Peter Beinhart, author of The Good Fight, discusses the development of Neo-conservatism in the 50s and 60s as well as the liberal story at this time. Beinhart seeks to trace this history in order to explain the politics of the time of the video, which is the presidency of George W. Bush. Beinharts describes the Neo-conservative movement (Buckley, Kristol) of criticizing the 50s and 60s policies as being “plagued by self-doubt” and seeking more hard-line foreign policies directed against the Soviet Union: “One of the key roles of government in a threatening world is to eradicate the plague of self doubt in America.” Thus, the Neo-cons attack things such as the Civil Rights movement as undermining the idea of American strength.

If you continue the video, he also discusses the liberal story, which stems from Reinhold Niebuhr.