John Dean...........Triumph of the Authoritarians

[RedEarth]

Triumph of the authoritarians
By John W. Dean | July 14, 2006

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?

How can those who claim themselves conservatives seek to destroy the deliberative nature of the US Senate by eliminating its extended-debate tradition, which has been the institution's distinctive contribution to our democracy? Yet that is precisely what Republican Senate leaders want to do by eliminating the filibuster when dealing with executive business (namely judicial appointments).

Today's Republican policies are antithetical to bedrock conservative fundamentals. There is nothing conservative about preemptive wars or disregarding international law by condoning torture. Abandoning fiscal responsibility is now standard operating procedure. Bible-thumping, finger-pointing, tongue-lashing attacks on homosexuals are not found in Russell Krik's classic conservative canons, nor in James Burham's guides to conservative governing. Conservatives in the tradition of former senator Barry Goldwater and President Ronald Reagan believed in ``conserving" this planet, not relaxing environmental laws to make life easier for big business. And neither man would have considered employing Christian evangelical criteria in federal programs, ranging from restricting stem cell research to fighting AIDs through abstinence.

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

[gumby]

1. Good interview with Dean

on Wisconsin Public Radio this morning. It will be archived soon at http://www.wpr.org/ideas/programnotes.cfm (9:00am)

[originalpckelly]

2. "...troubling (if not actually evil) implications..."

Very, very interesting.

[sinkingfeeling]

3. Dean calls them 'authoritarians' and I call them 'fascists'...

"Authoritarian conservatives are, as a researcher told me, ``enemies of freedom, antidemocratic, antiequality, highly prejudiced, mean-spirited, power hungry, Machiavellian and amoral." - John Dean

[grasswire]

5. that's my sister, the ditto head!

Gosh. A textbook authoritarian.

[Joanne98]

9. In other words, they're reptiles.

[ninkasi]

4. Bush is definitely dictatorial

Authoritarians does describe the modern bunch of Republicans. The mean, spiteful, hateful labels are perfect for creatures like Karl Rove, Tom DeLay, and so many others. I feel less safe now than at any other point in my life because of this administration. I am not afraid of some shadowy terrorist attacking my family and me. I am, however, afraid of losing liberty and civil rights because of the pig obsessed idiot in the White House.

[zippy890]

6. excellant article

:dem:

[redqueen]

7. Think this has been posted at any conservative sites yet?

I wonder what people who have been led to believe they're conservatives think about this...

[bdamomma]

8. there is more info here which I posted earlier in the week

regarding Right Wing Authoritarian personality.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x1615619

[RedEarth]

11. Great links in your posting...... it certainly describes the current group

on right wingers.

[young_at_heart]

10. Authoritarians resist change and tolerate inequality. Conservatives?

"A conservative is an individual with two perfectly good legs, who, however, has never learned to walk forward". (Franklin D. Roosevelt)

[struggle4progress]

12. Reagan had no environmental concern, as shown clearly ..

.. by his choosing James Watt for the Interior and Anne Gorsuch for the EPA.