Irving Kristol, 1920-2009

[Maggie]

RIP

[Maggie]

Irving Kristol’s death, because he was the driving force behind the neoconservative movement, should have received more national attention. The following essay by Christopher DeMuth is probably the most definitive piece on the man I have read, so far. An interesting passage:

When Irving said that a neoconservative was “a liberal who had been mugged by reality,” he was assuming that liberalism was a practical endeavor, capable of learning and accommodation. When he later said that “what is wrong with liberalism is liberalism,” he meant that liberalism had proven impervious to reality, setting itself at war with the society it had once sought merely to reform. Opposition to this form of contemporary liberalism is the glue that holds contemporary conservatism together and is the source of its political prospects.

The whole essay is worth your time.


The Practical Liberal

[1979Shocker]

Irving Kristol’s death, because he was the driving force behind the neoconservative movement, should have received more national attention.

His death was mentioned on NBC's Nightly News last Friday.

Irving Kristol