by Tim Donner

It has long been clear that the alliances between the establishment and grassroots, as well as the social and economic conservative wings of the Republican party has been, and always will be, fragile and tenuous.  But there has been a tendency, for me at least, to overlook the divide between “paleo-conservatives” and “neo-conservatives” that developed over the last decade or so.  

The paleos have long held to the traditional conservative notion of a small government and a foreign policy infused with realism, but not so much idealism or adventurism.  Then the Bush years crystalized (some might say Kristol-ized) a palpable division in the GOP akin to the Democrats’ battle for the soul of their party between their moderate and leftist wings.  (By the way, news flash - that battle is over and the leftists won). 

Led by George W. Bush, the neos ascended and challenged the paleo norm - deciding that, despite the declaration by Bill Clinton, of all people, that the era of big government was over, big government had in fact become inevitable, so instead of trying to shrink it, they might as well use it for their own ends and swell the federal budget with programs such as the No Child Left Behind education initiative and Medicare prescription drug entitlement.  And they attempted to steal the hearts and minds of the GOP’s conservative base with an idealistic, even utopian vision of spreading democracy to the least democratic region of the world...regardless of whether the ground was fertile for such a radical experiment.

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