If you've spent any time on political message boards or blogs the last decade or so, you've no doubt heard the term "neoconservative" or "neocon" thrown around. Its meaning varied from person to person - some would just use it gratuitously, as a blanket insult for anyone right of center, while for others it did seem to develop some actual meaning - distinguishing what they perceived to be the fiscally responsible conservative of the past with the big-spending conservative of today (of course "big-spending conservative" is an oxymoron which arises from the false notion that George W. Bush was some sort of icon of modern conservatism). Regardless, it got me to thinking if there was a such thing as a "neoliberal", and I concluded that there is at least as much of a neoliberal movement as there is (or said to be) a neoconservative one.

 

So what makes a neoliberal different than a plain old traditional liberal? Well, we know what traditional liberals stand for. Lots of taxpayer money going into social welfare programs, abortion, same-sex marriage, etc. The usual stuff. The biggest threat from the traditional liberals was probably higher taxes, since their agenda was centered around massive government spending.

 

A neoliberal, on the other hand, is everything a traditional liberal is PLUS an obsession with controlling other people's lifestyles. To put it simply, they are the "lifestyle nazis". That's something that wasn't a big part of the leftist agenda until recently. It's sprung out of the intellectual/academia wing which basically sees everyone else as being too dumb to manage their own lives, and therefore needing governement to tell them how to live. If only we would all live the way they say, everything would be so much better! You're starting to see these movements now, starting with smoking (which a lot of people support on the basis of second-hand smoke - a valid reason - but now it's going way beyond that) and moving toward things like junk food taxes and outlawing fast food drive-thrus. There are two big areas they're going after now - the first one is health (controlling how you manage your own body) and the second is the "new urbanism" movement (trying to force everyone into 700-square foot condos and commuter rail). If these haven't come to your city yet, they will.

 

These neoliberals represent a much greater threat than did the traditional liberals. Like I said, the biggest problem the traditional liberals posed was higher taxes. A problem, but not an insurmountable one. Neoliberalism, however, threatens our very freedom, which is far worse. Fighting this and bringing it into the national spotlight should be one of the pillars of modern conservatism.