Many have been the criticisms of the 'ideology', if it exists, as a coherent plan, of 'neoconservatism'.
We see the critics point out Gaza, Iraq, the primacy of the apostasy laws in Afghanistan, the recent terrorist, and religously inspired murder of Shabbaz Bhatti, the Pakistani Minister for Religious Minorities, who happened to be Catholic.
In opposition we can point to Greece, specifically the Peloponese after the battle of Lecutra, Eastern Europe, Japan, and Germany.
While each nation is a specific case, and each people are different, critics of what is PERCEIVED of as neoconservatism DISPUTE that all people want democracy.
Or more specifically want OUR democracy.
The idea of democracy horrified the Persians (and still might) becuase to them it meant the mob. Of course the sovereignty of the majority to make a decision must be acknowledged in order to have a democracy, but that is only the most minimal requirement for THE AMERICAN WAY OF LIFE.
THE AMERICAN WAY OF LIFE IS NOT MOB RULE.
The most basic limit on the mob is the First Amendment.
Without that most basic limit all one has done is to replace Mubarak with the mob.
With that limit in place comes the rub and the big question of what is perceived of as neoconservatism.
I personally believe that given the sovereignty of the majority, they will eventually (define that term !!) settle on the governing group which can provide a better life ON THIS WORLD for the people and their children. Schools. Roads. Jobs. The future HERE.
But that doesn't speak to this limit, and that is where I think neoconservatism ends.
For if the basis of the most menial description of the American way of life, that 1st Amendment, is to be taken to heart in the Islamic world, IT WILL REQUIRE Muslims to DEFEND the right AT ALL COSTS of those they despise, and have been ordered to limit, tax offensively, and kill, to practice openly, proselytize, build, convert and live in complete religious freedom.
Of course, as we all know, the highest expression of the american way of life is to tell authority to go to hell and leave you alone.
AND THEY ARE COMPELLED TO BY THE LAW.
WHICH THEY THEN OBEY.
There is NOWHERE in the Islamic world where the most basic lowest level limit of the mob as I have described it can occur.
Americans have FAILED to explain the difference between majority sovereign rule without limits, and the American Way of Life.
The former can certainly be described as democracy, BUT IT IS NOT FREEDOM.
For a people to want freedom, they must be prepared to defend what they despise at all costs to protect what they love most.
"A free people [claim] their rights as derived from the laws of nature, and not as the gift of their chief magistrate."
"[Our] principles [are] founded on the immovable basis of equal right and reason."
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