The Neocon Custodians: How Democrats Became the Janitors of Yesterday’s Right Wing
By The American Gadfly
Let’s get one thing straight: the Republican Party doesn’t “move right.” It jettisons. It molting-snakeskins its old ideology, lets it rot in the sun, and then scampers off further into the darkness of ideological extremism. And every time it does, the Democratic Party dutifully walks over, picks up the discarded husk, and puts it on like a badge of honor.
This isn’t some both-sidesism. This is about asymmetric ideological warfare. The GOP is a political insurgency. The Democrats? A vacuum crew for the Reagan Library.
We are living in a political era defined not by a clash of ideas, but by a right-wing propulsion system that relies on two moves:
Abandon your position before it becomes indefensible.
Let the Democrats defend it.
And over and over again, the Democrats do.
Act I: The Snake Sheds
Every time the Republican Party lurches to the right, it leaves behind a layer of policy, rhetoric, and ideology that it no longer needs. Once the dog whistle becomes a bullhorn, it throws the whistle away. Once fiscal conservatism can no longer distract from Christian nationalism, it abandons the spreadsheet and clutches the cross. Once neoconservatism is deemed “globalist,” it swaps drones for memes and rebrands as “America First.”
And each time, the Democratic Party shows up late to the party, defending what the GOP no longer wants.
They defend the CIA when Trump attacks it.
They defend the FBI when MAGA calls it a deep-state cabal.
They defend NATO when Trump questions its utility.
They defend Bush-era public health bureaucrats, not because they were right, but because they're now framed as “norm-respecting.”
The Democrats become defenders of empire not because they believe in it—but because they’re afraid of what happens if no one does. They’re the heirs to the Pentagon by forfeiture.
Act II: Clinton, Obama, Biden—Or, the Three Housekeepers
You want case studies? Fine. Let’s start with the triangulator-in-chief: Bill Clinton.
Clinton: The Liberal Who Gutted Liberalism
Clinton’s genius wasn’t policy. It was choreography. He understood that if he danced just one step left of the GOP’s last position, he could claim the “center.” So what did he do?
Signed NAFTA, the crown jewel of Reaganomics.
Ended welfare as we knew it, in language that mirrored Reagan’s “welfare queen” dogma.
Expanded mass incarceration, riding the coattails of Nixon’s and Reagan’s racist drug war policies.
The GOP didn’t lose those battles. They won—and got Democrats to carry the water.
Obama: The Drone-Slick Apologist
Obama was supposed to be the reset. Instead, he became the curator of the Bush administration’s more polite tools.
Drones? Expanded them.
NSA surveillance? Defended it.
Guantanamo? Still open.
Wall Street? Unprosecuted, enriched.
The man who ran against “dumb wars” wound up a sanitized neocon who dropped bombs in seven countries. The Bush doctrine went to finishing school, got a new suit, and won a Nobel Peace Prize.
Biden: The Hospice Nurse of Empire
And then there’s Biden. The institutional custodian. The man who served in the Senate long enough to vote for every bad idea and later inherit its wreckage.
Maintains Trump’s asylum restrictions under different legalese.
Shovels $800 billion to the Pentagon without a blink.
Enables tech-censorship partnerships with a smile, because “fighting disinformation” now means letting unelected contractors police speech.
Act III: The Neocon Vacuum
Let’s talk about narrative control.
What happens when the GOP burns down the house, then calls the fire department "socialist"? Democrats run in to rebuild the house exactly the same, so they don’t get accused of hating houses.
This is the rot: Republicans move the Overton window, and Democrats decorate the abandoned rooms.
Foreign Policy: Still Addicted to Empire
Democrats have fully adopted the foreign policy orthodoxy of 2003. You think Iraq was a neocon high point? Look at how Democrats now defend:
Permanent war budgets.
Proxy wars with no endgame.
The belief that America must project force or collapse.
While the GOP toys with isolationism (mostly as performance), Democrats have become the face of war permanence.
Surveillance and Censorship: Patriot Act 2.0
Republicans passed the original Patriot Act, but today’s censorship infrastructure—the public-private surveillance complex—has Democrats playing cheerleader. They aren’t just enabling it. They’re justifying it.
“Stop disinformation!” they scream, while the Department of Homeland Security drafts memos on which hashtags to monitor.
Law Enforcement: Blue Lives Matter, But Make It Liberal
When did Democrats start worshiping the FBI? When Trump pissed on it. Suddenly, the Bureau went from “COINTELPRO” to “sacred institution.” James Comey became a liberal sex symbol. Liberals bought “FBI: Female Body Inspector” mugs without irony.
Act IV: Why Do They Do It?
The question is critical. Why do Democrats keep adopting the GOP’s exiled ideologies?
1. Donor Class Parasitism
Because the donor class demands continuity. Lockheed Martin doesn’t care which party holds office—just that the bombs keep falling. Democrats don’t want to upset the boardroom.
2. Media Class Incentives
To get invited on MSNBC, you must appear “serious.” And “serious” means never questioning the CIA, never doubting Wall Street, and never uttering the phrase “Palestinian rights” without apologizing.
3. Institutional Insecurity
Democrats are terrified of being called weak, soft, or unpatriotic. So they overcorrect. They wear the flag pin, quote Reagan, and give medals to spooks who once wiretapped MLK.
4. Moral Narcissism
There’s a desperate need among Dems to believe they are better people. So when they use the same tools as the GOP, they pretend it’s okay—because they’re the “good guys.”
“I’m not supporting war crimes, I’m supporting democracy!”
Act V: The Ratchet
There’s a name for this pattern. Some call it the ratchet effect. But let’s be more precise:
Republicans pull the system right.
Democrats freeze the new normal in place.
Republicans pull again.
Democrats normalize again.
This is not a pendulum. It’s a spiral staircase to hell, with Democrats holding the door at every level.
You wonder why America has no left-wing party? That’s why.
The GOP plays offense.
The Democrats play janitor.
Act VI: What It’s Cost Us
1. A Disillusioned Base
Young voters? Checked out. The ones who still vote do it with a barf bag in one hand and a tear gas canister in the other. The Democrats’ “vote blue no matter who” strategy is emotional blackmail, not persuasion.
2. Institutional Rot
By defending every institution the GOP attacks, the Democrats prevent actual reform. They strengthen the rot. Instead of remaking the FBI, they hand it a pride flag and call it progress.
3. Weaponizing Fascist Tools
The biggest risk isn’t that Democrats fail to stop fascism. It’s that they inherit fascist tools—and convince themselves they’re using them for good.
You think AI surveillance, censorship boards, and executive overreach will vanish if Trump loses? No. They’ll mutate.
The party of gay drone pilots is still the party of drones.
Act VII: The Fork in the Road
There is no salvaging this strategy. If Democrats keep walking into abandoned right-wing territory and calling it home, they’ll be complicit in America’s ongoing authoritarian drift.
Here’s the red pill:
Stop defending institutions just because Trump attacked them.
Stop fearing the label 'radical' when the status quo is collapsing.
Stop preserving Reagan’s legacy in blueface.
If the GOP wants to become a Christian ethnostate cosplay militia, let them. But don’t adopt the language, logic, and leftovers of their last ideology just because you’re too scared to offer a new one.
Final Act: Drop the Mop
The Democratic Party can’t win by being the party of norms when the public wants change. It can’t win by defending neocon relics when the public wants relief. And it sure as hell can’t win by becoming the last defenders of an old order that already failed.
The future belongs to whoever defines the new center—not the party that lives in yesterday’s right-wing shadow.
So here’s your choice, Democrats:
You can keep cleaning up after the Republican Party like the world’s saddest hotel staff.
Or you can start a fire of your own.
The American Gadfly
Disruptor of comfort. Comforter of the disrupted. Cleaner of no one’s mess but his own.
