So who is Tom Cotton exactly? His resume is admittedly impressive. MoJo says here that his win last November was a big win for the neocons who have been semi-eclipsed (but they never go away) during the Obama era. That’s true. But I think it goes a bit beyond that.
Cotton actually has as much in common with the Frank Gaffney/Crazy Town Steve King/Michele Bachmann world. Related yes, but not precisely the same. Here’s the lead quote from that MoJo article. “Groups like the Islamic State collaborate with drug cartels in Mexico who have clearly shown they’re willing to expand outside the drug trade into human trafficking and potentially even terrorism. They could infiltrate our defenseless border and attack us right here in places like Arkansas.”
Sound familiar?
As a policy matter, I’m not sure there’s a huge difference. But they’re at least stylistic and organizationally distinct in the US. High brow and low brow. Neocons have arguments about world historical change, totalitarianism and a handful of credentialed academics to back up their theories. Cottonites think the (Barack Hussein) Obama White House is infiltrated by the Muslim Brotherhood and is bringing down the border fence to facilitate incursions by the Mexican Drug Cartel/Hezbollah/ISIS alliance to launch the decisive attack your local convenience store.
