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1. This fine @DavidKlion essay on @davidfrum reminds me that I've been wanting to write something on how neo-cons are the modern Mugwumps, an elite faction that enjoys power precisely because it straddles partisan political divide. https://newrepublic.com/article/157885/david-frums-hold-center-trumpocalypse-book-review
2. The Mugwumps were an elite 19th century faction that supported "good government" measures (in plain English: they wanted government sinecures to go to Yalies, not fresh-off-the-boat Irishmen). They were initially Republicans but shifted to Dems under Grover Cleveland
3. The neo-cons have functioned exactly like the mugwumps, gaining power from connections to elite institutions (universities, think tanks) & shifting from party to party. It's often forgotten that neo-cons first emerged as faction inside Democratic Party.
4. The earliest neo-cons were Cold War Liberals who opposed 1960s/1970s "new politics" of left (anti-war, black militancy, feminism, gay rights). Their institutional base was in Democratic institutions (AFL-CIO, office of Senator Scoop Jackson & Pat Moynihan).
5. By my count, neo-cons have shifted parties 6 times: they went for Nixon in 1972, Carter in 1976, Reagan in 1980, a faction went for Clinton 1992, returned to Bush in 2000, and went for Clinton in 2016. Except 1 time, always opportunistically going with winner.
6. Lasting institutional power of the neo-cons comes from the fact that they are underwritten by arms industries that have bipartisan support: the funders of think tanks etc. Their flexibility about partisan affiliation combined allows them to seed ideas in both parties.
