Up from conservatism: why the right is wrong for America

Michael Lind

Simon & Schuster, 1997 - History - 304 pages

For nearly a decade, Michael Lind worked closely as a writer and editor with the intellectual leaders of American conservatism. Slowly, he came to believe that the many prominent intellectuals he worked with were not the leaders of the conservative movement but the followers and apologists for an increasingly divisive and reactionary political strategy orchestrated by the Republican party. Lind's disillusionment led to a very public break with his former colleagues on the right, as he attacked the Reverend Pat Robertson for using anti-Semitic sources in his writings.

In "Up From Conservatism," this former rising star of the right reveals what he believes to be the disturbing truth about the hidden economic agenda of the conservative elite. The Republican capture of the U.S. Congress in 1994 did not represent the conversion of the American public to conservative ideology. Rather, it marked the success of the thirty-year-old "southern strategy" begun by Barry Goldwater and Richard Nixon. From the Civil War to the civil rights revolution, the southern elite combined a low-wage, low-tax strategy for economic development with a politics of demagogy based on race-baiting and Bible-thumping. Now, Lind maintains, the economic elite that controls the Republican party is following a similar strategy on a national scale, using their power to shift the tax burden from the rich to the middle class while redistributing wealth upward.

To divert attention from their favoritism toward the rich, conservatives play up the "culture war, " channeling popular anger about falling real wages and living standards away from Wall Street and focusing it instead on the black poor and nonwhiteimmigrants.

The United
States, Lind concludes, could use a genuine "one-nation" conservatism that seeks to promote the interests of the middle class and the poor as well as the rich. But today's elitist conservatism poses a clear and present danger to the American middle class and the American republic.

What people are saying

Review: Up from Conservatism: Why the Right is Wrong for America

User Review  - Ben Rothman - Goodreads

Sheer nonsense. I'd give it no stars if possible.

Review: Up from Conservatism: Why the Right is Wrong for America

User Review  - David - Goodreads

very revealing...

Contents

• Realignment and Revolution The New Map of American Politics: 15
• The Center Cannot Hold The Defeat of OneNation Conservatism in America: 45
• The Triangular Trade How the Conservative Movement Works: 75

About the author

Michael Lind has been a senior editor at "The New Republic" and "Harper's" and executive editor of "The National Interest." He is a frequent contributor to many national publications, including "The New York Times, The Washington Post, " and "The New York Review of Books." He is the author of "Up From Conservatism: Why the Right Is Wrong for America" and a novel. "Powertown." He is currently a staff writer at "The New Yorker.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Up from conservatism: why the right is wrong for America
• Author: Michael Lind
• Edition: reprint
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster, 1997
• ISBN: 0684831864, 9780684831862
• Length: 304 pages
• Subjects: Conservatism; Conservatism - United States; Conservatism/ United States; History / General; History / United States / 20th Century; Political Science / Government / General; Political Science / Political Ideologies / Conservatism & Liberalism; Religion / General