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The Neoconning of Politics

Whatever the outcome is Tuesday night in the Lamont-Lieberman race, this contest should be remembered for the clear emergence of an ugly and alarming development — namely, the unabashed and undiluted use of anti-Semitism accusations as a partisan tool to win elections. And that tactic is clearly part of a growing right-wing reliance upon the […]

Whatever the outcome is Tuesday night in the Lamont-Lieberman race, this contest should be remembered for the clear emergence of an ugly and alarming development — namely, the unabashed and undiluted use of anti-Semitism accusations as a partisan tool to win elections. And that tactic is clearly part of a growing right-wing reliance upon the basest and most divisive tactics of identity politics and religious tribalism. ~Gleen Greenwald

I don’t know where Mr. Greenwald got the idea that there has been some great reliance on “identity politics” and “religious tribalism” on the right wing (unless he reflexively identifies neocons with the right wing, which would be silly), but he hits on an important phenomenon: the standard GOP, Weekly Standard and New Republic response to war criticism keeps falling back again and again on this insult to shut people up, but it is having less and less effect as it is used ever more recklessly.  The extension of this tactic, employed against the neocons’ own enemies on the right for decades, to intra-Democratic squabbles reveals the extent to which the neocons’ mentality and methods have begun to seep into the entire political culture.

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