April 10, 2014 2:21PM 

# Ideas Have Consequences: The Neoconservatives 

By [Tim Lynch](https://www.cato.org/people/tim-lynch) 

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The *New York Times* has produced a useful video about the “super-predator” scare from the 1990s. At that time, we were already waging a drug war, so we were advised to [build more prisons](http://www.brookings.edu/research/opinions/1996/01/16crime-john-j-diiulio-jr)–and so we did. [Then](http://reason.com/archives/1999/08/01/prison-conversion) [regrets](https://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/population-bomb-behind-bars).

You can watch the video [here](http://www.nytimes.com/video/us/100000002807771/the-superpredator-scare.html).

As it happens, we are also finding more scrutiny of neoconservative ideas at the movies. A new documentary film directed by Errol Morris looks at former Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld and the Iraq war. Here is the film trailer:

For related Cato work, go [here](https://www.cato.org/multimedia/daily-podcast/neoconservatives-war), [here](http://www.cato-unbound.org/2011/03/07/c-bradley-thompson/neoconservatism-unmasked), and [here](https://www.cato.org/blog/neoconservatism).

##### Related Tags 

[Defense and Foreign Policy](https://www.cato.org/defense-foreign-policy), [Government and Politics](https://www.cato.org/government-politics), [Constitutional Law](https://www.cato.org/constitutional-law), [Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies](https://www.cato.org/robert-levy-center-constitutional-studies) 

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