WHY are Wolfowitz, Perle, Kristol, et al registered democrats?

[xiamiam]

Got into a heated discussion with a friend..can someone please enlighten me why these neocons and architects of pnac are registered democrats?

[Greeby]

1. Perle was assistant to Senator Henry "Scoop" Jackson

Jackson's hardline Cold Warrior views dovetailed quite nicely with the PNAC way of thinking

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scoop_Jackson

[ClayZ]

2. Is that true? Link Please.

[louis-t]

3. ohhhhhh boy........

(smacks head)

[whistle]

4. I never knew that they were, can that be verified?

...If true, I would think it would be an excellent question to put to each of them and have them explain their reasons.

[xiamiam]

7. a friend told me, i didnt believe him, i checked today...yes...for all 3..easy to find

just type in "is richard perle a registered democrat..etc etc...you will find to be so for all 3...

[xiamiam]

13. easy..just ask google

[soothsayer]

5. Most Jewish folks are Dems

[whistle]

8. That is a great reason, Jews are no allowed to be members of an exclusive Wasp

....club like the republican party

[soothsayer]

26. The whole neocon thing is fiercely pro-Israel, isn't it?

[nadinbrzezinski]

37. Goes well beyond Israel but that is the conveninet

talking point

[aquart]

10. Oh. It's because they're Jews.

What are most Christians?

[soothsayer]

24. Don't most Jews vote Dem? That hasn't changed, has it?

[nadinbrzezinski]

38. It has changed, due to propaganda

[Echotrail]

6. so they get invited to party strategy sessions?

:shrug:

That's the silliest thing I've heard today.

[MissMarple]

9. Randy Rhodes said she is registered as a Republican.

She likes to get their mail. Honest to God. :rofl:

[question everything]

11. Kristol was chief of staff for Quyale. I doubt he would be

registered as a democrat.

Don't know about the others but, again, I doubt they would get appointments for high positions and be registered as democrats.

[xiamiam]

22. well, i think i erred in seeing Kristol..went back and checked..but the others are documented...oops

[SteppingRazor]

12. Hadn't heard it about Kristol, but as for the other two...

their party affiliations date from an earlier time, when "conservative Democrat" and "liberal Republican" were less of an oxymoron. Perle has said that he remains a registered Democrat "out of nostalgia." and Wolfowitz has said that the Democratic Party "abandoned" him.

Neither have ever in their political lives demonstrated any interest in progressive ideals. Both worked for the Reagan administration as early as 1980. Before that, both worked for or with Scoop Jackson who, although a Democrat, is one of the early leading figures of neoconservatism.

[morningglory]

20. I would love to "abandon" his sorry a$$ at a corrections facility gate... n/t

[babylonsister]

14. Maybe they've seen the light?

:rofl:

[geardaddy]

15. So they can vote in Democratic primaries?

Or that they did vote in democratic primaries in the past?

[dragonlady]

16. So their awful positions can be called "bipartisan" n/t

[soothsayer]

31. exactly. they don't care WHO advances their NEOCON agenda. They'll play

either side, throw either side under the bus.

[morningglory]

17. So they can RUN to the polls and vote for our weakest candidate.

If I were a reg repug, I would run down and cast my vote for Guigliani or whoever their worst is. Can't think of which one of their cast of morans is the worst, but the time may come...

[KansDem]

18. Silly! That's so they can all vote in Democratic primaries...

for the Dem candidate least likely to win the general election!

:sarcasm:

[unpossibles]

19. I believe they are what's called "NeoLiberals"

although in my opinion that makes them NeoCons or Republitarians - birds of a feather you know.

from Wiki:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoliberalism

Neoliberalism is a label for economic liberalism that describes government policies aiming to promote free competition among business firms within market, notably liberalization and monetarism.<1>
Neoliberalism is associated with the Friedrich Hayek, economics departments such as that at the University of Chicago (and such professors as Milton Friedman and Arnold Harberger), and international organizations such as the International Monetary Fund (none of whom use the label "neoliberal"). In general, neoliberalism represents a move away from the Keynesian economics that were dominant immediately after World War II. The philosophy promotes a "liberalization" of capital markets (thus called "neoliberal reform").
More specifically, neoliberalism promotes a stable currency, a balanced budget, free market capitalism, and free trade. Characteristic aspects include expansion of the market to a 24-hour global trading cycle, contract maximalization, increase in the frequency of contracts, continuous assessment, and derivative markets.

on the other hand, I registered as a Republican on accident never bothered to change it for years. I've always been a lefty, but when I first registered to vote, I did not pay attention to the big photo of Reagan and Bush at the table on campus until I finished: I just wanted to register to vote at the time. Plus sometimes it's fun to vote in their primaries.

But yeah, they're still Free market douchebags - I'm not sure how NeoLiberals really fit with Liberals, and do not seem to share the same relationship as NeoCons and Cons.

[BuyingThyme]

21. "Neocon" means new conservative.

Most true neocons were once Democrats, or came from Democratic roots. They are generally social liberals who adopted imperialistic agenda.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

23. "Neo-libs" and "Neo-cons" are interchangeable.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoliberalism

Neoliberalism is a label for economic liberalism that describes government policies aiming to promote free competition among business firms within market, notably liberalization and monetarism.<1>

Neoliberalism is associated with the Friedrich Hayek, economics departments such as that at the University of Chicago (and such professors as Milton Friedman and Arnold Harberger), and international organizations such as the International Monetary Fund (none of whom use the label "neoliberal"). In general, neoliberalism represents a move away from the Keynesian economics that were dominant immediately after World War II. The philosophy promotes a "liberalization" of capital markets (thus called "neoliberal reform").

More specifically, neoliberalism promotes a stable currency, a balanced budget, free market capitalism, and free trade. Characteristic aspects include expansion of the market to a 24-hour global trading cycle, contract maximalization, increase in the frequency of contracts, continuous assessment, and derivative markets.

Opponents argue that neoliberalism is the implementation of global capitalism through government/military interventionism to protect the interests of multinational corporations, as well as the effects of free trade on wages and social structures. Notable opponents to neoliberalism in theory or practice include economists Joseph Stiglitz and Amartya Sen, Noam Chomsky,<2> and the anti-globalization movement.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoconservative

Left-wing past of some Neoconservatives

The neoconservative desire to spread democracy abroad has been likened to the Trotskyist theory of permanent revolution. Author Michael Lind argues that the neoconservatives are influenced by the thought of former Trotskyists such as James Burnham and Max Shachtman, who argued that "the United States and similar societies are dominated by a decadent, postbourgeois 'new class'". He sees the neoconservative concept of "global democratic revolution" as deriving from the Trotskyist Fourth International's "vision of permanent revolution". He also points to what he sees as the Marxist origin of "the economic determinist idea that liberal democracy is an epiphenomenon of capitalism", which he describes as "Marxism with entrepreneurs substituted for proletarians as the heroic subjects of history." However, few (if any) leading neoconservatives cite James Burnham as a major influence, as he differed with them on many issues.<15>

Critics of Lind contend that there is no theoretical connection between Trotsky's "permanent revolution", and that the idea of a "global democratic revolution" instead has Wilsonian roots.<16> While both Wilsonianism and the theory of permanent revolution have been proposed as strategies for underdeveloped parts of the world, Wilson proposed capitalist solutions, while Trotsky advocated socialist solutions.

Lind argues furthermore that "The organization as well as the ideology of the neoconservative movement has left-liberal origins". He draws a line from the center-left anti-Communist Congress for Cultural Freedom to the Committee on the Present Danger to the Project for the New American Century and adds that "European social-democratic models inspired the quintessential neocon institution, the National Endowment for Democracy."

[xiamiam]

35. so that means: never ending war to protect corporate global enterprize? right?

[Hubert Flottz]

25. They are Joe Lieberman Democrats.

[WiseButAngrySara]

27. I don't believe it, but so is LIEberman. 'nuf said. ....n/t

[BlooInBloo]

36. Link please? (Showing lieberman is a registered Democrat)

EDIT: Clarified subject.

[mark414]

28. tell your friend to prove it

i'm willing to bet it's not true

[OHdem10]

29. All three are from families whichj were

Socialist or Communist(sympathizers)
Their fathers and mothers when they converted or established
what is known as neo-conservatism (as with most converts to
anything) became rabidly opposed to Socialism, Communism.

In their moves they went through steps. First Democrats,
to NeoCons.
c

[The Stranger]

30. Better question: Why haven't they been arrested and tried as war criminals?

[maxrandb]

32. So Hannity and Fox can put them opposite Rep Duncan Hunter

so they can give the Democrat(sic) side of the issue.

They want to be "fair and balanced", don't they?

It could also be so that they can call the Rush Limbaugh show on a regular basis. You know, "Hey Rush, Megga-Dildo's, this is Paul from New York. I'd like to say, as a "registered" Democrat......."

[blogslut]

33. Have we established

That these men even vote? They sure as hell never served their country, militarily.

[magellan]

34. A lot of neocons were Dems

They hail from Straussian roots and call themselves "liberals mugged by reality" (which IMO translates to "We couldn't get rich and save the world peacefully so we decided to get rich and take the goddamn world over").

Their stamp on this administration is plain to see. Why do you think the freepers complain that Bush** isn't a "real" conservative? Because he isn't. None of them are. The neocon methods just fit in better with the Republicans (hawks) than they do the Dems (doves).