Doug Bandow: Rick Perry: Know-Nothing Neoconservatism Reincarnated?
Doug Bandow is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute. He is a former special assistant to President Ronald Reagan and the author of several books, including Foreign Follies: America’s New Global Empire (Xulon Press).
Texas Gov. Rick Perry has leapt to the top in the Republican presidential race. His domestic policy looks standard-issue conservative. But his foreign policy veers neoconservative—even after George W. Bush and Barack Obama together launched two full-scale wars, one “kinetic military action,” and two deadly drone-campaigns.
With the economy stuck in the doldrums, President Obama faces a potentially difficult reelection fight. However, it will take someone to beat him, and so far the leading Republicans do not impress. In a party that tends to practice political primogeniture, Mitt Romney was early anointed the front-runner. Yet dissatisfied GOP voters rushed to embrace an unknown new entrant, Rep. Michelle Bachman. Now Republicans are flocking to Gov. Perry, who a couple years ago declared that “I have no interest in coming to Washington.” Perry’s political opening looms large.
What would a Perry victory mean for America’s role in the world? Like most governors, including his predecessor, Rick Perry hasn’t talked that much about international issues, even though he has traveled far more extensively than had George W. Bush. But the early signs are not encouraging. In the 2008 race Perry endorsed Rudy Giuliani—notable mostly for his know-nothing militancy—as the candidate who “will make America safe.” Perry’s current campaign advisers range from hawkish conservative to Bushian neoconservative. To paraphrase the Bible, where a candidate’s advisers are, there will his policy be...