With the possible exception of former Vice President Dick Cheney, whom every conservative would agree is as tried and true as they come, I am as convinced as ever that neoconservatives are really displaced liberals trying to remold the GOP into it’s image.

Let me explain.

Before the peace movement of the 1960s and 1970s and, to an extent, The Franklin Roosevelt Administration, the foreign policy position of liberals within the Democratic Party and Progressives in the Republican Party was one of interventionism.

So where did all those hawkish liberals go? Well, they went to the Republican Party. And while some of the current interventionists may have started as conservatives, they have gradually adopted liberalism of their formerly liberal forefathers.

John McCain. Lindsey Graham. David Frum. Bill Kristol. Susan Collins. The Wall Street Journal.  These are all people and publications who have advocated the GOP surrender to higher taxes, compromise on spending plans that dramatically increase our deficit and have the federal government intervene on issues there is no constitutional right to intervene on, like education.

The neocons invaded the George W. Bush administration – and it got us two wars that were incredibly expensive and a Middle East that is worse off now than it was when we first went in. Yes, Saddam Hussein is gone, but so is the secular government he’d ran, replaced by an Islamic Republic (allowed by Bush), that has elements of radicalism seeping out. To make matters worse, we’ve now had five years of the worst elements of hapless liberalism and neoconservativism working together to “keep our country safe.”

It’s time we dump the neocons and replace them with traditional conservatives. Full throated isolationism? No. But we need leaders who recognize keeping our military strong is keeping them out of conflicts they don’t need to be in. We need the world to know that if anyone threatens our security we will not be tied up, we will be ready to take the fight directly to them. We need to make sure that if our men and women are fighting for us, they’re fighting for us for a good reason.

President Reagan had US Armed Forces ready to go in case the Soviets wanted to try and start anything, but it was always a last resort for him. He fought the Cold War and won it, as former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher so eloquently put it, “without firing a single shot” (Lady Thatcher also had a big part to play in that.)

I am grateful to the men and women who bravely defended our country during these two wars. But they deserve better than fighting useless wars or defending a country that doesn’t acknowledge our Constitution. If neoconservatives are truly committed to the defense of this country, if they are committed to shrinking the size of government, and keeping powers within the bounds of the Constitution, they have a place in our movement, otherwise, they should go elsewhere.