Why the Right Went Wrong: Conservatism--From Goldwater to the

Why the Right Went Wrong: Conservatism--From Goldwater to the Tea Party and Beyond

From the author of Why Americans Hate Politics, the New York Times bestselling and â€œnotably fair-mindedâ€ (The New York Times Book Review), story of the GOPâ€™s fracturingâ€”from the 1964 Goldwater takeover to the Trump spectacle.

Why the Right Went Wrong offers an â€œup to the momentâ€ (The Christian Science Monitor) historical view of the right since the 1960s. Its core contention is that American conservatism and the Republican Party took a wrong turn when they adopted Barry Goldwaterâ€™s worldview during and after the 1964 campaign. The radicalism of todayâ€™s conservatism is not the product of the Tea Party, Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne writes. The Tea Partiers are the true heirs to Goldwater ideology. The purity movement did more than drive moderates out of the Republican Partyâ€”it beat back alternative definitions of conservatism.

Since 1968, no conservative administrationâ€”not Nixon not Reagan not two Bushesâ€”could live up to the rhetoric rooted in the Goldwater movement that began to reshape American politics fifty years ago. The collapse of the Nixon presidency led to the rise of Ronald Reagan, the defeat of George H.W. Bush, to Newt Gingrichâ€™s revolution. Bush initially undertook a partial modernization, preaching â€œcompassionate conservatismâ€ and a â€œFourth Wayâ€ to Clintonâ€™s â€œThird Way.â€ Conservatives quickly defined him as an advocate of â€œbig governmentâ€ and not conservative enough on spending, immigration, education, and Medicare. A return to the true faith was the only prescription on order. The result was the Tea Party, which Dionne says, was as much a reaction to Bush as to Obama.

The state of the Republican party, controlled by the strictest base, is diminished, Dionne writes. It has become white and older in a country that is no longer that. It needs to come back to life for its own health and that of the countryâ€™s, and in Why the Right Went Wrong, Dionne â€œexpertly delineates where we are and how we got thereâ€ (Chicago Tribune)â€”and how to return.
Country USA
Manufacturer Simon & Schuster
Binding Kindle Edition
ReleaseDate 2016-01-19
Format Kindle eBook

Country	USA
Manufacturer	Simon & Schuster
Binding	Kindle Edition
ReleaseDate	2016-01-19
Format	Kindle eBook

Why the Right Went Wrong: Conservatism--From Goldwater to the Tea Party and Beyond

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