Customer Reviews

Take Back the Right: How the Neocons and the Religious Right Have Betrayed the Conservative Movement

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is not your mother's election season knockoff. Philip Gold takes the reader on a fascinating personal and intellectual journey inside and outside the conservative movement from the Vietnam era to today. He skewers the movement for abdicating its responsibility to help govern America and for engaging in the politics of mass resentment.

But this is not just gang up on the right-wing time. No sacred cow is left unscathed. Gold dives into the Culture War, blasting the media, liberals, psychologists, Hollywood and anyone contributing to the coarsening, materialism, and "if it feels good, do it" mentality of society.

But Gold has a higher purpose here. He is really calling for all of us to take back the political dialogue in this country from the media, the ideologues, the pollsters, the pundits, etc. He is talking about a new concept of citizenship and civilization to unite us and guide our role in the world. Curious? You won't find a more intriguing or "out of the box" argument, and you'll have lots of fun along the way.

Philip Gold has rewritten the post-Korean War political history of the United States as if citizenship matters, and he does so lightly, with grace and humor, using the personal to make larger points. The book's title is something of a bait-and-switch, probably imposed upon him by publishers who like to stick to their formulas, for it hints at bad things that have happened, of which there are plenty.



But in fact, Take Back The Right is about the good things conservatism might have offered, and didn't, then. An answer to the civil rights movement that respected Black people's pain, while viewing them as more than the sum of the wounds inflicted upon them. A response to the gimme-gimme-gimme of the usual feminist suspects who proclaimed men evil: that civilization is nothing short of the public life men and women create together as equals, and must defend together. A principled, prudent objection to the Vietnam War. Nor does now: a foreign policy that addresses the fact that half the species is women; the case for gay marriage, there being no morally coherent opposition to it; the prudent, adult reasons for America risking unilateral rationality and withdrawing from Iraq; and the deep concerns over an economic policy that is bankrupting this nation and threatening its very future.



I am a long-time fan of Philip Gold's original, thoughtful articles in the conservative press, but here he steps beyond the constraints of the narrow, outworn categories of left and right, liberal and conservative, Republican and Democrat, to offer us something of enduring worth: an invitation for us to cease being taxpayers, or worse, consumers, and reclaim our birthright as citizens. People, men and women, of all races, religions and sexual orientations, coming together in public, to define and create an American civilization, and defend it against very real enemies.

I always thought that conservatives were intolerant, brain dead bigots. They are, BUT THIS GUY SHOWS THAT IT DIDN'T HAVE TO BE THAT WAY. He explains what went wrong and shows that it's not too late for conservatives, Provided they give up the ugliness and the phoniness. The nice thing is, Gold makes his points with good humor and forgiveness. I especially recommend the story of his encounter with the Barbie doll when he was in the MARINES. This has nothing to do with the book's themes, but I laughed for ten minutes after I read it.

Marianne Cramer

The title would lead one to expect a Coulter/Moore style flame-fest. The preface and introduction make clear, however, that Gold is offering a political-philosophical memoir. He will disappoint those who wish to be told what to do and think. Instead he offers his story as an entry point into a conversation about how, as involved citizens, we may preserve and even redeem our civilization.

Gold's perspective could be described as both conservative and liberal: conservative in his desire to preserve the best of our inherited traditions as ground to build from--liberal in his openess to new and necessary ideas. Notably, he insists on seeing the humanity in those he has disagreed with and even broken with.

As a personal reflection, memoir, this book can be mildly entertaining. However if you like I were waiting for some guidelines about forging a way to a more intelligent dialogue that goes beyond the partisan mud-slinging, that passes as "meaningful political discussion" these days, I and probably you will be disappointed. I felt there were two chapters that hinted at what these guidelines might be, and then there was a great deal of what the author complains about in others-"psychobable". As a pure memoir, if this book were described as such, I would had added a star, but if you read the prologue, and perhaps two chapters...the rest is a recycled idea that is never in my opinion flushed out fully. Too bad for the book starts out very promising

This book is not an objective,in depth look at how the neocons are harming the republican party. This book is the authors personal memoir and not a very good one at that. He does discuss politics among other things but leaves out any detailed analysis. It mainly consists of the author describing various events of his life with a few clumsy attempts at humor.