Triumph of the Authoritarians (from a Goldwater conservative)

[The Sushi Bandit]

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2006/07/14/triumph_of_the_authoritarians/

CONTEMPORARY CONSERVATISM and its influence on the Republican Party was, until recently, a mystery to me. The practitioners' bludgeoning style of politics, their self-serving manipulation of the political processes, and their policies that focus narrowly on perceived self-interest -- none of this struck me as based on anything related to traditional conservatism. Rather, truth be told, today's so-called conservatives are quite radical.

For more than 40 years I have considered myself a ``Goldwater conservative," and am thoroughly familiar with the movement's canon. But I can find nothing conservative about the Bush/Cheney White House, which has created a Nixon ``imperial presidency" on steroids, while acting as if being tutored by the best and brightest of the Cosa Nostra.

What true conservative calls for packing the courts to politicize the federal judiciary to the degree that it is now possible to determine the outcome of cases by looking at the prior politics of judges? Where is the conservative precedent for the monocratic leadership style that conservative Republicans imposed on the US House when they took control in 1994, a style that seeks primarily to perfect fund-raising skills while outsourcing the writing of legislation to special interests and freezing Democrats out of the legislative process?

more on link...

[WoodrowFan]

1. good article, thanks (NT)

[Demeter]

2. Better Late Than Never, I Suppose

"What I found provided a personal epiphany. Authoritarian conservatives are, as a researcher told me, 'enemies of freedom, antidemocratic, antiequality, highly prejudiced, mean-spirited, power hungry, Machiavellian and amoral.' And that's not just his view. To the contrary, this is how these people have consistently described themselves when being anonymously tested, by the tens of thousands over the past several decades."


This is a surprise? Furthermore, they are born that way, as well as encouraged to remain so by their "nurturers". And most of all, they are profoundly Anti-American. These are the people who hate us for our freedoms.

[Demit]

5. John Dean's point is not that it is a surprise, but that it has not been

widely discussed. He hopes that his book--and subsequent publishing by social scientists of their work into wider distribution-- will bring the discussion of authoritarianism into the open.

[Vidar]

3. Good article. Thanks for posting.

[The Sushi Bandit]

4. Mahalo!

[dmosh42]

6. voted for Goldwater in '64 also

I was also a Goldwater backer, and when I see what they call conservatives now, it's a joke. Barry wanted a balanced budget and level field on foreign trade. He wasn't into 'class warfare' as we have now. These guys are just rich racketeers, manipulating the religious groups and the self serving gang. Oh, and they're big on congratulating our armed force soldiers in front of the cameras, but none of them really wanted to be on active duty when they were needed. So I have come full circle in being here on the Democratic forum!

[ovidsen]

7. Thanks old timer!

From another not quite so old timer....

I wasn't quite old enough to vote for Goldwater in 1964, but he had my attention! And if he had waited until 1968 to seek the White House (he would have smothered Nixon in the primaries), I would have voted for him; he probably would have won; and the US and the world would have been a much better place.

If Barry were alive today, he'd be really really angry at whan the neocons have done to his Grand Old Party.

By the way, welcome to DU!