NeoCons as ex-leftist Nihilistic authoritarians

Crooks and Liars send us to Arthur who takes a look at Hitch and Michelle. It is an interesting trip.

...in their transition from left to right, their worship of the State and of authoritarianism generally is the one constant that has remained unchanged for these leftists-turned-neoconservatives. In addition, as I explained here, these newly-minted rightists were leftists of a particular kind: they were vicious nihilists—and nihilists they remain. David Horowitz is the perfect representative of this kind of intellectually backward thug.

Hitchens is telling a vicious lie when he maintains that these “old leftists” and contemporary neoconservatives “have a commitment to liberal democracy.” They didn’t then, and they don’t now. What they revere is the authoritarian state, which would dictate every aspect of our lives both here and abroad.

He [Hitchins] views war possibly on a worldwide scale as “a pleasure,” and doesn’t “regard it as a grim task at all.” Easy for him to say, the lying bastard. He’s not likely to be on the front lines, or anywhere near them.
This is the mentality of the Apocalyptic Crusader, the man who yearns for sacred violence and death as the means of purification of a corrupted world—the destruction which is indispensable in his view for the creation of a new totalitarian state. From that perspective, he and our actual enemies are genuine soulmates—which is, not coincidentally but by the inner logic of the premises they both share, why they are locked in this battle to the death.

The point is that the NeoCons are authoritarian Nihilists. They make a mantra of "creative destruction" but can achieve only the second half. Take a look at Iraq Today by Dexter Filkins of the New York Times.