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2 reviews for:
Why the Right Went Wrong: Conservatism--From Goldwater to the Tea Party and Beyond
E.J. Dionne Jr.
4.0 AVERAGE
2 reviews for:
Why the Right Went Wrong: Conservatism--From Goldwater to the Tea Party and Beyond
E.J. Dionne Jr.
4.0 AVERAGE
Political conservatism has a long and distinguished history and pedigree going all the way back to Edmund Burke and his criticisms of Rousseau and the French Revolution. Yet I think he and many other conservatives like him would roll over in their graves upon being labelled as too moderate or- gasp!- liberal for today's conservatives in the United States. How has conservatism come to name-calling and calls for police monitoring and/or forced deportation of of entire populations? In this very nuanced book, Mr. Dionne takes a look at the history of American conservatism from the Goldwater campaign in 1964 to today's Tea Party. His central argument is that the conservatives have been lied to or fed false hopes by the Republican establishment for decades, which feeds back into a narrative of big government conspiracy and betrayal that has been apart of conservatism since the New Deal. And with each seeming failure of the Republican party to capture the White House or downsize the federal government, voters and politicians in Republican primaries have pushed the party even further right. His conclusion is that American conservatism and the Republican party need to reexamine old orthodoxies and draw inspiration from moderate conservatives like Pres. Dwight Eisenhower as models for how one can still be conservative in principle, yet manage the problems that face our country today. What is interesting is that, though he declares himself to be a liberal, the author actually stated that he grew up conservative for many years in his preface. Thus there isn't the typical sniping and condescension at the other side that has become the hallmark of other political writers today like Ann Coulter. Indeed, the author has a healthy respect and even admiration for what conservatism has meant for America in the past and what it could mean for America in the future. He even has a few wise words of wisdom for liberals in his concluding chapters. Since I am a liberal who has grown up with conservative family members in a mostly conservative part of the country, this approach appeals greatly to me. However, there are some problems in this book that keep me from giving it five stars. As I said before, this book is a very nuanced look at the last 50+ years of conservatism, at times too nuanced. He often delves into the minutiae of polling data to make his central argument over and over again. Thus, for some people his book may sound like a lot of today's pop music at times: same chords, different lyrics. Also, there are a lot of missing conjunctions and misspellings, which tells me that the author and the editor seemed to rush this book to publication, hoping that spell and grammar check caught most of the mistakes for them. Still, this is the best book on American conservatism I have read since [b:What's the Matter with Kansas? How Conservatives Won the Heart of America|54666|What's the Matter with Kansas? How Conservatives Won the Heart of America|Thomas Frank|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1440704979s/54666.jpg|74517] and I highly recommend it to all my friends who are looking for some perspective on this year's presidential election.