Sound Bite
Ex-Neocon consists of Scott McConnell's historical and polemical essays from 2001 to the present. A prominent analyst and journalist who once knew the Kristols and Podhoretzes, worked with them, admired them and identified fully with them, McConnell shows what the thinking was among neocons in those days and why he left the fold. The book contains an introduction by Philip Weiss, founder of Mondoweiss, the important post-Zionist website.
About the Book
Scott McConnell is in a unique position to show how neoconservatives think about social issues, war, and the economy.
How deferential the United States should be to Israel, how America's changing demographics will alter its foreign policy, the ideological origins of the Iraq war, the importance of Walt and Mearsheimer — these themes are some of the major divisions between neoconservatives — still dominant in the GOP establishment and more traditional styles of American conservatism.
Ex-Neocon is an insider's guide to the major American ideological battles of the past generation that still shape the contours of the debates and issues of today's political campaigns.
There are very few ex-Neocons. It has been said that neoconservatism is a career; once individuals become embedded in the well-subsidized world of neocon magazines, newspapers and think tanks, they don't leave. If they have doubts about neoconservative projects (like high immigration or the Iraq War), they suppress them. Continuing their careers depends upon it.
Scott McConnell is one of very few who were once part of this world and left it behind. In Ex-Neocon, a collection of essays, polemics and reviews written since 9/11, he also explores the rise of the French National Front, what Americans can learn from de Gaulle, and the battles over the Iran nuclear deal.Many of these essays first appeared in The American Conservative, the magazine McConnell helped found in order to give a voice to those who believed that the neocons were running the conservative movement, and America, off a cliff.
These essays provide a unique window into the politics of the post 9/11 period. Often personal as well as political, they reflect McConnell's transformation from a committed Commentary-contributing 'neocon' to a friend and colleague of Pat Buchanan and a skeptical, politically eclectic "Obamacon."
Information
Ex-Neocon is written for people who read 'opinion' political magazines and books, mostly on the right, but not exclusively; for people interested in the Israel and America connection; and the never-ending Beltway battle over our Mideast policies. Ex-Neocon addresses contemporary matters through essays reflecting the author's changing perspective.Francis Fukuyama, the prominent political scientist, is also an ex-neoconservative, and he could write a brilliant book on what's wrong with the neocons. But he hasn't yet.� David Brock wrote the story of his own disaffection in Blinded by the Right, but that work is more autobiographical, showing how he transitioned from the Right to become a prominent liberal Beltway operative and Hillary Clinton-supporter.
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