Neoconservatives believed war would provide Americans with moral clarity

Evidence

EVANGELICALS WEREN’T the only ones renegotiating their views on foreign policy in the post–Cold War era, nor were they the only ones who thought President Clinton’s pursuit of humanitarian wars and peacekeeping missions betrayed American interests and values. During the 1990s, a group of young conservative intellectuals developed a plan for how America should brandish its unrivaled military and economic power, and though they were not particularly religious, these self-described neoconservatives did have faith—an expansive faith in American power. And they had their own patron saints: Teddy Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan. They believed that there was a direct connection between domestic and global issues, and, by invoking patriotism to encourage sacrifice, they sought to instill “military virtues” in the American public. For these neocons, the military embodied the nation’s highest ideals even as it unleashed violence and death, and there was no contradiction. War would provide Americans with “moral clarity.” — Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne, 520

Categorization

• QUESTION: The parallel between neocons’ ‘moral clarity’ through war and evangelical apocalyptic clarity is worth tracing further - what exactly aligned these two groups’ psychologies?