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How We Lost It, How to Get It Back
HarperCollins
October 2006
On Sale: October 5, 2006
304 pages ISBN: 0060188774 EAN: 9780060188771 Hardcover
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Non-Fiction Political | Non-Fiction
what does it mean to be a conservative anymore? With the Iraq war, the rise of Christian fundamentalism,
exploding government spending, soaring debt, insecure
borders, and an executive branch with greater and greater
power, Republicans and conservatives are debating this
question with more and more urgency. The contradictions keep mounting. Today's conservatives
support the idea of limited government, but they have
increased government's size, power, and reach to new
heights. They believe in balanced budgets, but they have
boosted government spending, debt, and pork to record
levels. They believe in individual liberty and the rule of
law, but they have condoned torture, ignored laws passed
by Congress, and been indicted for bribery. They have
substituted religion for politics, and damaged both. In The Conservative Soul, Andrew Sullivan, one of the
nation's leading political commentators, makes an
impassioned call to rescue conservatism from the excesses
of the Republican far right, which risks making the GOP
the first fundamentally religious party in American
history. Through an incisive look at the rise of Western
fundamentalism, Sullivan argues that conservatives cannot
in good conscience keep supporting a party that believes
in its own God-given mission to change people's souls,
instead of protecting their liberties. He carefully charts
the arguments of the new conservatism, showing why they
cannot work in today's America, why they fail the test of
logic and pragmatism, and why they betray the conservative
tradition from Edmund Burke to Ronald Reagan. In this bold and powerful book, Andrew Sullivan criticizes
our government for acting too often, too quickly, and too
expensively. He champions a political philosophy based on
skepticism and reason, rather than certainty and
fundamentalism. He defends a Christianity that is sincere
but not intolerant, and a politics that respects religion
by keeping its distance. And he makes a provocative,
heartfelt case for a revived conservatism at peace with
the modern world, dedicated to restraining government and
empowering individuals to live rich and fulfilling lives.
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