Reply #17: It depends on how you define "liberal"

[VirginiaDem]

Nixon was a conservative using the traditional meaning--don't muck around with fixing things that ain't broken. He and Kissinger wanted to realign Amer. foreign policy away from the Wilsonian/Kennedy "Liberal" focus on making the world a better place. Kennedy's inaugural speech shows how much he believed in messing about in the world to create democracy at any cost. He changed after the Cuban Missile Crisis--went to the brink, peered over and did not like what he saw. Kissiner/Nixon wanted a more traditional realist European focus--only mess around overseas when you know you can get away with it or you really, really need to. Don't do anything for the sake of ideology. They kept us in Vietnam (and got us into Cambodia) because they viewed a humiliating early pullout as against US interests. Bush is the "Liberal" as all "Neocons" are. They want to take militaristic stands in the name of ideological perfection. This highlights a very interesting split in conservative land between what we are currently calling the "conservatives" or "neocons" and the "paleoconservatives". Anyone associated with Nixon is a paleo by definition.