views they are now generally regarded as being to the right of center...

...Witness the following characterization of Daniel P. Moynihan: "Here is a medium-sized car with an 800-horsepower engine...

...Steinfels' own lack of concern about geopolitical matters-he never even mentions the recent build-up in Soviet military strength- and his complacency about the reverses suffered by liberal democracy in the developing nations...

...He is not above indulging in nasty personal attacks on the careers and characters of his subjects, or couching these attacks in the most ridiculous sort of popular-magazine prose...

...it has devoted its attention to fundamental questions its rivals have frequently overlooked...

...They differ from the Left above all in their belief in the essential justice and decency of the American political and economic order...

...It is worth noting that the contributors to the Public Interest and Commentary probably were more evenly divided in their voting for presidential candidates in both 1972 and 1976 than any comparable group of intellectuals...

...About this Steinfels has practically nothing to say...

...In at least two significant instances, Mr...

...The crisis of American institutions in the 1960s undermined the authority of the reigning liberal consensus, and has pushed American political thought in the 1970s in two opposite directions: "There are those, like democratic socialists, who feel they must reach beyond contemporary liberalism in order to fulfill its promises...

...Most of the recent popular recognition of neoconservatism in various national magazines has come not from eager sympathizers but from worried critics...

...Early in this chapter Steinfels offers a shrewd and, I believe, accurate insight into the political fallout of the 1960s, and its effects on political thinking in the 1970s...

...What is ultimately most disappointing about his study is not its distortions of his subjects' views but the shallow-ness of its critique of those views...

...Its leading spokesmen-Irving Kristol, Daniel Bell, Nathan Glazer, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, and Norman Podhoretz -are all editors of or prominent contributors to these magazines...

...It is hard to see what this vision is constructed upon other than a set of vague left-wing sentiments and slogans...

...In any case, his book serves as one more piece of evidence of the crying need for such a reappraisal if the Left is to rebound from its current state of intellectual impoverishment and seriously challenge the growing preeminence of the neoconservatives...

...His references to "oligarchic America" and its "minimally democratic practice" indicate a sharp dissatisfaction with America's liberal past and present...

...But this assessment runs counter to what he says elsewhere in this volume about the "strong conservatism that in fact marked postwar American liberalism-and, behind that...

...Steinfels' own attachment to those principles and institutions is much more problematic...

...This outlook has been identified principally with the editorial content of the Public Interest and Commentary (though The American Spectator surely rates as an important outlet for neocon-servative authors...

...Moreover, from the outset he forcefully-and correctly- argues that what the neoconservatives are dedicated to preserving is precisely America's liberal institutions and principles...

...The promise of this beginning is largely sustained through the entire first chapter...

...Steinfels explains who the neoconservatives are, discusses the extent of their influence, and argues that "neoconservatism is the serious and intelligent conservatism America has lacked, and whose absence has been roundly lamented by the American Left...

...Indeed, the seriousness with which he takes the neoconservatives and the much more than grudging praise he frequently bestows upon them are sure to earn him reproofs from his associates on the Left...

...In some respects, the best designation for them might be "moderates...

...Second, that this outlook, preoccupied with certain aspects of American life and blind or complacent toward others, justifies a politics which, should it prevail, threatens to attenuate and diminish the promise of American democracy...

...Yet despite these flaws, Steinfels' book conveys on the whole a tolerably accurate, if somewhat jaundiced, account of the neoconservatives' principal themes and concerns...

...Beyond a few passing references, there is no evidence that his own political vision is informed by any element within the American political tradition, any model among other nations past or present, or any noteworthy political philosopher...

...He even goes so far as to defend the neoconservatives against some of the cruder charges (e.g., that they are racists) that have been leveled against them...

...But undaunted by this telling self-refutation, he presses on with a tortuous and unconvincing argument designed to show how neoconservative attacks on the "new class"-and the government programs that are a principal source of its power and livelihood- really serve the class interest of policy professionals...

...This no doubt is partly attributable to the nature of the electoral choices in those years, but I believe it also points to the basically centrist political instincts of neoconservatives...

...The problem is that he never articulates a coherent statement of this alternative standpoint, and hence is reduced to offering little more than a series of complaints about his adversaries' positions-they are too pro-capitalist, too anti-Communist, insufficiently egalitarian, insufficiently democratic, etc., etc...

...He concludes by deploring the fact that so many other critics of the neoconservatives have focused on their personalities or alleged motivations rather than seriously confronting their ideas...

...Steinfels is led astray in his interpretation of the neoconservatives by searching out hidden motives supposedly underlying their views...

...the conservatism embedded in liberalism from its seventeenth-century origins...

...First, he argues that the "essential source of [neoconservative] anxiety [over international affairs] is not military or geopolitical or to be found overseas at all...

...Moreover, the designation "neoconservaMarc F. Planner works for the Twentieth Century Fund in New York...

...The same is true of the first popular book about them to appear...

...Steinfels' acknowledgement that neoconservatism owes much of its strength to its having confronted "fundamental questions its rivals have frequently overlooked," one might have expected him to address these questions in a more systematic fashion himself...

...An even more egregious misinterpretation is Steinfels' conclusion that neoconservatism is "an ideology for policy professionals...

...The "premises" of his book are stated with commendable brevity and directness in its opening paragraph: First, that a distinct and powerful political outlook has recently emerged in the United States...

...tives" might be justified, at least for the moment, on the grounds that they currently regard the Left as a much more serious source of political and cultural mischief than the Right, and thus direct the bulk of their attacks against it...

...and it deserves, accordingly, a thoughtful, extensive, and careful evaluation...

...And his implicit advocacy of "fundamental change" and a "thoroughgoing transformation of American society" suggests that he seeks some sort of post-liberal future for the United States...

...Is this label a fair or useful one...

...Clearly the outlook of the neoconservatives is located somewhere between that of the Left and that of older strands of American conservatism...

...One fears it may fly out of control, and in any direction...

...They differ from the latter most sharply in their endorsement of the idea of the welfare state...