Purchase
How a Great American Political Movement Got Lost--And How It Can Find Its Way Back
Oxford University Press
March 2008
On Sale: March 1, 2008
240 pages ISBN: 0195335589 EAN: 9780195335583 Hardcover
Add to Wish List
Non-Fiction Political
A leading figure in the American conservative movement for
over 40 years, Mickey Edwards was a prominent Republican
congressman, a former national chairman of the American
Conservative Union, and a founding trustee of the Heritage
Foundation. When he speaks, conservatives listen. Now, in this highly provocative and frank volume, Edwards
argues loud and clear that conservatives today have
abandoned their principles and have become champions of that
which they once most feared. The conservative
movement--which once nominated Barry Goldwater for
President, and later
elected Ronald Reagan--was based on a distinctly American
kind of conservatism which drew its inspiration directly
from the United States Constitution--in particular, an
overriding belief in individual liberty and limited
government. But today, Edwards argues, the mantle of
conservatism has been
taken over by people whose beliefs and policies threaten the
entire constitutional system of government. By abetting an
imperial presidency, he contends, so-called "conservatives"
have gutted the system of checks and balances, abandoned due
process, and trampled upon our cherished civil liberties.
Today's conservatives endorse unprecedented assertions of
government power--from the creation of secret prisons to
illegal wiretapping. Once, they fought to protect citizens
from government intrusion; today, they seem to recognize few
limits on what government can do. The movement that was once
the Constitution's--and freedom's--strongest defender is now
at risk of becoming its most dangerous enemy. Edwards ends
with a blueprint for reclaiming the essence of conservatism
in America. Touching upon many current issues, this passionately argued
book concludes that many of today's conservatives seem to
have it all backwards. They have turned conservatism upside
down--and this book calls them on it.
Comments
No comments posted.
Registered users may leave comments.
Log in or register now!
|