Militarizing Class Warfare: The Historical Foundations of the Neoliberal/Neoconservative Nexus

Given the vacuity of political metaphors in the USA, most Americans might assume neoliberalism and neoconservatism to be at odds with one another. This article argues to the contrary. Neoconservatism has provided a solution to a crisis in neoliberalism – the crisis of how to manufacture the public’s support for an agenda that was so decidedly contrary to the public’s larger interests. Aided in large part by the political philosophy of Leo Strauss, neoconservatism has emboldened neoliberals to embrace the heteronomy always implicit within the capital relation by recognizing their own ‘natural right’ to rule by virtue of their demonstrated superiority. Hence, the advancement of the neoliberal agenda has demanded more than the economic disenfranchisement of the population. To fulfill its desires to return America to nineteenth-century conditions, when capital dominated, neoliberalism has formed an alliance with neoconservatives to effect an equally devastating political disenfranchisement of American citizens.