Weinman then describes modern-day neocons such as Irving Kristol and Norman Podhoretz as people who don't really have conservative ideas, even if they're grounded in utilitarianism, but as people whose sole motivating factor is hatred of the Left. As Weinman puts it, neoconservatism "is the thinking of people who aren't really all that interested in politics, in the nuts-and-bolts sense of policy and philosophy (the things that drove the policy-oriented neoconservatives); they're mostly taking positions that are the opposite of the Left, likely to weaken the influence of the Left, likely to annoy the Left. The new 'neoconservative' is more anti-Left than he or she is in favor of anything." (Weinman actually admits to preferring to talk to those who will make serious arguments in favor of their policy preferences--i.e., "that high taxes are wrong and immoral"--rather than simply telling us how bad the Democrats are for supporting high taxes.)

Similarly, says Weinman, much of the modern-day Left is not so much "hard Left" as anti-Right. Thus, writes Weinman:

"Talk to a college campus activist in the '60s and he just as likely would be protesting against liberals as against conservatives ('Hey, hey, LBJ...'). Talk to a Goldwaterite around the same time and he would just as likely be against Republicans as against Democrats. Today more and more people seem to define their politics and their culture in opposition to the other side, the other political party. Maybe we're all neo-somethings now."

Read the whole thing if you have some time. It's not very long, and it explains conservatives' support for a very liberal president as well as liberals' hatred of that same president better than anything else I've read in a long time.