Trainwreck

Bill Press

Description

One of America’s best-known progressive commentators reveals that, far from betraying conservative ideals, George W. Bush’s administration has behaved exactly as anyone would expect of a group that believes government is evil and always doomed to failure. Bill Press demonstrates that conservative positions have remained consistently wrong, and that, from its inception, the movement was dedicated to tearing things down, not building them up. Trainwreck will convince you that the conservative movement has remained on track for decades—and that, from the beginning, those tracks were headed for disaster.

Sujets

• Political Parties
• Political Process
• Political Science
• Bill Press
• American politics
• Train wreck
• Political party
• Trainwreck

Informations

• Publié par: Turner Publishing Company
• Date de parution: 01 avril 2008
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781620458815
• Langue: English

Extrait

TRAIN WRECK
The End of the Conservative Revolution
(and Not a Moment Too Soon)
BILL PRESS

John Wiley Sons, Inc.
Copyright 2008 by Bill Press. All rights reserved
Published by John Wiley Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey Published simultaneously in Canada
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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:
Press, Bill, date.
Trainwreck : the end of the conservative revolution (and not a moment too soon) / Bill Press.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-470-18240-6 (cloth)
1. Conservatism-United States. 2. United States-Politics and government-2001- I. Title.
JC573.2.U6P76 2008
320.520973-dc22
2007044572
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For Mark and Cari
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
CHAPTER 1 Loving the Great Outdoors
CHAPTER 2 Restoring Honor and Dignity to Government
CHAPTER 3 Making Americans Safer
CHAPTER 4 A Safeguard against Tyranny
CHAPTER 5 Avoiding Pointless Foreign Adventures
CHAPTER 6 Cutting Waste, Fraud, and Abuse
CHAPTER 7 The Party of Fiscal Responsibility
CHAPTER 8 Less Power to Washington
Conclusion The Failure of Conservatism
Bibliography
Index
Acknowledgments
As Hillary Clinton might say, and probably once did: it takes a village to write a book. And I m grateful to the village people who helped with this one.
Once again, Ron Goldfarb, my literary agent and friend, hovered over this project from beginning to end. He helped create it and shape it Thank you, Ron and Joanne.
For the fourth time, I ve been blessed with the assistance of Kevin C. Murphy, a diligent researcher and keen editor. As a student of American history, Kevin provided many valuable insights into this overview of the conservative revolution. I haven t yet managed to write a book without him, and doubt I ever shall.
Eric Nelson is more than an editor: he s a good and demanding editor, I might add. For his enthusiasm, advice, and many contributions to the book, I am most grateful. As I am grateful to the entire, talented professional team at John Wiley Sons, including Kitt Allan, Ellen Wright, Rachel Meyers, Laura Cusack, Mike Onorato, and Keira Kordowski. I m proud to be associated with them.
And, as always, a special word of thanks to Carol, who bravely suffered through yet another ordeal of my being chained to the keyboard, while offering her own important suggestions along the way.
Introduction
The modern conservative movement is dead.
It began with Robert Taft and his opposition to the New Deal. It was fueled by the intellectual fervor of Russell Kirk and William F. Buckley Jr. It picked up steam and political power with Barry Goldwater. It peaked in influence with Ronald Reagan and Newt Gingrich. It crashed and burned with George W. Bush.
The Progressive Era lasted twenty years, from the election of Teddy Roosevelt to the end of World War I. The New Deal Era lasted thirty-six years, from the election of Franklin D. Roosevelt to that of Richard Nixon. And the Conservative Era lasted more than fifty years, from the rise of Robert Taft until the fall of George W. Bush.
Now the conservative revolution is finally over-and it was a total bust.
If the Republicans were a restaurant, they d have been closed by the Board of Health. If they were a building, they d have been condemned. If they were a Hollywood starlet, they d be in rehab.
It s not just that they ve failed by the standard I would have set for them. They ve failed at everything they claimed to be really good at in the first place,
Once champions of fiscal responsibility, conservatives have instead delivered record-high federal spending and bloated budget deficits. Once leery of foreign entanglements, conservatives have instead launched us into an unprecedented age of imperial wars and conquests. Once apostles of honesty and integrity in government, conservatives have instead used their positions of power to enrich themselves or evade the rule of law. And that s just for starters.
By failing at every turn, in Congress and the White House, conservative politicians proved one thing above all others: conservatism is a fundamentally flawed governing philosophy. As the Boston College professor Alan Wolfe wrote in the July-August 2006 issue of the Washington Monthly: Conservatives cannot govern well for the same reason that vegetarians cannot prepare a world-class boeuf bourguignon.
Why? Because when you start out hating government, you can t make government work. And you shouldn t even be given a chance to try.
But for more than fifty years, the United States has given conservatism a try. And we learned one abiding lesson: Conservatives can t govern. Consequently, they should never again be entrusted with power. Rather, their proper-and, hopefully, permanent-place is in the political minority, making sure that a liberal majority, whose governing philosophy remains fundamentally sound, still doesn t push government too far.
Recognizing the failure of their time at the plate, some conservatives have tried to blame all their problems on George W. Bush. And, indeed, he deserves a good share of the blame. But blaming him is like saying Ishtar was all Dustin Hoffman s fault. He may have had top billing, but you can t make a mess that big all by yourself.
When Bush leaves office, he will do so with a legacy that will include the biggest federal budget in history, the biggest federal workforce in history, the biggest federal deficits in history, and the most Orwellian executive branch in history. His legacy will also include an imperial foreign policy and, in the name of his self-proclaimed war on terror, a direct assault on Americans basic constitutional rights. Bush followed the game plan for a conservative heaven-and ended up creating a conservative hell.
Conservatives have been arguing for a long time that black is white and up is down. So maybe we shouldn t be surprised that when they said they d bring us a smaller, more compassionate government, what they really meant was a larger, more invasive government. But that s certainly what we got.
Indeed, for Bush s first six years in office, conservatives rallied to support all of his misguided policies. And why? Because, in many ways, he was merely continuing the failed record of earlier conservatives, once they gained political power.
For decades, conservatives had struggled to topple liberals from the federal throne. In 1980, they finally won the White House. In 1994, they took control of the House of Representatives. In 2000, they won the House and the Senate. Because they controlled the Supreme Court, they were also awarded the White House. But, once in power, with total control of all three branches of government, they didn t deliver.
Given the chance to govern, conservatives tried and failed. Everything they touched, they trashed.
Here s how it started.
Guarding the Gates
When visitors to the U.S. Capitol hear the strains of patriotic music floating across the grounds, they predictably look up to the Capitol dome. But the sounds of America, the Beautiful, and other familiar American hymns are coming from nowhere on the Capitol grounds. They ring out instead from the Robert Taft Memorial and Carillon, across Constitution Avenue.
It s fitting that the only monument in Washington erected in memory of a member of the U.S. Senate be dedicated to the Ohio senator Robert A. Taft. Few senators in history have exercised so much clout. The son of the former president and chief justice William Howard Taft, Robert Taft became known in the Senate as Mr. Republican and was the leading conservative politician throughout the 1940s and early 1950s.
The leading conservative scholar of the day was the political philosopher Russell Kirk. In fact, some historians date the beginning of the modern conservative movement to 1953, with the publication of Kirk s The Conservative Mind. And with good reason. Defining a conservative as one who finds the permanent things more pleasing than Chaos and Old Night, Kirk celebrated the role of conservatives in guarding the gate against sudden and slashing reforms. In all things, Kirk argued, they were to be guided