What YAF’s expulsion of Ron Paul says about the conservative movement

Today’s neoconservatives are the intellectual descendants of the liberal hawks whom Buckley and other conservatives had banded together to defeat. These are the individuals whom Bedford apparently wishes to welcome within the conservative movement; libertarians are to be shown the door. The neocons in 2011 choose not to dwell on the size and scope of government, and they scorn those who do. The world is simply too dangerous to be concerned about such things, they say. The scale of their ambitions is unconstrained by the nation’s resources. Aside from their anxious embrace of nation-building missions in countless places around the globe, the clearest sign of the neocons’ unconservative instincts is their enthusiastic support for federal expansions such as No Child Left Behind and uber-statist politicians such as Sen. Joseph Lieberman (2008 ADA Rating: 85; lifetime ACU rating: 16).

I suspect that Chris Bedford either isn’t aware of the irony, or doesn’t appreciate it. But other devotees of limited, constitutional government, individual liberty, and peace through strength, should not be so quick to follow him over the cliff. YAF may be a shadow of its former self; but the conservative movement should expel big-government advocates from its midst, and embrace prudence and restraint, both at home and abroad.

Christopher Preble is the director of foreign policy studies at the Cato Institute.