Why the Right Went Wrong, E. J. Dionne, Jr.
Why the Right Went Wrong, E. J. Dionne, Jr.
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Why the Right Went Wrong
Conservatism From Goldwater to the Tea Party and Beyond

Bestseller

Author: E. J. Dionne, Jr.

Narrator: Mike Chamberlain

Unabridged: 20 hr 44 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 02/29/2016


Synopsis

Why the Right Went Wrong offers a 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 Goldwater's worldview during and after the 1964 campaign.

Since 1968, no conservative administration 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, and Newt Gingrich's revolution. Bush initially undertook a partial modernization, preaching "compassionate conservatism." Conservatives quickly defined him as an advocate of "big government" 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.

The state of the Republican party, controlled by the strictest base, is diminished, E. J. Dionne, Jr., 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 country's, and in Why the Right Went Wrong, he explains how.

About E. J. Dionne, Jr.

E. J. Dionne, Jr., is an American journalist and political commentator and a longtime op-ed columnist for the Washington Post. He is also a senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution, University Professor in the Foundations of Democracy and Culture at Georgetown Public Policy Institute, a senior research fellow at Saint Anselm College, and a commentator for NPR. His published works include the influential bestseller Why Americans Hate Politics, They Only Look Dead, Souled Out, and Stand Up, Fight Back. E. J. lives in Bethesda, Maryland.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Alger on August 02, 2017

One cannot blame Dionne for being far more objective and critically reliable about events before his own life in politics than he is about the current situation (being the 2016 election and the rise of Trumpism), but it does make this a book that starts out as a broad critique of the entire conserva......more