As Donald Trump's National Security Adviser, John Bolton is one of the most far right figures ever to be accepted by the national security community. Despite Bolton's long record of government service, the media ignores the context and substance of his dangerous ideas. A close reading of Bolton's autobiography and essays demonstrates that he is a Goldwater era conservative who pushed policy to the right in every circumstance Democrats and other liberals rarely opposed his ascendance and positions. From a young age, John Bolton was enamored by the conservative revivalism of Barry Goldwater. He saw the destruction of the 'New Deal' status quo as his mission. Bolton's cultish devotion to security, valor, and national sovereignty make him the ultimate Cold War warrior and embodiment of American exceptionalism. At the same time, his rising influence was enabled by the Democratic Party's unquestioning embrace of imperialism and Reagan era politics.
John Bolton was born and raised in a family of modest means in Baltimore, Maryland. Neither of his parents graduated from college. His father worked as a firefighter. In his autobiography, he explains the resentment his father felt during a 1960s teacher strike, considering Baltimore teachers spoiled for having gone to college and getting "cushy jobs." During high school, the young Bolton was allowed to take a day off to hand out leaflets for Republican nominee Barry Goldwater on election day in 1964. Goldwater, the ultimate war hawk, spoke to Bolton in a way that other run-of-the-mill conservatives didn't.
John Bolton admired Goldwater's promise that "my aim is not to pass laws but to repeal them." Bolton went as far to say "I cheered when Barry said we should cut off the eastern seaboard and let it drift out to sea, even though my own state of Maryland would have been drifting out there as well." Bolton didn't want a reluctant embrace of New Deal welfare politics, with a mix of race baiting, like that of Nixon or Rockefeller. Radical destruction from the outside became his perennial mission.
At another level, Bolton was attracted to the conservative movement by its mockery of the liberal establishment. During his years at Yale, John he enjoyed his status as a far right outcast. He became more aware of his political identity and position: “I was just as much of a libertarian conservative at Yale as I had been in 1964, and given the prevailing campus political attitudes, I might as well have been a space alien.” He recalls the influence of a William F. Buckley debate against a prominent Yale Political Club liberal. Bolton even professed opposition to co-ed integration on campus at the time. Although he doesn't mention it, it's clear that Buckley's 1951 book God and Man at Yale had a profound influence on him. Buckley claimed to be one of the few at Yale who opposed professors and students seeking to "subvert religion and individualism." He went on the reject the notions of "academic freedom: and "impartiality" in University studies, rejecting the core foundation of the Enlightenment education. Clearly, Bolton mimicked Buckley's contempt for the status quo.
During campus protests for Bobby Seale, John Bolton remarked that "intolerant radicalism posed an even greater change to intellectual freedom than the hated Joe McCarthy in the 1950s. Then, at least, the threat came from outside the university; this time, the barbarians were inside the gates." In a sense, he enjoyed his self-perceived status as an outsider. Bolton faithfully performed his duty regardless of failure or success. He was a crusader against the unenlightened masses At a Class Day speech in 1970, in which he claimed to have been intensely heckled, he assured his audience that the “conservative underground is alive and well here; if we do not make our influence felt, rest assured we will in the real world.” As a self-proclaimed "fighter" in the style of Barry Goldwater, the prevailing radical political climate of the 1960s made him feel like a rebellious celebrity on campus.
Despite his obsession with war, John Bolton has an extreme distaste for conflicts commanded by liberals. This is not because of any sense of morality, but because he believes liberals have a weak stomach for doing what it takes to defeat the enemy - whatever that may be. After graduating from Yale, he quickly enlisted in the National Guard to avoid serving in Vietnam. He justifies dodging the draft by arguing that “dying for your country was one thing, but dying to gain territory that antiwar forces in Congress would simply return to the enemy seemed ludicrous to me.” H.R. McMaster's book Dereliction of Duty has a similar tone. In it, the former National Security Adviser blames the loss of the Vietnam War on the decisions of liberal establishment figures, such as Lyndon Johnson and Robert McNamara. This sort of "stabbed in the back" theme is a common far right narrative dating back to the German nationalist reaction to the Versailles Treaty. In such historical moments, intense feelings of guilt and shame follow a loss in war and ignite a powerful reactionary backlash.
This part of John Bolton's autobiography suggests that he is less of a departure from the current way of doing things. Bolton is more of a continuation of figures like William Buckley and H.R. McMaster. When liberals sound the alarm about the unprecedented horribleness of conservative figures, ignoring the context that ties them into the long conservative tradition, they fall into several mistakes. The conservative movement has reached such a climax that if we fail to understand its trajectory, fighting it will be incredibly hard. On the other hand, painting figures like Bolton as unique monsters lets other conservatives off the hook, hiding the blood sucking and cannibalism that has always been at the heart of conservatism. In the end, historical figures of the Right whom liberals respect gave us the likes of John Bolton.
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