When [Weekly] Standard reviewers attack authors, even if there is no explicit political argument, you assume there is some sort of political vendetta at work. It is impossible to parse out whether they dislike something because it is bad art or bad politics. ... It is especially annoying because the Standard claims to know better. There is more than one respectable answer to the question of whether art can be separated from politics, but there is no doubt what the Standard's answer would be. The magazine and its neoconservative comrades complain incessantly about the alchemy of ideology and aesthetics.
—Frankline Foer, 1997, "But Is It Art Criticism?"
The easiest point to make about Tom Clancy, who died on Tuesday at the age of 66, is that he was a mediocre writer who penned books with noxious political messages. ...
Clancy's politics can best be described as Rambo-esque: The blame for American military defeat can best be paid at the feet of pointy-headed intellectuals and the media; America would be a better and stronger country if we would just let our tough guys take care of business; America is a great country, but government bureaucrats hold us back. The key difference was that Rambo was somewhat of a counter-cultural figure, with his long hair and alternative lifestyle. Clancy's heroes are basically boring, straight, all-Americans. (Jack Ryan is jokingly referred to as a "boy-scout".)
I recently read a quote from Clancy where he stated, "The U.S. military is us. There is no truer representation of a country than the people that it sends into the field to fight for it." What his books argue, however, is essentially the opposite of this statement. The military and intelligence services are as superb as one could wish for, but the rest of American society has let them down. Actually, American society would be a lot stronger if it were only 16-year-olds who thought this. The popularity of Clancy and his books show that this sort of thinking is disturbingly widespread.
—Isaac Chotiner, 2013, "Tom Clancy Is Dead, But His Frightening Political Worldview Is Alive and Well."
Chotiner's piece appeared at the New Republic. Foer, of course, is the current editor of that august journal.