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Politics
EDITORIAL REVIEWS and related book from John Dean...
Amazon.com In Conservatives Without Conscience, John Dean, who served as White House counsel under Richard Nixon and then helped to break the Watergate scandal with his testimony before the Senate, takes a vivid and analytical look at a Republican Party that has changed drastically from the conservative movement that he joined in the mid-1960s as an admirer of Senator Barry Goldwater. Listen to our interview with Dean as part of our July 13 Amazon Wire podcast (along with interviews with Garrison Keillor and Henry Rollins) to hear how he originally conceived of the book with the late Senator Goldwater, and the social science research he drew on to put together his portrait of the "conservative authoritarian." (You can subscribe to regular Wire podcasts here.) And take a look at Dean's choices for the best books to read on the American presidency in our Grownup School feature.
From Publishers Weekly: In his seventh book, Dean, the former Nixon legal counsel whom the FBI has called the "master manipulator" of the Watergate coverup, weighs in with a rebuke to Christian fundamentalists and other right-wing hard-liners. A self-described Goldwater conservative (indeed, Goldwater had planned to collaborate on this book before his death), he rails against the influence of social conservatives and neoconservatives within his party. Suffused with bitterness stemming from the controversies in which he has been embroiled, Dean's book paints a thin social science veneer over a litany of mostly ad hominem complaints. Purporting to show that social conservatives and neoconservatives are, on the whole, demonstrably authoritarian, bigoted, irrational and amoral, Conservatives Without Conscience offers helpful hints such as "Conservatives without conscience do not have horns and tails," and evinces a telling fascination with politicians' shady book deals. Though there is clearly much to condemn in the policies and tactics Dean deplores, assailing everyone from French political theorist Joseph de Maistre to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist to the chairman of Yale University's conservative association as "Double High" social- dominance-oriented authoritarians undermines his journalistic credibility. Dean's lurid accusations may be entertaining, but they add little to the reasoned debate that Washington so sorely lacks today. (July 11) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist *Starred Review* With the perspective of a former Republican political insider, and experience in the Watergate scandal when he was White House counsel to Nixon, Dean takes a sincere, well-considered look at how conservative politics in the U.S. is veering dangerously close to authoritarianism, offering a penetrating and highly disturbing portrait of many of the major players in Republican politics and power. Looking back on the development of conservative politics in the U.S., Dean notes that conservatism is regressing to its authoritarian roots. Dean draws on five decades of social science research that details the personality traits of what are called "double high authoritarians": self-righteous, mean-spirited, amoral, manipulative, bullying. He concludes that Chuck Colson, Pat Robertson, Newt Gingrich, and Tom DeLay are all textbook examples. Dean calls Vice-President Cheney "the architect of Bush's authoritarian policies," and deems Bush "a mental lightweight with a strong right-wing authoritarian personality." Dean maintains that conservatives without conscience have produced such a hostile, noncollegial environment in Congress that threats of resistance through filibusters have been met with threats of a "nuclear option" and that conservatives have used fearmongering about terrorist attacks to the point where the nation faces a greater threat of relinquishing its ideals of democracy. Dean appeals to conservatives to find their consciences and to all Americans to take serious heed of what is going on in the nation. Readers of all political perspectives will find this book riveting. Vanessa Bush Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
July 12, 2006 Reviewer: Robin Orlowski
Still known as one of the figures in the Watergate cover up, John Dean is an unlikely hero for this liberal. However, the central thesis of his latest book argues that the GOP has been hijacked by extremists who ingeniously pose as moderates. They've taken the `middle America' strategy pioneered by Nixon himself to dangerous extremes--and are doing much worse than Watergate if not stopped.
While parts of the book possibly do come across as self-pity (since he is still trying to salvage his reputation across the political spectrum, of course he would attack an unpopular president) I am also familiar with the `Goldwater conservatism' which is talked about in the book.
The late Arizona Republican Senator, once considered Mr. GOP and the standard bearer of the `New Right' actually was a staunch libertarian, something which has gone over the head of his political descendants--rushing to claim the title, but not the accompanying issue positions and duties. Unlike Goldwater, they are rushing to the side of social conservatives, who want to fight for freedom abroad by denying it to Americans at home.
Therefore it also is quite possible this book is Dean telling the truth--and desperately hoping the audiences will heed his message before any further damage is inflicted upon the country.
Other people could write `exposes' of the Republican Party, but they would not carry Dean's historical weight. Specifically because of who he is--and yes, what role he played in American history, Dean is qualified to write a no-holds barred critique of the current Republican Party's internal problems and the external consequences.
Book Description John Dean takes a sobering look at how radical elements are destroying the Republican Party along with the very foundations of American democracy
John Dean’s last New York Times bestseller, Worse Than Watergate: The Secret Presidency of George W. Bush, offered the former White House insider’s unique and telling perspective on George W. Bush’s presidency. Once again, Dean employs his distinctive knowledge and understanding of Washington politics and process to examine the conservative movement’s current inner circle of radical Republican leaders—from Capitol Hill to Pennsylvania Avenue to K Street and beyond. In Conservatives Without Conscience, Dean not only highlights specific right-wing-driven GOP policies but also probes the conservative mind-set, identifying recurring qualities such as the unbridled viciousness toward those daring to disagree with them, as well as the big business favoritism that costs taxpayers billions. Dean identifies specific examples of how court packing is seeking to form a judiciary that is activist by its very nature, how religious piety is producing politics run amok, and how concealed indifference to the founding principles of liberty and equality is pushing America further and further from its constitutional foundations.
By the end, Dean paints a vivid picture of what’s happening at the top levels of the Republican Party, a noble political party corrupted by its current leaders who cloak their actions in moral superiority while packaging their programs as blatant propaganda. Dean, certainly no alarmist, finds disturbing signs that current right-wing authoritarian thinking, when conflated with the dominating personalities of the conservative leadership could take the United States toward its own version of fascism.
About the Author John Dean was White House legal counsel to President Nixon for a thousand days. Dean also served as chief minority counsel for the House Judiciary Committee and as an associate deputy attorney general in the U.S. Department of Justice.
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Copyright or Used by Permission, ©2006 ChewinTheFat.com
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