The fall of the neocons...

Why we shouldn’t forgive the Republicans who sold their souls - Robert Kagan
(Robert Kagan is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and a contributing columnist for The Post.)

These are the political leaders who are supposed to stand up to the world’s real strongmen in Moscow and Beijing. Yet they did not stand up to this bullying would-be authoritarian when all he could do was steal away a few of their voters. They would not risk five points in their primary campaigns to stop this man from becoming commander in chief. They were willing to damage U.S. national interests, as they define them, to avoid a close race. These are the men and women to whom we should entrust the nation’s welfare?

Let's be clear here folks. Robert Kagan  represents the very core of  the Neoconservative movement. In fact, many believe him to be one of the founding fathers of the movement. Like it or not, this movement has become increasingly irrelevant to the Republican Party, in large part because most of the policy that they pushed through the GWB years was simply not successful either tangibly or politically. It's one thing to be smart, to have a think tank, and to have at one time held much influence. But it's another to expect to continue to hold influence, when your policies no longer hold policy or political weight.

Obviously  Kagan in not the only Neoconservative to break with the Republican Party over Donald Trump. William Kristol, Johan Goldberg and others have been equally harsh. Still others (Like Charles Krauthhammer) has been back and forth as it pertains to Donald Trump. Overall, I believe very few true Neoconservatives are openly backing Trump, and many have given their support over to Hillary Clinton. The difference between Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton in the minds of many of these tangent movements is negligible.

(By the way, isn't it amazing how many people in Washington who have supported failed policy now support Clinton? Should tell you something about the power of the "status quo" and the true insider fear of an outsider who actually might do things differently... but that's another topic)

The problem I have with people like Kagan and many others in the NeverTrump crowd is that they forget that ultimately politics is "supposed" to be about the voter. The Republican Party is supposed to represent the people who fund their campaigns and vote for them. Not the other way around. If the mainstream voters in the Party no longer support your policy, it's not their fault... it's likely yours.

Clearly I do not support much of the antics of Donald Trump, and I am unsure at times what his policy positions truly represent. But at the very least I accept that he has the support of tens of millions of Americans, and that those supporters should be respected (not demeaned). Moreover I do believe that Donald Trump has the best interests of the Country in mind and honestly wants to bring change to a broken system.  For many Americans, those two traits are enough, because they simply doubt that his opponent has either.