The Right Nation: Conservative Power in America

by Adrian Wooldridge and John Micklethwait

Book Overview

The Right Nation is not "for" liberals, and it's not "for" conservatives. It's for any of us who want to understand one of the most important forces shaping American life. How did America's government... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1594200203
• ISBN13: 9781594200205
• Release Date: May 2004
• Publisher: Penguin Press
• Length: 464 Pages
• Weight: 1.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 6.4" x 9.4"

Customer Reviews

Excellent analytical treatment

The most revealing aspect of the reviews here is that the negative ones are from people who object to the trends this book recounts, rather than to the analysis per se. But whatever your politics, this is an outstanding dissection of the political right in America -- of its components today, how they developed and coalesced, and their context in the world and US history. _The Right Nation_ situates the development of the right in the generally conservative tendency of American political history: our government has always been smaller with less intervention in business and social institutions, and less redistribution, than that of peer nations. Even our New Deal and Great Society, the height of the American left, were small and conservative in international terms. But after several decades of Democratic dominance, the left cashed in a little too hard on the dismal Republican failures that led to Democratic realignment in 1932. This is best exemplified by the nomination of George McGovern for president in 1972, though the weight of this burden on the Democratic party was obscured for a short time by another Republican disaster in Watergate. The constituent parts of contemporary conservatism -- social and economic -- took note. For very different reasons, the social conservatives, especially religious and Southern voters, anti-tax, pro-business interests, and a growing intellectual wing of the conservative movement (nurtured by a few extremely wealthy "eccentrics" unhappy with the Democratic party and the formerly dominant "country club" Republicans), began coalescing against the agenda of the Democratic party. Barry Goldwater has gone from a political pariah demolished in the 1964 presidential election to a symbol for a movement, a man ahead of his time. More fundamental than the overreach of the Democrats in causing this, however, is simple demography in the US -- the population continues to shift south and west, to areas populated with highly religious, socially conservative voters with a strong taste for liberal gun ownership laws and little reason to look for coalitions, let alone social cues, across the Atlantic. It is this continuing shift that has made a conservative nation even more exceptional, and that controls political positioning whether Republicans continue to win elections or not. Whether you cheer for these developments or not, the authors of _The Right Nation_ are the messengers. Perhaps it says something about their effectiveness in crystallizing these trends that opponents of them transfer their anger to the book itself.

An important perspective on American politics

This review is late in the season as far as the 2004 campaign goes, but it is an important read for anyone interested in our political landscape. As with de Tocqueville, it takes someone with "another perspective" to appreciate what we have. This book explains very well -- and not in an adversial or promotional way - where our politics have arrived. And why Democrats are so intent on defeated "W." And why our so-called "allies" in Europe are so lukewarm. I recommend this book highly, although some convservatives may not care for some of its observations.

An interesting perspective on American conservatism.

A truly innovative read, and I wanted to give this book a 4.5 star rating, but that's not possible. The half star deduction was for what I consider some minor points in a subjective work. The authors present a lucid and interesting series of observations on just what makes the US different in it's domestic politics from other western countries, as well as the rest of the world. While most of the observations are accurate in my experience, the authors (who are british) due tend to get a little preachy about things they don't agree with in the US, but it's pretty subtly done as well. Particuarly, some of their views on American capitalism is a bit uninformed in my opinion, or maybe they have their own British prejudices towards "economic justice", although I consider that unlikely. Regardless, the scope of the book ranges from history of the foundation of the American political system, the present administration, American culture and attitudes, economic and sociological trends, as well as the theoretical underpinnings of the US constitution and the reasons such agressive capitalism isn't just tolerated, but encouraged so much in the US when it is more constrained in other developed countries. Some of the insights and theories are presented clearly and thoroughly, as well as comparisons with other states and observations by indivudals associated with a related cause or ideology. In fact, the best part of the book, was the detailed analysis and breakdown of America's particular brand of conservatism (as a hybrid of classical conservatism and classical liberalism), which was very much on the money as far as I am concerned. The section on future trends was quite revealing as well, and one can only hope, we (as a country) avoid the potholes in the road of progress that the authors have noted to lie before us. In summation, an excellent and informative book which should be required reading for anyone seeking to understand the US conservative phenomena in more detail.

Fair and balanced (if you'll pardon the expression) and fun

I walked through the current-events section of a brick-and-mortar bookstore recently and was amazed by the mass of anti-Bush books on the shelves. They're everywhere. A cottage industry. If the Clinton-haters dialed into talk radio, the Bush-haters are all hunched over their keyboards, pouring their spleen onto the page.It's a little discouraging, then, that this great book -- "The Right Nation: Conservative Power in America" -- should come out in the midst of all this noise. My fear is that people will see it as just one more "exposé" of the evil right-wingers and their malevolent influence on the country.If that's what you're looking for, you're bound to be disappointed. This is, in fact, a thoroughly researched and marvelously fair look at the rise of conservatism as a political force in America. More than that, it's a fascinating look at why America is a fundamentally conservative place, and why even liberal Democrats -- on the far Left by U.S. standards -- would be centrists, or even conservatives themselves, in Europe. While this last may be an unpleasant idea for the American Left to have to entertain, even readers on that side of the political spectrum will find a lot in here to recommend it.Especially useful, I thought, was the authors' discussion of the true role and influence of the much-maligned neo-conservatives. Far from their alleged role as the dark masterminds behind unilateralism, preemption, and other Bad Things in American foreign policy, Micklethwait and Wooldridge argue that (a) the neo-cons are less influential than popularly imagined, and (b) that Bush's decisions and policies are consistent with the broad range of conservative opinion, not the product of an obscure Straussian corner of it. With all the hysterical attention given to the neo-cons these days, this part of M & W's discussion struck me as refreshingly calm and reasonable.With the analytical distance that comes from not being Americans themselves, Micklethwait and Wooldridge have keen insights into the successes and failures, the good and the bad, of American conservatism. And while their work is insightful and thorough, it's also well written, engrossing, and even, from time to time, flat-out funny. Its polished prose makes it easy to read, and the balance of personalities and issues keeps it from getting mired down in obscure policy debates or analysis of election returns. I was fortunate to be able to dive into its pages for hours at a time, and seldom found myself bored or skimming.From the vast sea of ink spilled on the Iraq War, the American Empire, Halliburton, Karl Rove, the neo-cons, Texas, and other evils -- plus George W. Bush's apparent ability to be simultaneously bottomlessly stupid and an evil genius -- every so often, a real gem floats to the surface. "The Right Nation" is one of those gems. Scoop it up and enjoy it.

Understand why the Right dominates the Nation's agenda.

This is a very interesting, very well written, and researched book. It investigates why the Right and extreme Right political movement in America has a disproportionate influence on the Nation's politics. The authors make a strong case that this movement's success is in part due to its focus on simple values that are easy to understand and sell. How can one debate the benefits of free capitalism? If you don't accept them move to Russia don't you. How can one debate family values? That is like attacking Santa Claus. You just can't do that. However, the unquestioned acceptance of such basic principles get extrapolated into often unreasonable ideological extremes. The free capitalism bit quickly turns out into a libertarian anti-government and anti-tax movement no matter what the circumstances. Similarly, the family value ethos sounds fine by itself, but it often turns into a religious anti abortion crusade unique within the Western World. Thus, the Right becomes pretty quickly the extreme Right whenever it's resulting beliefs are extrapolated to the max, and are compared not only to Democrats but to any other Western country. The authors make the surprising finding that the most reliable indicator of one's party affiliation is not income, but instead church attendance. You thought that Islam was a religious culture and America a secular one. It is not so simple. The Democrats only represent the secular component of our culture; the Republicans are very religious. The authors further state that the Right is very well organized, well funded, and brain-powered. Indeed, the authors mention several prominent economic think tanks who have direct access to our conservative White House and make a relentless case for continuing tax cuts. These cuts could eventually cause the demise of Medicare and Social Security that are so unfunded it is scary. The authors suggest that the Liberals have not focused on certain issues as effectively as the Right. Even though they may dominate the media [Liberals] they have not mounted effective rebuttals to some of the Right's arguments.The author also make a funny case that as more people live in planned communities they become anti-government oriented. This is because they pay for many local services out of homeowners dues. Even though they may have a case, my firsthand experience having lived in a condominium association for nearly 20 years is that such shared living arrangements are hotbeds of socialism thinking. Yes, they maybe anti-government to some degree, but the condominium association has become a de facto substitute for a paternalistic and socialist government Scandinavian style. In such living arrangement, homeowners do not want to assume the economic risk and responsibility of homeownership anymore. They expect to transfer all related costs onto the condominium association whether this makes any sense or not. So, are these planned communities hotbed of conservatism. It really depends