Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
36 of 39 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Principles above partisanship, August 13, 2006
The marriage between the Republicans and conservatives has been a loveless and unsatisfying marriage. The Republicans keep "stumbling home after midnight, smelling of booze and cheap perfume." And it is time for the marriage to come to an end.
Conservatives Betrayed: How George W. Bush and Other Big Government Republicans Hijacked the Conservative Cause by Richard Viguerie thoroughly lists, more than any other resource I can think of, the balance of indiscretions the Republicans have visited upon conservatism under the Presidency of George W. Bush (and even before that election). The days of the Contract With America are long gone and replaced with what can only appear to be a very similar spending philosophy of Democrats.
Viguerie systematically dissects the policies of the George W. Bush administration in the key areas of foreign policy, immigration, the right to life, the culture of life, the courts, and taxation. He shows beyond a reasonable doubt that the canard that this is one of the most extreme right-wing administrations in history is absolutely absurd. Sure, Bush has thrown conservatives some carrots, but he has shown that he's more than willing to grow the federal government and not buck the system. He, after all, has only recently cast his first veto and has used no rescissions to block pork barrel spending.
Chart after chart, figure after figure, the book painstakingly reveals what is apparent to most conservatives, George Bush isn't one of them.
This disaffection has been brewing for some time and came to a head with the immigration debate. While the nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court and the UAE ports deal resulted in acquiescing to the grassroots conservatives, immigration showed the GOP literally telling conservatives to go to hell. The argument was that by leaving the Republican plantation, we got eight years of Clinton, so now we had to suck it down. If that statement seems like it is defecating on conservatives, that is because it is exactly what it is doing. Conservatives should shut up and keep sending money to the GOP. We should leave the governing to the elites.
This book is a challenge to that accepted logic and presents a game plan to attempt to bring principles back into politics. The central premise is that conservatives should stop being wedded to the GOP and start being a movement that hopefully brings both parties into line or at least gives us an occasional chance to vote against the GOP candidate without implicitly supporting a repugnant alternative.
The status quo will lead to the situation we have here in Illinois -- party insider Rod Blagojevich running against party insider Judy Baar-Topinka with both having approval ratings on a good day rivaling President Bush. Not even party loyalists like their candidate. The state is on the verge of bankruptcy, in the worst financial shape of any other state, and there is no discernable difference (quite literally) between the policies of either party. Lastly, both are corrupt to the core having fair numbers of high-level staffers in both parties under federal indictment or conviction. That is the future of national politics if we do nothing... a bankrupt government, corrupt politicians, and sham elections between candidates no one likes.
One of the more scandalous, but most insightful, suggestions is dropping support for the death penalty. This stand, more than others, directly contradicts the general conservative support for a culture of life and undermines the moral authority that would otherwise be present if that stand was not there. Controversial, yes, but spot on.
The missing piece of the puzzle, however, is a social justice component (and I don't mean that term in the typical regressive way). Only one sentence of the book makes mention of communities supporting their members but the fact is, there are times where people will need a helping hand from others. Disasters strike, illnesses drain life savings, people die, and so on. A political ideology that does not explicitly have a plan on how to handle those situations is one that leaves a large portion of the population as a captive audience to the left and big government. Big government may not effectively meet people's needs, however many view it as "better than nothing". Arguing against minimum wage laws makes good economic sense, but is politically meaningless when there is no response to the fact some people simply don't earn enough for their families. The argument must seek to address this, and that comes by creating a <a href="http://jcb.pentex-net.com/archives/2006/05/toward_a_living.html">living wage</a> by reducing the cost of living (most of which comes in the form of taxation or increased cost of regulations passed down to the consumer).
Further, if an effective conservative movement is to be founded and empowered, it will take more than focusing on politics. Liberty is impossible unless it includes both political and economic liberty. Likewise, reform is impossible unless it includes both political and economic aspects. The book mentions Google and Yahoo as regressive-supporting companies. There needs to be conservative equivalents so people can vote with their pocketbooks. Arguing for conservative principles while supporting regressive causes (by using companies that are in the tank with regressive causes) is self-defeating, or at least self-impeding.
The book is exactly what it purports itself to be, a starting point and a moment to reflect. It is a quick read and should have nothing foreign for anyone moderately informed about politics. The disaffection of conservatives is a growing one and now, more than ever, is the opportunity to fight for the principles we believe in. Viguerie includes several steps to take to the field of battle which involves common people to run for office, or at least take effort to support conservatives over Republicans. It won't be until common people run for office that we'll have any real reform, or at least a return to some attempt at representing common people instead of the enfranchised elites.
In 2006, when only Congressional seats are up for grabs, conservatives have the chance to make it clear to Republicans that conservatism will win or lose elections for them, just as MoveOn has just proved that moderate and sensible Democrats like Joe Lieberman are not welcome in the Democratic Party. If conservatives engage the political system now, we can win. If we fall silent, we will become like Illinois, where all the potential leaders and talent flee the state and surrender it to the left. For now, Republicans have won only because of the incompetence of the Democrats; that will not be the case forever.
The question is: can we put principle above partisanship?
|
|
|
17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Well-Written Conservative Salvo Against Betrayal in Republican Ranks, August 23, 2007
~Conservatives Betrayed: How George W. Bush and Other Big Government Republicans Hijacked the Conservative Cause~ describes the intellectual bankruptcy of so called 'Big Government Conservatism,' which is an oxymoronic cliche if there every was one. Neoconservatism was the product of Old Left New Dealers that vacated the Democratic Party because of its perceived social radicalism in the 1960s and 1970s. Though, they were very much content with the New Deal welfare state and hoped to make it operate more efficiently. They gravitated towards Republican-affiliated think tanks and the halls of political power. Eventually they became the core intellectual intelligentsia of the two successive Bush administrations, with neocons holding key cabinet positions. Neoconservatives laud the statesmanship of Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman. Viguerie observes, "As he pursued these policies, President Bush's strongest support came from Big Government Republicans and from so-called 'Big Government conservatives' who, of course, are not conservatives at all." Viguerie continues, "Now, these 'Big Government conservatives' -- sometimes confusingly called 'neoconservatives' -- have not been shy about their intentions to hijack (or, from their point of view, 'lead') the conservative movement. Irving Kristol, often called the 'grandfather of neoconservatism,' wrote in The Weekly Standard (August 25, 2003) of `the historical task and political purpose of neoconservatism:' `to convert the Republican Party, and American conservatism in general, against their respective wills, into a new kind of conservative politics suitable to governing a modern democracy.'" Viguerie hits the nail on the head -- the Republican Party has been hijacked. It's no longer helmed by the principled conservatives who once called for fiscal conservatism, limited government, and devolving power and authority back to states and localities in favor of dual federalism and the Tenth Amendment.
In this trenchant analysis, Vigurie offers a principled conservative broadside against the current Republican administration under George W. Bush and the Congress. The Republicans have given us a failed foreign policy and a failed domestic policy. After the publication of this book, conservative voters tired of the status quo apparently stayed home, and a few switched sides. Hence, the new Democratic Congressional majority in 2007 has made its ascendancy. The Republicans had their shot for a true blue Republican Revolution and making good on the promises of 1994, but they blew it. He demonstrates how the Republicans have compromised on every major front, whether in the culture war or in maintaining some semblance of fiscal responsibility in the federal government. As political humorist P.J. O'Rourke penned, "The Democrats are the party that says government will make you smarter, taller, richer, and remove the crabgrass on your lawn. The Republicans are the party that says government doesn't work and then they get elected and prove it." The Republicans have certainly proved that government doesn't work, and Vigurie documents it chapter-by-chapter.
Viguerie surmises the failure of twentieth-century American liberalism as its rejection of "the core principles and values of Western Civilization." The Judeo-Christian foundation has been swept aside and supplanted with moral relativism and ever-increasing government. But as Viguerie notes, "Moral relativism only breeds moral chaos, and ever-bigger government simply doesn't work. Big Government doesn't solve problems, it magnifies them." Mindful of the Republican Party's failure, Viguerie concedes that "much of the machinery of the conservative movement has been hijacked by people who do not believe in the core principles of conservatism." For all practical purposes, the political Left defines and dominates the American political discourse, and the GOP establishment more often than not is parroting the rhetoric and agenda of the Left (p. xxi). If left to examine the federal budget bloat, and the growth of federal spending during the last few years under a Republican President and Republican Congress, many conservatives would have trouble believing that its not Democrats calling all the shots. Despite, fervent Democratic criticism of the contemporary Republican administration, the Left perhaps accomplished much more of its agenda with the Republican Congress at the helm than it ever did during the Clinton years. For the past six years, the GOP had a virtual lock on the federal government controlling a majority in both houses of the Congress and having a man in the White House. So, they must take the blame and accept accountability for this despondent state of affairs.
In 1994, with the so called Republican Revolution, the prospect of devolution of usurped authority, from the feds back to the states seemed quite tenable. However, within a few years came the concurrent disillusion and realization amongst principled conservatives that it was simply politics as usual in Washington, D.C. When the GOP finally gained ascendancy in the twenty-first century - controlling both the White House and Congress - their betrayal of conservative principles was made manifest for the world to see.
The Republican disloyalty to the conservative principle of keeping education as a local matter is another example of rank GOP compromise. The U.S. Department of Education got its start in 1979 during the Carter years as a payoff to the Leftist teacher's union which favored aggressive centralization of education policy and a national curriculum, in spite of its dubious constitutionality. As Viguerie observes, between 2000 and 2005, discretionary federal spending on education increased an astounding 60 percent. The No Child Left Behind Act has demonstrated an array of unintended consequences, such as compelling teachers to teach for the test while it impedes the quality of programs for exceptionally gifted students.
Richard A. Viguerie deserves praise for putting loyalty to principle over partisan loyalty. He flat out says that if certain principals amongst Republican leadership aren't worth voting for than don't vote for them. Nonetheless, he urges conservatives to take their party back, and I believe the GOP can still be a vehicle for conservative, constitutionalist political activism. As a supporter of the 2008 Ron Paul Presidential campaign, I believe there is hope for a serious grassroots Republican activism that is principled, conservative and constitutionalist. The American Conservative Encyclopedia writes of Vigurie, "Of all the conservative activists in the field of politics over the last few decades, perhaps none has had as profound an impact as Richard Viguerie." Vigurie gained acclaim for his innovation in direct mail campaigning which practically set the stage for the Reagan Revolution, mobilizing the conservative electorate. Viguerie is a man who believed in that rhetoric about limited government and free-markets that Reagan uttered in his First Inaugural. He still thinks conservatives should stand their ground and contend in earnest for it.
Other recommendations:
Impostor: How George W. Bush Bankrupted America and Betrayed the Reagan Legacy by Bruce Bartlett
|
|
|
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Highly recommended for its thought-provoking content, December 8, 2006
Written by Richard A. Viguerie, who in 1999 was cited as one of the Washington Times' thirteen "Conservatives of the Century", Conservatives Betrayed: How George W. Bush and Other Big Government Republicans Hijacked the Conservative Cause is a fierce attack upon the Bush administration from the conservative point of view. Viguerie does not speak for the neo-conservatives, who have drastically inflated spending and expanded federal government; he speaks for the old conservatives who believed in the values of fiscal restraint and small government, and who recognize the threat that excessive national debt - much of which is now owed to powers overseas! - poses to national security and to America's future, as more and more of America's annual budget must be applied to interest payments alone. Viguerie is emphatically a social conservative as well as a fiscal conservative; he speaks strongly against "obese government" characterized by excessive bureaucracy, pork-barrel spending, and mounting deficits; the social ills caused by uncontrolled illegal immigration; abortion; judicial activism; and more. Though not all readers will agree with Viguerie's opinions about the "culture war" in America and some will find his antagonistic attitudes toward illegal immigrants and homosexuals distasteful, his core exhortations against wasteful government spending are a desperately needed wake-up call. Even more valuable is his suggestion that conservative voters disassociate themselves from any one party and become a block whose favor needs to be wooed by both parties, in order to exert more influence and power - a suggestion that holds merit for any political subsection. Highly recommended for its thought-provoking content, regardless of whether the reader personally agrees with Viguerie on all points.
|
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
by David Horowitz
by Barry Goldwater
