Neoconservative Bill Kristol is now a Democrat

[Anonymous]

News Flash: Having Bill Kristol on your side isn't a win. It is a sign that you are heading in the wrong direction. The guy has never been right about anything in his entire life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:News Flash: Having Bill Kristol on your side isn't a win. It is a sign that you are heading in the wrong direction. The guy has never been right about anything in his entire life.

Can you give an honest example, please?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:News Flash: Having Bill Kristol on your side isn't a win. It is a sign that you are heading in the wrong direction. The guy has never been right about anything in his entire life.

Can you give an honest example, please?

DP. Iraq war is the most obvious. Opposing universal healthcare, calling the 2006 Lebanon war "our war too", supporting Sarah Palin, supporting the overthrow of the Libyan government. Doesn't seem he's ever seen a conflict he didn't like. There is very little in his history that isn't straight up bad.

[Anonymous]

Kristol has been bitter ever since trump got into the White House and all of a sudden he couldn’t get his calls returned.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:News Flash: Having Bill Kristol on your side isn't a win. It is a sign that you are heading in the wrong direction. The guy has never been right about anything in his entire life.

Can you give an honest example, please?

DP. Iraq war is the most obvious. Opposing universal healthcare, calling the 2006 Lebanon war "our war too", supporting Sarah Palin, supporting the overthrow of the Libyan government. Doesn't seem he's ever seen a conflict he didn't like. There is very little in his history that isn't straight up bad.

Well I guess that's one way to spin this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bill and his neocon ilk support whatever part is most likely to give him the wars he wants.

All this means is that the Democrats are now the part of war.

That's a pretty reductionist dismissal of Kristol, son of conservative thinker Irving Kristol, and a long-time establishment conservative in his own right.

Conservatism has truly come unmoored from any kind of philosophical or rational underpinnings. It is now purely reactive, capable only of destruction and not creation.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Kristol has been bitter ever since trump got into the White House and all of a sudden he couldn’t get his calls returned.

Ew, I don't think Kristol was trying to call Trump. That was sort of the point. He was appalled by the GOP turn toward Trump (as everyone should have been). He tried for years to make the GOP into a respectable party of law and governance again, but it's clear that even without Trump in office, the party is not interested.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:News Flash: Having Bill Kristol on your side isn't a win. It is a sign that you are heading in the wrong direction. The guy has never been right about anything in his entire life.

Can you give an honest example, please?

DP. Iraq war is the most obvious. Opposing universal healthcare, calling the 2006 Lebanon war "our war too", supporting Sarah Palin, supporting the overthrow of the Libyan government. Doesn't seem he's ever seen a conflict he didn't like. There is very little in his history that isn't straight up bad.

Moderate Democrat here. It is easy in hindsight to say some of these things were bad calls. I'm not sure that the Bill Kristol of today would still make those decisions; certainly we need to allow people to change and grow.

But I recall at the time quite a few people being perfectly fine with the Iraq War, at least until we found out they didn't actually have WMDs. We were a country in shock and mourning prone to make emotionally reactive calls. I cut us collectively some slack on that one at this point.

Universal healthcare - Most people who opposed it were afraid of what it would mean for their choice of doctors or (more on principle) opposed to mandates as a rule. Those people were wrong and I'm glad we got it done. The people who opposed it took a big hit on the issue later on once fears about how it would work were largely seen to be unfounded.

Lebanon War - I also saw this as "our war too" in the sense that it's better to have a friendly democracy in the Middle East than not. We have to support our allies.

Sarah Palin - She was on a ticket with the much more measured John McCain (RIP). Many establishment Republicans (and moderate-to-conservative-leaning Dems) were willing to sign onto a ticket with McCain at the top and a wildcard VP than "Mr. Change" newcomer Barak Obama. Those people were wrong too, but I understand it.

Libya - I don't really have a take on this one, so I'll give it to you.