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Hardcover
Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books
A searing indictment of neoconservatives by three-time presidential candidate and New York Times bestselling author, Pat Buchanan. Where the Right Went Wrong might be the most controversial political book written this year.
Although the George W. Bush administration is famous for being "on message," delivering a consistent and polished political perspective no matter what, such consistency apparently does not extend to every member of the conservative universe. In Where the Right Went Wrong, veteran pundit and occasional presidential candidate Patrick Buchanan offers up scathing criticisms of Bush's policies, the arrogance and boorishness of which, he warns, could ultimately dramatically destabilize the United States' superpower status. The problem, in Buchanan's eyes, is the rejection of traditional Reagan-era conservatism by an administration under the sway of the so-called "neoconservatives," who favor a pre-emptive military strategy and big government and don't mind running up dangerously huge budget deficits to support it. The war in Iraq, fought without direct demonstrable threat, alienates America in the eyes of the rest of the world, says Buchanan, squandering the global goodwill earned after the 9/11 attacks and creating exponentially larger numbers of terrorists who will threaten the U.S. for generations to come. The zeal over free trade among elected officials, a feeling notably not shared by Buchanan, Ross Perot, and Ralph Nader, is costing America jobs, Buchanan theorizes, and leading to a de-industrialized service-sector-only economy, an end to American self-sufficiency in favor of a reliance on global corporations, and a looming economic crisis. Refreshingly, and unlike pundits of his day, Buchanan crafts his arguments by examining world history, offering detailed analogies to the Roman Empire, the Civil War, and pre-Soviet Russia among others. Conservatives alienated by the Bush administration will find an eloquent champion in Buchanan and even liberals, who may not have known there was a conservative argument against war in Iraq, stand to learn something from a right side of the aisle perspective so different from that found in the Bush White House. --John Moe
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| Prescient analysis of current political landscape |
| Customer Rating: 4 out of 5 |
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Patrick Buchanan, long a thorn in the side of the Republican establishment, is amazingly prescient in this 2004 book. Reading a political trends book years after it is out is always interesting. Mostly, the more certain a political writer is about future trends, the less likely they are to happen. (President Hillary, continued Republican control of Congress, etc.)
But amazingly Buchanan is spot on. If you've never read this book or haven't looked at it since 2004, you owe it to yourself to go through it again. Buchanan accurately sees where the war in Iraq will lead. Buchanan was one of the many conservatives who opposed the war in Iraq from the start back when Hillary and Obama and Bush were one big happy family and thought it was a great idea and voted for it every chance they got. And now it is Obama and Hillary who support and escalate the war while Buchanan and the paleo-conservatives oppose undeclared and unnecessary wars just like they always have done. Buchanan includes the quote "Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace" as a summation of where he saw the US heading and who can argue with him?
Other chapters accurately foretell the continued rise of our most dangerous declared enemy China, the fall of the dollar, the economic collapse, the continued loss of jobs and the middle class, the fall of the neo-con Republicans, etc. Lots of depressing detail and figures and compare these predictions with where we are and you must accept Buchanan as a political Prophet.
In Chapter 10 Buchanan sounds his lone voice in the wilderness explaining what we can do to fix things. More and more voices have come up with the same solutions that Buchanan saw so long ago. Close the borders, protect American Industry like the Founding Fathers did, bring home the troops and end the wars that are sucking us dry. His once radical ideas don't seem so radical right now, do they? Well, Buchanan told us so, but it's small comfort to realize how right he was.
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| More than the title implies |
| Customer Rating: 4 out of 5 |
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Though the title suggests the book is about the Bush era, it also covers US history back to end of the 19th century. In many respects it is a Manifesto of the author. The arguments are well backed by facts, and a very interessting read even if you don't agree.
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| George W. Gone Wild? No, Really? |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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George W. has gone wild, in the process, he nearly destroyed the American right. This fact cannot be debated by anyone anymore. Bush took the legacy given to him by the republican revolution of '94 and the Reagan legacy and flushed it away. He demanded executive powers to fight the war on terror. To get these powers, Dubya had to initiate many new social programs. Through these means, Bush expanded the scope of government, and paid little attention to the conservative policy alternatives that existed within the think tanks of DC. The consequence for the right is that the movement has been undercut. The legitimacy of any conservative policies is no in question because Dubya weakened them. Pat does a good job of explaining this in very clear detail, all with the sense of humor he always displayed. Buchanan is not an anti-Semite; rather he is a throwback to an isolationist age. Consequently, his views seem a little unfamiliar to many. However, they are not evil and not based on any ignorance.
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| Have The Neo-Cons Led Us Into A Permanent Decline? |
| Customer Rating: 4 out of 5 |
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The author delves deeply into the negative changes in both the USA & the Republican party brought about by the neo-cons. He spends the first third of the book ridiculing the present Bush administration willing attitude toward waging war to spread democracy. With the bulk focusing on the Iraq war.
He shows how Richard Pearle & Paul Wolfiwitz convinced president G.Bush to adopt interventionist policies. In ch-3, he gives some historical background on Islam. from their early conflicts with the west to the present. In ch-4, he speaks of the vagueness of the term "war on terror." He feels it is an eternal war that can't truly be won. Chapter-5 was the most fascinating to this reader as he compares the USA's economic & military power to that of China's. In ch-6-8, he bashes the abysmal economic policies of the neo-cons. From out of control government spending, the huge deficits, the outsourcing of our manufacturing base, & the de-valuing of the dollar. If something is not done to reverse these trends he feels we will be in a permanent decline. In ch-9, he detests the craven Congress' surrender to the judicial branch. He feels the latter has become far to powerful in its negative influence on our citizenry.
In ch-10, "The Way Back Home" he concludes with advice on foreign policy, economic policy, immigration, Islam & terror. For both the USA & the Republican party he believes itis crucial that the traditionalist conservative ideological base take back the party from the neo-con wing of the party. Unlike his previous book "Death Of The West," he has plenty of statistics to back up his claims. In conclusion he feels it will take at least a decade to repair the damage done by the Bush administration. Lets
all hope it can be fixed faster than that?
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| A call for Sanity in our Foreign Policy. |
| Customer Rating: 3 out of 5 |
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I picked this book up at the local Dollar store. At that price I thought "what the heck I might as well give it a read". It turned out to be a fairly good book. I've always had my areas of disagreement with Buchanan but I give him credit for having the courage to stand against the Israel Lobby, our current foreign policy insanity , and some of the modern subversions of the term "conservative". This certainly hasn't helped his popularity among his fellow Republicans though.
This book makes some excellent points regarding terrorism, the nature of Islam, and the dangers of playing globo-cop. I give this book a qualified recommendation and with such a low price (used) it would definitely be worth picking up a copy.
"Since the Cold War's end, however, all the blunders of Britain's ruling class in its march to folly have been replicated by our elites, from the arrogance of power to the alienation of allies to the waging of imperial wars where no vital U.S. interests are at risk. Spurning the counsel of John Quincy Adams, America now goes abroad in search of monsters to destroy." - Page 5
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