A young tory's unsparing critique of political conservatism in the
US and the divisive shambles its putative partisans have made of
their cause. In his morning-after analysis, the Canadian-born Frum
(a sometime Forbes columnist who now writes for The Financial Post)
casts a cold eye on the 12-year span during which Republicans
tenanted the White House. During the 1980s, he asserts, the
increasing incidence of drug abuse, ethnic balkanization, family
breakdown, and allied ills tempted some conservatives to cultivate
new constituencies while others cursed the dark. By the time the
Bush administration had petered out, he concludes, Reagan's bedrock
supporters had split into three mutually contemptuous factions:
optimists like Jack Kemp, who believe they can steer the ship of
the welfare state on a rightward course; moralists like William
Bennett, the former secretary of education; and isolationist
nationalists, of whom Pat Buchanan is the ranking exemplar. Having
done with internecine warfare, Frum goes on to dispute the notion
that the so-called religious right poses a threat to the body
politic, let alone to the secular left. As a practical matter, he
argues, fundamentalists view their deity in much the same way as
Great Society liberals thought of government: "a distant benevolent
agency that showers goodies upon all who ask, without demanding
anything much in return - except for the occasional campaign
contribution." Looking ahead to 1996 and beyond, the author sees
little future for the conservatives unless (probably at the cost of
immediate electoral gain) they return to their ideological roots,
which stress minimal government intervention, individual freedom,
self-reliance, personal probity, fiscal responsibility, and actual
(rather than rhetorical) cuts in federal spending. A clear guide to
the current fault lines in American conservatism by an author who
laments that the conservative revival has stalled. (Kirkus Reviews)
A Forbes columnist discusses the ideological breakdown of the
Republican Party, its failure to diminish the deficit or the size
of government in twelve years of control, and outlines a plan for
renewal through a return to basic issues.Part reportage, part
manifesto, Dead Right leads readers on a witty and opinionated tour
through the chaos of post-Reagan conservatism. It explains why the
Religious Right" is a phony menace , why President Reagan failed to
eliminate even one major spending program , why the 1992 Republican
convention, originally conceived as a cunning ploy, backfired , and
much more. David Frum analyzes the conservative movement's turn
away from the economic issues that dominated the 1980s to a new
preoccupation with race, ethnicity, and sex. He explains how and
why conservatives decided to stop fighting Big Government and start
using it. And he warns that a conservatism that loses its anti-Big
Government faith is doomed to futility. Dead Right dissects the new
conservative position on issues ranging from education to workfare,
immigration to enterprise zones, and ruthlessly scrutinizes the
leadership of the conservative movement. Always lively and
provocative, this is the one book that conservatives and their
critics must read to understand the past and future of the American
Right.
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