Reply #4: mud is to water. The only meaningful distinction between the two is

[Marr]

that neocons have taken all the things that Republicans have traditionally hidden (wars of aggression, debt, assaults on the middle class, welfare for the wealthy, the corporate agenda, authoritarian government, etc.) and placed them proudly on the table, calling them virtues. They may differ wildly from the idealized "conservative", but true conservatives haven't existed in our government for decades- if indeed they ever did. They're as fringe as the communist party.

Neocons are, in my opinion, a distilled version of the real GOP.