Gang of Five: Leaders at the Center of the Conservative Ascendacy

by Nina J. Easton

In Gang of Five, bestselling author Nina J. Easton reveals the hidden history of American politics in the last thirty years. It's the story of the other, less well-known segment of the baby-boom generation: young conservative activists who arrived on campus in the 1970s in rebellion against everything "sixties" and went on to overturn the political dynamics of our country. Gang of Five focuses on the lives and careers of five major figures.
BILL KRISTOL, the Harvard-educated intellectual and Weekly Standard publisher
RALPH REED, the hardball politico and strategist for the Christian right
CLINT BOLICK, the constitutional lawyer and "bleeding heart" libertarian
GROVER NORQUIST, the anti-tax activist and leader of the so-called vast right-wing conspiracy
DAVID McINTOSH, the fresh-faced congressman and architect of the Right's war on regulation
Gang of Five is a major contribution to contemporary history that explains how we arrived at the politics of today.

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction, History

464 pages, Paperback

First published August 9, 2000

Reviews

[Brayden · Rating 3 out of 5]

Easton's account of the rise of the neoconservative movement is engaging. She tells the story by following the political careers of five leaders in the movement Bill Kristol, Grover Norquist, Clint Bollick, Ralph Reed, and David McIntosh. I get why she focused on Norquist, Kristol, and Reed, but it seemed like she included Bollick just to make the neocons seem more humane (he was a civil rights lawyer who often represented minority communities; I wouldn't have called him a leading figure in the movement). McIntosh is mostly irrelevant now. He was one of the Congressional leaders elected in 1994 to install the national neocon agenda. Fortunately it didn't work and McIntosh left politics in 2001. Focusing on Gingrich instead would have been more interesting.

Still, the book had some great stories. I was most surprised by Reed, who is less religious and more strategic than I'd originally thought. It turns out that Grover Norquist is the a**hole that I thought he was. Kristol comes across as a self-righteous schmuck, which is pretty consistent with my priors.

[Paul Von hippel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well written book that describes the rise of key thought-leaders on the right and helps more moderate readers to understand those leaders' outlook. Focuses on real intellectuals rather than Fox News provocateurs.

What keeps this from being a 5- or even 4-star book is that the author fails to link these thought-leaders to the business elites and social movements who back them. Ideas don't exist in a vacuum. How did Grover Norquist develop such influence, and who pays his bills? Why did the anti-regulator David McIntosh gain more influence than other young Congressmen? How did Ralph Reed, ostensibly a religious leader and apparently a committed Christian, end up getting corrupted by money?

Without answers to these questions I don't think we can really understand the Conservative ascendancy.

[Eugene Kernes · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book comprised of five biographies with the people under observation being political leaders at the end of the 20th century. Bill Kristol, Ralph Reed, Grover Norquist, David McIntosh, and Clint Bolick histories and changes are expressed in this book. From how they performed in school, to how culture shaped their views, what is clear is that they wanted to be in politics. Easton provides a complicated story of ideological reversals and how their views shaped what they brought into the political arena. Their ideology stemmed from defending America from threats, of which communism was a big one at the time. The various ways politicians get their message across is expressed in the book, like polarizing views in response to threats and opposition.

This book provides a timely political history for when it was written, but not for a history book read years later. Although topics such as religions role in politics, abortion, gay rights, and sex scandals are still well know topics, this book does not really explain their roles in politics overall. It can also be confusing keeping track of which person had certain ideas and how those ideas relate to their roles in politics, unless the reader is familiar with the people. It appears the book is trying to explain an important topic but needs more information to succeed.

[Dan · Rating 2 out of 5]

When Ralph Reed rolled the stone aside and staggered out of his crypt to launch a direct mail campaign in the 2012 presidential election I vaguely recalled some shenanigans he had been involved in while at UGA. I came across Gang of Five while trying to reconstruct foggy memories of Reed’s exploits with SGA, the Demosthenian's and Red & Black. I enjoyed learning more about Grover Norquist's history and our shared appreciation of Stalin's skills as a political organizer and have been a fan of Clint Bolick's work to shake-up dysfunctional bureaucracies since his successful campaign to break Leeburn’s blockade against direct-mail wine in Georgia. In Gang of Five, Easton mischaracterized the ‘Reagan Revolution’ as an organic event driven by skilled young lawyers and pols and missed the tectonic forces at work as New Deal/Great Society initiatives were subducted by the relentless financial interests for whom the books’ subjects are merely tools. I kept hoping Easton would lift the curtain and explore the role ‘great men’ played identifying, mentoring, promoting and financing Reed, Norquist, Bolick, McIntosh and Kristol. Easton accurately recognized that the conservative counterculture would face its greatest challenge tacking back to govern effectively once the fire brigands they had targeted, mobilized and amalgamated were loosed on the nation.

[Michael Lovito · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fascinating look into what made the Republican Revolution era conservatives tick, and what lead to mix of downfall and Phyric victory. Ends with one of the more penetrating paragraphs I've read in a book about politics. It's super, super long though.

[Jon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very well writen. Provides great incites into why these guys are such a holes