Authoritarian Cultists
This is part of the title of a post by CJ, who was quoting from a post by Glenn Greenwald, who does an excellent job in illustrating how today's neoconservatism differs from conservatism as we once knew it.
The blind faith placed in the Federal Government, and particularly in our Commander-in-Chief, by the contemporary "conservative" is the very opposite of all that which conservatism has stood for for the last four decades. The anti-government ethos espoused by Barry Goldwater and even Ronald Reagan is wholly unrecognizable in Bush followers, who – at least thus far – have discovered no limits on the powers that ought to be vested in George Bush to enable him to do good on behalf of all of us.
And in that regard, people like Michelle Malkin, John Hinderaker, Jonah Goldberg and Hugh Hewitt are not conservatives. They are authoritarian cultists. Their allegiance is not to any principles of government but to strong authority through a single leader.
Perhaps Greenwald is focusing on something different than what I've been focusing on. I've talked about neoconservatism as a philosophy, but never really felt that it had a "leader" per se. Greenwald seems to be arguing that the litmus test isn't on policy, it's on personality.
Greenwald continues:
It is hard to describe just how extreme these individuals are. Michelle Malkin is the Heroine of the Right Blogosphere, and she believes in concentration camps. As an avid reader of Michelle’s blog, I really believe that she would be in favor of setting up camps for Muslim-Americans and/or Arab-Americans similar to the ones we had for Japanese-Americans which she praises. Has anyone ever asked her that? Could someone? I don’t mean that she would favor interning them indefinitely - just for the next few decades while the war on terrorism is resolved.
But back to this "authoritarian cultists" phrase. It's popping up everywhere:
Ann Coulter, sultry siren of rage-addicted Authoritarian Cultists everywhere, has unleashed her first annual Oscar predictions column, and like most everything else Ms. Coulter writes, it's both jaw-droppingly in(s)ane and hysterical.
This is more proof of what Glenn Greenwald was referring to in his post about Authoritarian Cultists...No matter what happens in Iraq it is favorable to Bush. To the point where civil war breaking out between Shiites and Sunnis, with the threat of Kurds joining in to assert their independence, is a Good Thing™.
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