'Isolationism, McCarthyism and segregation': How Trump exposed NeoCon hypocrisy

On Tuesday, writing for New York Magazine's Intelligencer, columnist Jonathan Chait explored how former President Donald Trump got many in the neoconservative wing of the Republican Party to expose the hypocrisy of their demands for foreign adventurism.

"One of the most contentious questions in American political thought over the past half-dozen years has been whether Donald Trump represents a departure from the ideals of American conservatism or, alternatively, its apotheosis," wrote Chait. "The departure interpretation is put forth mainly by conservatives, who see Trump’s bigotry and authoritarianism as a betrayal of their noble creed. The apotheosis interpretation is largely advocated by conservatism’s critics, who see those traits as mainly consistent with its traditional embrace of isolationism, McCarthyism, and segregation."

The answer, argued Chait, lies in a Wall Street Journalinterview with Norman Podhoretz, a longtime right-wing editor and neoconservative thinker who describes himself as having gone from "anti-anti-Trump" to "pro-Trump."

"Podhoretz explains that his central reason for leaving the left for the right was the left’s failure to appreciate America’s goodness: 'I broke with the left mainly because of its anti-Americanism' … He pauses, leans back in his sofa chair, and restates the formulation. 'A force for good in the world — or not?'" wrote Chait. "Amazingly, the Journal’s interviewer does not point out how utterly diametrical this sentiment is with Trump’s stated foreign-policy views. Neocons like Podhoretz have spent decades accusing Democrats of advocating 'moral relativism' between the United States and dictatorial regimes, but Trump is the first president in the history of the United States to actually espouse it. When asked to defend his admiration of a Russian regime that murders journalists, Trump shot back, 'There are a lot of killers. You think our country’s so innocent?'"

READ MORE: Trump's public statements match up with coup plot laid out in PowerPoint

"His main foreign-policy belief is that the United States should act purely out of self-interest, including by committing war crimes (as defined by the U.S. military) and using military power to plunder weaker countries,'" continued Chait. "This is the opposite of serving as 'a force for good in the world.' But it reveals that goodness was never the standard Podhoretz had used to judge American foreign policy at all. He merely resented any criticism of American military power and believed the country should not have to meet any ethical standard in its dealings with other countries."

A number of key people in the neoconservative movement, notably, did not latch onto Trumpism, like Liz Cheney, who is currently investigating the January 6 Capitol rioters, and former President George W. Bush himself. But many more, like Podhoretz, have — and this fact is telling, Chait argued.

"Podhoretz is making clear in his advanced age that his elegant-sounding arguments for abandoning the left were largely a cover for a deeper collection of ugly resentments," concluded Chait. "Trump is a perfect moral X-ray, and Podhoretz is one of many figures this era has revealed for what they always were."

You can read more here.