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Dead Right
A Forbes columnist discusses the ideological breakdown of the Republican Party, its failure to diminish the deficit or the size of government in twelve years of control, and outlines a plan for renewal through a return to basic issues.Part reportage, part manifesto, Dead Right leads readers on a witty and opinionated tour through the chaos of post-Reagan conservatism. It explains why the “Religious Right” is a phony menace … why President Reagan failed to eliminate even one major spending program … why the 1992 Republican convention, originally conceived as a cunning ploy, backfired … and much more. David Frum analyzes the conservative movement’s turn away from the economic issues that dominated the 1980s to a new preoccupation with race, ethnicity, and sex. He explains how and why conservatives decided to stop fighting Big Government and start using it. And he warns that a conservatism that loses its anti–Big Government faith is doomed to futility. Dead Right dissects the new conservative position on issues ranging from education to workfare, immigration to enterprise zones, and ruthlessly scrutinizes the leadership of the conservative movement. Always lively and provocative, this is the one book that conservatives and their critics must read to understand the past and future of the American Right.
- GenresPoliticsNonfiction
256 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1994
149 people want to read
About the author
David Frum
26 books163 followersDavid J. Frum is a Canadian American journalist active in both the United States and Canadian political arenas. A former economic speechwriter for President George W. Bush, he is also the author of the first "insider" book about the Bush presidency. His editorial columns have appeared in a variety of Canadian and American magazines and newspapers, including the National Post and The Week. He is also the founder of FrumForum.com (formerly NewMajority.com), a political group blog.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
August 23, 2022
Maybe the best book I've read so far this year. It's incredible that David Frum's description of internal disagreement within the GOP has barely aged a day past 1994. The prediction of Ukraine/Russia sympathy split according to support for Atlanticism, dead on. His analysis of culture wars (and academic decay) as a result of government subsidy rather than some bad ideas is powerful and sorely needed. I recommend reading this classic over Boomers or other New Right polemics any day.
(Edit: paperback was in 95, original in 94)
(Edit: paperback was in 95, original in 94)
August 7, 2016
I don't consider myself ideologically tied to either major party (although I am a little more conservative than liberal), instead preferring to pick and choose the elements/ideas I do like from a wide spectrum. Having previously read Jonathan Rauch's DEMOSCLEROSIS (which gets a shout-out here), I thought "Why not read something from the opposing viewpoint?" The core of the book is in assessing why Republicans, after 12 years in control of the executive branch, failed to curb "big government." The simple answer is twofold: 1) They didn't have the courage of their convictions to actually voice the implications of their conservative ideals, and 2) They acquiesced to the notion of a welfare state in which government provides services and attempted to use it to further conservative ends. In shorter terms, they adjusted to the "top-down" view of government instead of the "bottom up," more libertarian, view. David Frum then delves into the three competing factions within the GOP: optimists, moralists, and nationalists. While the first two categories are most represented in Congress, that last category seems to have hijacked the party on a national level through a highly vocal (and pissed off) voter base. It is impossible to read this book without thinking of the current political situation. To me, it's as if Donald Trump is running a "Greatest Worst Hits" campaign running the gamut from early 20th Century populism to more recent efforts by Ross Perot and Pat Buchanan. Succeeding where they have failed (in terms of bearing the party's standard), we find ourselves at a critical point from which there will be no return, no matter the outcome. Generally, I think the book does a great job of explaining how the GOP got to where they are right now. Rather than a freak phenomenon, Donald Trump is the next logical step in an intraparty battle that's been going on for at least 50 years. I highly recommend this book to those who wish to understand our current situation, Democrats and Republicans alike.
August 29, 2024
the wild Amazone
What portions I did read were interesting in that Frum predicted Jack Kemp was going to win the GOP nomination for president in 1996. Of course, it was Bob Dole (and what a splendid campaign he ran).
Frum also touted conservative ideas that were popular at that time, but which have proven to be disastrous after eight years of the Bush administration.
Also funny to read were the tributes on the cover praising the book as a classic by the very people who would stab Frum in the back in 2010 as a turncoat Republican.
W.A.T.
////
Kirkus
A young tory's unsparing critique of political conservatism in the US and the divisive shambles its putative partisans have made of their cause. In his morning-after analysis, the Canadian-born Frum (a sometime Forbes columnist who now writes for The Financial Post) casts a cold eye on the 12-year span during which Republicans tenanted the White House.
During the 1980s, he asserts, the increasing incidence of drug abuse, ethnic balkanization, family breakdown, and allied ills tempted some conservatives to cultivate new constituencies while others cursed the dark.
By the time the Bush administration had petered out, he concludes, Reagan's bedrock supporters had split into three mutually contemptuous factions: optimists like Jack Kemp, who believe they can steer the ship of the welfare state on a rightward course; moralists like William Bennett, the former secretary of education; and isolationist nationalists, of whom Pat Buchanan is the ranking exemplar.
Having done with internecine warfare, Frum goes on to dispute the notion that the so-called religious right poses a threat to the body politic, let alone to the secular left.
As a practical matter, he argues, fundamentalists view their deity in much the same way as Great Society liberals thought of government: ``a distant benevolent agency that showers goodies upon all who ask, without demanding anything much in return—except for the occasional campaign contribution.''
Looking ahead to 1996 and beyond, the author sees little future for the conservatives unless (probably at the cost of immediate electoral gain) they return to their ideological roots, which stress minimal government intervention, individual freedom, self-reliance, personal probity, fiscal responsibility, and actual (rather than rhetorical) cuts in federal spending.
A clear guide to the current fault lines in American conservatism by an author who laments that the conservative revival has stalled.
What portions I did read were interesting in that Frum predicted Jack Kemp was going to win the GOP nomination for president in 1996. Of course, it was Bob Dole (and what a splendid campaign he ran).
Frum also touted conservative ideas that were popular at that time, but which have proven to be disastrous after eight years of the Bush administration.
Also funny to read were the tributes on the cover praising the book as a classic by the very people who would stab Frum in the back in 2010 as a turncoat Republican.
W.A.T.
////
Kirkus
A young tory's unsparing critique of political conservatism in the US and the divisive shambles its putative partisans have made of their cause. In his morning-after analysis, the Canadian-born Frum (a sometime Forbes columnist who now writes for The Financial Post) casts a cold eye on the 12-year span during which Republicans tenanted the White House.
During the 1980s, he asserts, the increasing incidence of drug abuse, ethnic balkanization, family breakdown, and allied ills tempted some conservatives to cultivate new constituencies while others cursed the dark.
By the time the Bush administration had petered out, he concludes, Reagan's bedrock supporters had split into three mutually contemptuous factions: optimists like Jack Kemp, who believe they can steer the ship of the welfare state on a rightward course; moralists like William Bennett, the former secretary of education; and isolationist nationalists, of whom Pat Buchanan is the ranking exemplar.
Having done with internecine warfare, Frum goes on to dispute the notion that the so-called religious right poses a threat to the body politic, let alone to the secular left.
As a practical matter, he argues, fundamentalists view their deity in much the same way as Great Society liberals thought of government: ``a distant benevolent agency that showers goodies upon all who ask, without demanding anything much in return—except for the occasional campaign contribution.''
Looking ahead to 1996 and beyond, the author sees little future for the conservatives unless (probably at the cost of immediate electoral gain) they return to their ideological roots, which stress minimal government intervention, individual freedom, self-reliance, personal probity, fiscal responsibility, and actual (rather than rhetorical) cuts in federal spending.
A clear guide to the current fault lines in American conservatism by an author who laments that the conservative revival has stalled.
August 3, 2011
I will say that this book which bemoans the obsolescence of small-government, actually-reducing-spending conservatism may seem slightly outdated in light of a conservative rump that really does seem want to take away your Medicare, but as far as an analysis of why there exists certain strands of conservatism, why they take the stances they do and why conservatives have so far been unsuccessful in implementing the large-scale conservative ends they dream about, it's really top-notch.
Moreover, despite being a fairly radical small-government type at the time, Frum is just unbelievably knowledgeable and brings to bear a whole bunch of data and history in everything he writes, such that you get the feeling you're reading someone who actually seems to care about what's actually going on and how policy should respond to it. His account of Reagan-Bush social poliicy stands out for capturing the whole of it-- marginal taxes were brought down and lots of taxes were raised and deficits exploded and government did not get particularly smaller -- without yoking any of these particular claims to one or other worldview. Of course, Frum wanted to see the government get smaller, but this amalgamation of fact and interpretation that he presents should be acceptable to any observer.
The policy prescriptions -- or should I say, policy implications (he wavers on whether we should actually just abolish social welfare spending) -- are totally radical, but at least they are thought out and come from an actual holistic understanding of what government policy currently is, and what it has lead to.
Of course, the John Holbo's review of it is top-notch, and actually engages with all the part where I feel most any reader would arch their eyebrows. In my estimation, however, producing such a work of comedic genius as Holbo's review is a recommendation enough.
http://examinedlife.typepad.com/johnb...
Moreover, despite being a fairly radical small-government type at the time, Frum is just unbelievably knowledgeable and brings to bear a whole bunch of data and history in everything he writes, such that you get the feeling you're reading someone who actually seems to care about what's actually going on and how policy should respond to it. His account of Reagan-Bush social poliicy stands out for capturing the whole of it-- marginal taxes were brought down and lots of taxes were raised and deficits exploded and government did not get particularly smaller -- without yoking any of these particular claims to one or other worldview. Of course, Frum wanted to see the government get smaller, but this amalgamation of fact and interpretation that he presents should be acceptable to any observer.
The policy prescriptions -- or should I say, policy implications (he wavers on whether we should actually just abolish social welfare spending) -- are totally radical, but at least they are thought out and come from an actual holistic understanding of what government policy currently is, and what it has lead to.
Of course, the John Holbo's review of it is top-notch, and actually engages with all the part where I feel most any reader would arch their eyebrows. In my estimation, however, producing such a work of comedic genius as Holbo's review is a recommendation enough.
http://examinedlife.typepad.com/johnb...
November 8, 2015
This was a genius critique of the collapse of the Republican Party, what I didn't know at the time, but my journey toward libertarianism.
It's been some years since I read it, but if I can find the book (read: if it survived the flood) I may have to read it again.
It's been some years since I read it, but if I can find the book (read: if it survived the flood) I may have to read it again.
January 8, 2009
David Frum is a very smart observer of politics, a tad ideological but smart nontheless. This book made him a player in conservative circles.
December 2, 2014
I like his political commentary, even if I don't agree with much of it. Eloquent and thoughtful. Also a compassionate guy.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews