: a former liberal espousing political conservatism
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: a conservative who advocates the assertive promotion of democracy and U.S. national interest in international affairs including through military means
Recent Examples on the WebThe only missing ingredient to make the platform neoconservative was building a large military and a lower threshold for using it. Shay Khatiri, The Week, 26 Mar. 2022 Irving Kristol famously said a neoconservative is a liberal who has been mugged by reality. Rich Lowry, National Review, 28 May 2021 Canonical neoconservatives, Wilsonian dreamers, crusaders for human rights and other adherents of American exceptionalism ended his active career in government in 1977. John A. Farrell, New York Times, 28 Apr. 2020 Against the neoconservatives, conservatives must oppose imperial adventures and protect the principle of national independence. Alexis Carré, National Review, 18 Feb. 2020 When the neoconservatives came on the scene in the late 1960s, the Republican old guard viewed them as interlopers. Jacob Heilbrunn, The New Republic, 23 Jan. 2020 The foreign policy adventures of the neoconservatives and liberal internationalists haven’t fared much better than economic policy or cultural politics. Ganesh Sitaraman, The New Republic, 23 Dec. 2019 The neoconservatives in the Republican Party from John Bolton on down view Israel as a 51st state. Dave Orrick, Twin Cities, 24 Sep. 2019 Beginning in the 1970s, some of the writers and editors who became known as neoconservatives observed changes in the American elite. Matthew Continetti, National Review, 10 Aug. 2019 See More