Customer Reviews

UP FROM CONSERVATISM: Why the Right is Wrong for America

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Coming from a family of conservative Southern Democrats, I've been looking for a book like this for a long time. Lind's writing style really does need some work - most of this book gives the impression of being rather hastily composed, and it could've benefited from a more heavy-handed editor. Still, you can't fault Lind for his ideas, which are generally right on. He does a good job of explaining the political frustration of many average Americans: their basic conservatism makes them wary of the weirdo left, but also causes them to be disgusted by the reactionary radicalism which passes for "conservatism" in modern American political discourse. Good job, but next time, polish up that writing a little more, Mike...

Two concepts come to mind whenever I read one of Michael Lind's books: erudition and sheer intellectual brilliancy. This book is another example of that. Mr. Lind argues that Conservatism (championed by the Republicans) is at best dead wrong and at worst downright evil regarding almost all important political and social issues in modern American life. In this book Mr. Lind debunks all the myths and lies on which the Republican platform rests. This is a book you will thoroughly enjoy.

If you are planning on reading this book then I would suggest that you get a good nights sleep, fix some strong coffee, and find a comfortable chair. This is a book that requires more then the average amount of concentration. I think the author wanted everybody to know that he had a very good education and understanding of the topic, because he certainly did not make the book light and easy to read. To be honest I was looking for a book that gave me a run down of all the things that a Democrat would dislike about the far right wing of the Republican Party. The book does provide some of this information, but you need to work at it to get it.

The author spends the majority of his time on the economic issues and how the conservatives differ from the main stream of America. He also talks a good deal on how the spin is put out by the conservatives to make the average person think that strong political policies that benefit only a few of the richest in America somehow will help the middle class. Overall the book is interesting and well thought out. I think maybe the editor should have forced the author to cut out some of the more difficult to work through areas, there are some chapters that have 15 different "isums" in them, how is one to keep them all straight. The author did hit some of my frustrations with the conservatism movement. It is just that I doubt it will ever get a wider audience given its tough to work through writing.

I actually read this book several years ago when it was first released. At the time, I was a little bit skeptical about the veracity of some of Lind's claims. Is the modern day conservative movement really anti-Semitic? Is race still the main underlying force behind America's rather stark turn to the political right over the last decade? I doubted him then - though I also had my skepticisms about Pat Robertson, etal - and I laugh at him today.

The defection of Pat Buchanan to the Reform Party in the midst of the 2000 Presidential Campaign was a subtle, but important moment in the history of American conservatism. Lind's theories would indicate that Buchanan's race-baiting (which, frankly, is something more often practiced by the left than the right) would successfully woo hoards of conservatives away from the Republican party. The theories advanced in this book would

Yet, I opened my newpaper today and saw that Buchanan - armed with $13 million in campaign money - is polling at 1% in the 2000 race. George W. Bush, who has given speeches in Spanish and who spoke to the NAACP and is promising powerful offices to the likes of Colin Powell and Conde Rice, is in a dead heat with Al Gore and has the full backing of America's conservatives.

Lind fails to identify the real undercurrents of the conservative movement. It's not race. It isn't religion. It isn't homophobia. Despite Lind's claims to the contrary, conservatives strive for complete color-blindness. The conservative movement champions less government and more individual freedom. It really is that simple and I wonder how a concept that easy to understand eluded Lind in his years of being a "conservative."