The Conservatives Have No Clothes

Greg Anrig

Description

Why conservatism equals terrible government--and always will.

"Ending the conservative era requires organizing, yes, but also hard thinking and shrewd analysis. When progressives of the future look back at how they triumphed, one of the people they'll thank is Greg Anrig. Drawing inspiration from the work of the early neoconservatives who demolished public support for liberal programs, Anrig casts a sharp eye on conservative ideas and nostrums and shows that many of them simply don't work because they are rooted more in ideological dreams than in reality. Facts are stubborn things, Ronald Reagan once said, and Anrig makes good use of them in this important and engaging book."-E. J. Dionne, syndicated columnist and author of Why Americans Hate Politics
"Greg Anrig's wide-ranging and perceptive book looks beyond the ideology of the right and offers a persuasive account of the many policy failures that have emerged out of the conservative movement. Anrig has put the Bush administration and the right to a test that they themselves have carefully avoided. He has held them accountable not for their ideas, but for their performance."-Alan Brinkley, Allan Nevins Professor of History, Columbia University
"In this well-researched and witty book, Anrig critiques 'right-wing ideas' by examining what the policies and programs that embodied them have wrought over the last three decades.While giving several conservative ideas their due, he finds their record to be mixed at best."-John J. DiIulio Jr., political science professor and first director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives
"With fastidious research and unimpeachable facts, Greg Anrig establishes the sound proposition that competent governance is incompatible with disbelief in government. The odd combination of the religious right dictating personal morality, 'neoconservatism' preaching unilateral interventionism, and radical libertarian tax cuts have cast our Republic adrift from its moorings. Restoration of common sense to government is long overdue."-Gary Hart, Former United States Senator

Sujets

• Political Ideologies
• Political Science
• Liberalism
• Republican Party
• Federal government of the United States
• Conservative Party
• Conservatism
• Parti conservateur

Informations

• Publié par: Turner Publishing Company
• Date de parution: 01 septembre 2007
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781620458594
• Langue: English

Extrait

The Conservatives Have No Clothes
The Conservatives Have No Clothes
Why Right-Wing Ideas Keep Failing
GREG ANRIG

John Wiley Sons, Inc.
Copyright 2007 by Greg Anrig. All rights reserved
Published by John Wiley Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey
Published simultaneously in Canada
Wiley Bicentennial Logo: Richard J. Pacifico
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Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and the author have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales representatives or written sales materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation. You should consult with a professional where appropriate. Neither the publisher nor the author shall be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:
Anrig, Greg, date.
The conservatives have no clothes : why right-wing ideas keep failing / Greg Anrig.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 978-0-470-04436-0 (cloth)
1. Conservatism-United States. 2. United States-Politics and government. I. Title.
JC573.2.U6A57 2007
320.520973-dc22
2006100245
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To Gregory R. Anrig (1931-1993), a pragmatist who delivered on his lifelong commitment to improving educational opportunity for children
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
Introduction: We Never Believed in Progress Anyway
Part I: Ideas for Making America Safer and Stronger
1. A Heckuva Job : Politicizing the Government
2. The Nixon Doctrine: The Unitary Executive
3. We Will, in Fact, Be Greeted as Liberators : Benevolent Hegemony
Part II: Ideas for Making Government Smaller and More Efficient
4. Lucky Duckies: Tax Cuts for the Rich
5. Rocky Mountain Lows: State Tax-and-Spending Limits
6. Sophisticated Sabotage: Smart Regulation
Part III: Ideas for Replacing Government Monopolies with Market Competition
7. It Hasn t Worked Like We Thought It Would in Theory : Marketizing the Schools
8. Tough It Out : Health Savings Accounts and Malpractice Reform
9. A Sure Loser : Social Security Privatization
10. America s Real Problem-and How to Overcome It
Notes
Index
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Like the leading funders of the modern conservative movement, Edward A. Filene was a highly successful Republican businessman who devoted a substantial portion of his wealth toward developing government policy ideas. But Filene s central premises in 1919 when he endowed the Twentieth Century Fund, now known as the Century Foundation, were diametrically opposed to those motivating individuals like Richard Mellon Scaife, David H. and Charles G. Koch, John M. Olin, Joseph Coors, and the other leading funders of movement conservatism. A supporter of old-age pensions and unemployment insurance long before the New Deal, Filene believed that it was in the self-interest of corporate leaders to be what he called liberal. He wrote in 1923, I do not know of a better word for describing the sort of business man who, broadly speaking, is the opposite of a reactionary, the sort of business man who faces fresh problems with a fresh mind, who is more interested in creating a better order of things, who realizes that a private business is a public trust, and who has greater reverence for scientific method than for the traditions and majority opinions of his class. Filene argued that business executives should recognize that rising wages and increased purchasing power for all citizens would enable Americans to consume more of their companies products and services, and that government had a meaningful and legitimate role to play in propelling that virtuous cycle.
Today, the endowment of the Century Foundation (TCF), where I have had the good fortune to work since 1992, amounts to pocket change compared to the riches bestowed on its conservative movement counterparts in recent years. For TCF and most of the other relatively small number of underfunded, center-left think tanks trying to attract attention and support for our progressive arguments about policy in the face of the right s juggernaut has often been something like playing one-against-five basketball. But every now and then we ve managed to bat away our opponents shots while scoring on a few of our own. Those of us who work at the foundation have been highly motivated by a shared commitment to Filene s belief in the possibilities of social and economic progress through the application of hard-headed analysis drawing from real-world experience. His spirit animates this book.
My boss throughout my tenure at TCF has been its president, Richard C. Leone, who over the years presciently anticipated many of the failures arising from right-wing ideas that the book documents. Dick s service in a variety of public sector leadership positions, beginning as New Jersey treasury secretary, as well as an extended period toiling successfully on Wall Street, left him with an unusually nuanced understanding of the complex interplay between the public and private spheres. When he hears the conservative movement s mantras about the inherent superiority of the marketplace over government, anyone within earshot should be prepared for a detailed and impassioned disquisition about the superficiality of those claims and why it is simple-minded to view the two realms as engaged in nothing but zero-sum games. Under Dick s leadership, TCF has always strived to bring together leaders from both political parties and from business and government, to try to reach a consensus about the best course of action. Alas, that has become much harder to do as the Republican Party has become increasingly aligned with the brand of conservatism explored in this book. Dick Leone s insights have been enormously influential on me, and the country could have avoided a great deal of damage if it had had the opportunity to listen to him as closely as I have.
In researching and writing this book, I relied heavily on the input of my colleagues at TCF, who specialize in many of the topics covered, as well as the wide range of policy experts outside of TCF with whom I have had the opportunity to work over the years. I am especially grateful to the observations, advice, and suggestions of each of our policy team members: Morton I. Abramowitz, Alex Baker, Leif Wellington Haase, Richard Kahlenberg, Patrick Radden Keefe, Jeff Laurenti, Carl Robichaud, Michael Shtender-Auerbach, Emerson Sykes, Ruy Teixeira, Tova Andrea Wang, and Bernard Wasow. A number of my other TCF colleagues also provided various forms of moral and other support, including Loretta Ahlrich, Nezam Aziz, Suzanne Chang, Chavon Cox, Beverly Goldberg, Jennifer Grimaldi, Christy Hicks, Cynthia Maertz, Jason Renker, Carol Starmack, Stephanie Theirl, John Williams, and Aly Wolff-Mills.
Among the reviewers of one or more of my draft chapters who saved me from making errors while generously offering their ideas were Tom Baker, Gary Bass, Alan J. Borsuk, Jason Furman, Jeffrey R. Henig, Timothy Stoltzfus Jost, Donald F. Kettl, Iris Lav, David E. Lewis, Karen Lyons, Peter R. Orszag, Patrick S. Roberts, Mark Schmitt, Daniel A. Smith, Steve Weinberg, Amy Stuart Wells, and John Witte. Others who may not be cited directly but whom I have learned much from in connection with sundry Century Foundation-related collaborations include Henry Aaron, Dean Baker, Robert M. Ball, Alan Brinkley, Joseph A. Califano Jr., David Callahan, Brewster C. Denny, John Dilulio, Christopher Edley Jr., James K. Galbraith, Robert Greenstein, Jacob Hacker, Simon Head, Alan B. Krueger, Robert Kuttner, Jeffrey Madrick, Charles R. Morris, Alicia M. Munnell, Gary Orfield, John Podesta, Richard Ravitch, Arnold Relman, David Rusk, Stephen J. Schulhofer, David Smith, Robert Solow, Theodore C. Sorensen, Paul Starr, Kathleen M. Sullivan, Joseph White, and William Julius Wilson.
The book s genesis owes much to one of the leading progressive journalists and thinkers in the increasingly important political blogosphere, Joshua Micah Marshall. In the spring of 2005, Josh launched a spin-off group blog from his own widely read talkingpointsmemo.com called tpmcafe.com and asked me to be a regular contributor. Not long after, John Wiley Sons editor Eric Nelson, on the prowl for books that could try to compete with conservative best sellers, suggested after reading some of my posts at tpmcafe that we get together to discuss what became this book s main arguments. Given how consistently helpful and enthusiastic Eric has been in the months since our initial lunch, the path I have traveled beginning with Josh s generous invitation to contribut