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Beyond Left and Right: INSURGENCY AND THE ESTABLISHMENT

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The conflicts between liberals and conservatives, or between Democrats and Republicans, are not the real political battles in America in the 20th Century. The thesis of "Beyond Left and Right" is that the real political battle has been between the Populists from within the Democratic and Republican and many of the Third parties, on the one hand, and the Statists from within the Democratic and Republican parties, on the other hand.

The underlying motivations behind the political issues that are concerns today, and how they are portrayed by politicians, activists and the media, are better understood by seeing them in the context of our history as told by this book. We learn that the current concerns with the transference of missile technology to China, or with sex and violence on TV, or with political support of GATT and NAFTA, or with factions within the major parties, are not new and not inexplicable. These issues are part of a pattern of events that have a purpose that serves segments of the populace that have their own political and commercial objectives.

David A Horowitz describes countless political issues that pitted politicians from factions of one of the two major parties, or from third parties, against the establishment of either or both of the two major parties. The scope of the book is 1880 to 1992, but the focus is on the period from 1914 to 1963. Horowitz reinterprets major events such as The New Deal, WWII, McCarthyism and the Civil Right Movement. The list of politicians who either supported or pandered to populist views includes: Teddy Roosevelt, Joe McCarthy, George Wallace, John Anderson, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and Ross Perot.

The thesis of the book requires no conspiracy theory to support it, only a cohesive portrayal of the events of this century. Seen in isolation, or observed without an understanding of the Populist point of view, many of positions taken by the two major parties towards the events either defy explanation or appear random. Seen in context, these positions fit a pattern of benefiting those who favor a large and powerful central government, large and monopolistic business enterprises, and central planning ... and major factions within both the Democratic and Republican parties are working towards these ends. Standing opposed are the Populists who favor limited national government, small business, and local control ... and likewise, major factions within both the Democratic and Republican parties are working towards these ends, as are many of the Third parties.

Clearly, factions within the two major parties are inevitable. These are factions among the many issue groups that have an array of views on every issue. What's more, from a reading of "Beyond Left and Right", it is clear that there are more than two major political points of view, and that there is a need for more than two major parties. It is overly simplistic to try to sort every view into either liberal or conservative, or Democratic or Republican. There are at least three major constituencies. Big labor, the working poor, and the underclass all rely on Big Government for laws and programs in order to get a bigger piece of the pie: Democrats. Big business, banking and finance, and the professions all rely on Big Government for laws and programs to secure their positions, incomes and wealth: Republicans. Small business, family farms, insular ethnics, religious evangelicals, and the independent-minded middle class all desire Small Government, to restrict monopolies, price fixing, union shops, and income redistribution, and to protect individual liberty: Populists. Populists have always worked within the two major parties in order to advance their agendas, and have often succeeded in electing a populist to the House or Senate, and from time to time to the Presidency, from either one party or the other.